London
No mobile phones in the queues
Obstructing the doors can be dangerous
Please buy your ticket before you travel,
or you may have to pay
a Penalty Fare (at least £20)
These premises
are protected
by video surveillance
Please keep your bags with you at all times
You may be approached
and searched by police officers
Your cooperation in this exercise is valued
CCTV cameras in operation
This video recording system is operated for the purposes
of security and safety management
These premises are under CCTV surveillance
Images are being monitored for the purposes
of crime prevention and public safety
24 hour CCTV recording in operation
so that when you are beaten
we may show it on television
If you see
or hear anything suspicious
tell our staff or the police immediately
And keep your feet off the seats.
January 21, 2008
Do others not err?
Do others not err as I do,
Or if they do, do they not feel
The shame of having caused pain, the anger of frustrated ambition,
As acutely as I do?
It must be so, for to me it seems abnormal—
My too-frequent encounter with the experience
Or else its effect on me.
To do bad by seeking good,
Not through carelessness only, which
If it were so would baffle me less.
Do others not know the feeling?
After thoughful consideration, or sometimes with rash enthusiasm,
And with vigorous application of what wisdom and skill twenty-five years have brought me,
Not only to fail, but to succeed at the opposite of my aim,
To harm that which, though needing help,
Would have been less badly off if I had not tried to help it.
What agony! To sin by striving,
To be worse than useless. To endure and submit to
The awful suppression of my own good intention.
August 16, 2008, after reading Leaves of Grass