Sean Patrick
@seanpatrickphd.bsky.social
Data scientist, poet, SF/F writer
Dr./they/them
Dr./they/them
He could #shoot a man on Fifth Avenue
and it wouldn't make a difference.
The system is working as intended;
power drives power, capital capital.
Blacked-out or not, no testament
will stop the machine we've put in place.
In the grand experiment,
the null hypothesis remains un-rejected.
#vss365
and it wouldn't make a difference.
The system is working as intended;
power drives power, capital capital.
Blacked-out or not, no testament
will stop the machine we've put in place.
In the grand experiment,
the null hypothesis remains un-rejected.
#vss365
December 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
"No, now my mind is dust, and all its fruit
has rotted on the vine, except for one:
my love for you, now rendered resolute
as branches of a tree absorbing sun.
In death I have forsaken all endeavor;
except for you, whose light shall bloom forever."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/21/s...
#poetry #sonnet
has rotted on the vine, except for one:
my love for you, now rendered resolute
as branches of a tree absorbing sun.
In death I have forsaken all endeavor;
except for you, whose light shall bloom forever."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/21/s...
#poetry #sonnet
December 21, 2025 at 3:31 PM
"No, now my mind is dust, and all its fruit
has rotted on the vine, except for one:
my love for you, now rendered resolute
as branches of a tree absorbing sun.
In death I have forsaken all endeavor;
except for you, whose light shall bloom forever."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/21/s...
#poetry #sonnet
has rotted on the vine, except for one:
my love for you, now rendered resolute
as branches of a tree absorbing sun.
In death I have forsaken all endeavor;
except for you, whose light shall bloom forever."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/21/s...
#poetry #sonnet
My pet peeve's when #gratitude 's
expected with attitude:
the demand makes a gift
an expression of grift.
A gift freely given
should surely be shriven
of showers of praise;
it's certain malaise
to demand an obeisance
when furnishing presents,
it's frankly outrageous
so try to be gracious.
#vss365
expected with attitude:
the demand makes a gift
an expression of grift.
A gift freely given
should surely be shriven
of showers of praise;
it's certain malaise
to demand an obeisance
when furnishing presents,
it's frankly outrageous
so try to be gracious.
#vss365
December 19, 2025 at 1:54 PM
My pet peeve's when #gratitude 's
expected with attitude:
the demand makes a gift
an expression of grift.
A gift freely given
should surely be shriven
of showers of praise;
it's certain malaise
to demand an obeisance
when furnishing presents,
it's frankly outrageous
so try to be gracious.
#vss365
expected with attitude:
the demand makes a gift
an expression of grift.
A gift freely given
should surely be shriven
of showers of praise;
it's certain malaise
to demand an obeisance
when furnishing presents,
it's frankly outrageous
so try to be gracious.
#vss365
December 18, 2025 at 1:53 PM
our bodies tether us to the past –
here, a scar attests to
a time death scraped past me;
the record of a mistake.
a gray hair holds within it
all the lessons I’ve learned
and my weakness is carried
by gently-failing organs,
and here, in a heart
which still races
is the #memory of you.
#vss365
here, a scar attests to
a time death scraped past me;
the record of a mistake.
a gray hair holds within it
all the lessons I’ve learned
and my weakness is carried
by gently-failing organs,
and here, in a heart
which still races
is the #memory of you.
#vss365
December 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM
There once was a parish confessor
who had a sagacious #successor -
when his mentor lamented
a nudist unrepented
he suggested that he should redress her.
#vss365 #limerick
who had a sagacious #successor -
when his mentor lamented
a nudist unrepented
he suggested that he should redress her.
#vss365 #limerick
December 12, 2025 at 12:34 PM
There once was a parish confessor
who had a sagacious #successor -
when his mentor lamented
a nudist unrepented
he suggested that he should redress her.
#vss365 #limerick
who had a sagacious #successor -
when his mentor lamented
a nudist unrepented
he suggested that he should redress her.
#vss365 #limerick
A #burden carried
will become a source of strength
with time, with effort
even the heaviest load
can make the world seem lighter
#TankaThursday #tanka
will become a source of strength
with time, with effort
even the heaviest load
can make the world seem lighter
#TankaThursday #tanka
December 11, 2025 at 3:20 PM
A #burden carried
will become a source of strength
with time, with effort
even the heaviest load
can make the world seem lighter
#TankaThursday #tanka
will become a source of strength
with time, with effort
even the heaviest load
can make the world seem lighter
#TankaThursday #tanka
Let bigots say
that God forbade it
since they've forgot
that God has made it.
If you and I
are so #illicit
then God Himself
must be complicit;
and here on Earth,
where we remain
we'll love, and live,
and so refrain:
we who are bound
to flesh and bone
are subject to
one law alone.
#vss365
that God forbade it
since they've forgot
that God has made it.
If you and I
are so #illicit
then God Himself
must be complicit;
and here on Earth,
where we remain
we'll love, and live,
and so refrain:
we who are bound
to flesh and bone
are subject to
one law alone.
#vss365
December 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM
"...There’s something going around,
this sickness that reduces men
to apes – to animals –
to machines –
deafened to the sound of human screams,
and blinded to the sight of suffering."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/10/p...
#poem #poetry
this sickness that reduces men
to apes – to animals –
to machines –
deafened to the sound of human screams,
and blinded to the sight of suffering."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/10/p...
#poem #poetry
December 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
"...There’s something going around,
this sickness that reduces men
to apes – to animals –
to machines –
deafened to the sound of human screams,
and blinded to the sight of suffering."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/10/p...
#poem #poetry
this sickness that reduces men
to apes – to animals –
to machines –
deafened to the sound of human screams,
and blinded to the sight of suffering."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/10/p...
#poem #poetry
it would be easier
if I could lay the blame
on you, if I had been
#bewitched
by you -
ensorcelled, hexed -
it would be easier
if you'd done anything at all,
if you'd become the enemy
I wish that you could be.
it would be easier
to stop loving you
if you had ever
asked me to.
#vss365
if I could lay the blame
on you, if I had been
#bewitched
by you -
ensorcelled, hexed -
it would be easier
if you'd done anything at all,
if you'd become the enemy
I wish that you could be.
it would be easier
to stop loving you
if you had ever
asked me to.
#vss365
December 10, 2025 at 1:04 PM
it would be easier
if I could lay the blame
on you, if I had been
#bewitched
by you -
ensorcelled, hexed -
it would be easier
if you'd done anything at all,
if you'd become the enemy
I wish that you could be.
it would be easier
to stop loving you
if you had ever
asked me to.
#vss365
if I could lay the blame
on you, if I had been
#bewitched
by you -
ensorcelled, hexed -
it would be easier
if you'd done anything at all,
if you'd become the enemy
I wish that you could be.
it would be easier
to stop loving you
if you had ever
asked me to.
#vss365
If it's any #consolation
we saw it too
the way the world had come apart
and how it went cuckoo
If it's any consolation
most of us knew
that someone had to do something
but knew not what to do
If it's any consolation
some of us tried
but in the end,
too many people died.
#vss365
we saw it too
the way the world had come apart
and how it went cuckoo
If it's any consolation
most of us knew
that someone had to do something
but knew not what to do
If it's any consolation
some of us tried
but in the end,
too many people died.
#vss365
December 9, 2025 at 1:04 PM
If it's any #consolation
we saw it too
the way the world had come apart
and how it went cuckoo
If it's any consolation
most of us knew
that someone had to do something
but knew not what to do
If it's any consolation
some of us tried
but in the end,
too many people died.
#vss365
we saw it too
the way the world had come apart
and how it went cuckoo
If it's any consolation
most of us knew
that someone had to do something
but knew not what to do
If it's any consolation
some of us tried
but in the end,
too many people died.
#vss365
#soliloquy 's a lost art,
these days the scenes go by
too fast for poor protags
to have coherent thoughts;
we want our drama, and we want it now.
If the superhero stopped to wax poetic
we'd walk out of the theater,
and that's fine,
but you have to admit
we've lost
something
haven't we?
#vss365
these days the scenes go by
too fast for poor protags
to have coherent thoughts;
we want our drama, and we want it now.
If the superhero stopped to wax poetic
we'd walk out of the theater,
and that's fine,
but you have to admit
we've lost
something
haven't we?
#vss365
December 8, 2025 at 1:47 PM
#soliloquy 's a lost art,
these days the scenes go by
too fast for poor protags
to have coherent thoughts;
we want our drama, and we want it now.
If the superhero stopped to wax poetic
we'd walk out of the theater,
and that's fine,
but you have to admit
we've lost
something
haven't we?
#vss365
these days the scenes go by
too fast for poor protags
to have coherent thoughts;
we want our drama, and we want it now.
If the superhero stopped to wax poetic
we'd walk out of the theater,
and that's fine,
but you have to admit
we've lost
something
haven't we?
#vss365
#magenta is not a color;
it's a place between
red and blue
filled in by your brain
when it doesn't quite understand
what it's seeing.
And you, like the aurora,
danced in magenta light -
without a wavelength,
without my brain understanding -
until you were
in an instant
gone.
#vss365
it's a place between
red and blue
filled in by your brain
when it doesn't quite understand
what it's seeing.
And you, like the aurora,
danced in magenta light -
without a wavelength,
without my brain understanding -
until you were
in an instant
gone.
#vss365
December 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
matitudinal, crepuscular, #vespertine
we decorate the passage of time
with syllables we never use
recognizing the ornate inimitability of hours
and passing them by with simple numerals
as if we knew that if we called them by their name
we would be forced to recognize
their passage
#vss365
we decorate the passage of time
with syllables we never use
recognizing the ornate inimitability of hours
and passing them by with simple numerals
as if we knew that if we called them by their name
we would be forced to recognize
their passage
#vss365
December 4, 2025 at 5:40 PM
matitudinal, crepuscular, #vespertine
we decorate the passage of time
with syllables we never use
recognizing the ornate inimitability of hours
and passing them by with simple numerals
as if we knew that if we called them by their name
we would be forced to recognize
their passage
#vss365
we decorate the passage of time
with syllables we never use
recognizing the ornate inimitability of hours
and passing them by with simple numerals
as if we knew that if we called them by their name
we would be forced to recognize
their passage
#vss365
"The value of the thing is yet unknown,
except that it should not be drowned
amid the present moment’s din,
that sculpted words may somehow stand
when edifice becomes no more than stone."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/03/t...
#poem #poetry
except that it should not be drowned
amid the present moment’s din,
that sculpted words may somehow stand
when edifice becomes no more than stone."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/03/t...
#poem #poetry
the value of the thing
…what good is poetry in times of war?…
seanpatrick.phd
December 3, 2025 at 3:25 PM
"The value of the thing is yet unknown,
except that it should not be drowned
amid the present moment’s din,
that sculpted words may somehow stand
when edifice becomes no more than stone."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/03/t...
#poem #poetry
except that it should not be drowned
amid the present moment’s din,
that sculpted words may somehow stand
when edifice becomes no more than stone."
seanpatrick.phd/2025/12/03/t...
#poem #poetry
The world! How strange and beautiful its shape,
that thing which lives without and never wanes;
and over which that canvas has been draped,
experience, which we hold in our brains.
It hangs like fabric over all we’ve known,
but empty air by one swift pull is shown.
seanpatrick.phd/2025/11/30/s...
that thing which lives without and never wanes;
and over which that canvas has been draped,
experience, which we hold in our brains.
It hangs like fabric over all we’ve known,
but empty air by one swift pull is shown.
seanpatrick.phd/2025/11/30/s...
sonnet for a trick
…and Death, that mesmerist, does not reveal their final trick…
seanpatrick.phd
November 30, 2025 at 4:51 PM
The world! How strange and beautiful its shape,
that thing which lives without and never wanes;
and over which that canvas has been draped,
experience, which we hold in our brains.
It hangs like fabric over all we’ve known,
but empty air by one swift pull is shown.
seanpatrick.phd/2025/11/30/s...
that thing which lives without and never wanes;
and over which that canvas has been draped,
experience, which we hold in our brains.
It hangs like fabric over all we’ve known,
but empty air by one swift pull is shown.
seanpatrick.phd/2025/11/30/s...
If there is aught to know of Earth, it’s this:
the place is riddled with despair and woe,
and few of its inhabitants worth knowing;
and yet the wonders that it has to show
may justify, in love, the price of going.
Its misery melts beneath a single kiss.
the place is riddled with despair and woe,
and few of its inhabitants worth knowing;
and yet the wonders that it has to show
may justify, in love, the price of going.
Its misery melts beneath a single kiss.
November 26, 2025 at 10:41 PM
If there is aught to know of Earth, it’s this:
the place is riddled with despair and woe,
and few of its inhabitants worth knowing;
and yet the wonders that it has to show
may justify, in love, the price of going.
Its misery melts beneath a single kiss.
the place is riddled with despair and woe,
and few of its inhabitants worth knowing;
and yet the wonders that it has to show
may justify, in love, the price of going.
Its misery melts beneath a single kiss.
The world is wind, that blows beyond the brain,
and gusts berate the senses as we feel;
each new experience a zephyr’s kiss,
each flow a wisp that shifting mists conceal.
We cannot touch the world, but can know this:
we sail through mysteries we cannot contain.
#micropoetry
and gusts berate the senses as we feel;
each new experience a zephyr’s kiss,
each flow a wisp that shifting mists conceal.
We cannot touch the world, but can know this:
we sail through mysteries we cannot contain.
#micropoetry
November 25, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The world is wind, that blows beyond the brain,
and gusts berate the senses as we feel;
each new experience a zephyr’s kiss,
each flow a wisp that shifting mists conceal.
We cannot touch the world, but can know this:
we sail through mysteries we cannot contain.
#micropoetry
and gusts berate the senses as we feel;
each new experience a zephyr’s kiss,
each flow a wisp that shifting mists conceal.
We cannot touch the world, but can know this:
we sail through mysteries we cannot contain.
#micropoetry
Mellifluent words come as slowly as the dawn,
suggest themselves in night to dozing brains
and disappear in sleep to whence they came.
And so, the one who witty words retains
will rush to thus record and keep the same;
words must be fixed in ink before they’re gone.
#micropoetry
suggest themselves in night to dozing brains
and disappear in sleep to whence they came.
And so, the one who witty words retains
will rush to thus record and keep the same;
words must be fixed in ink before they’re gone.
#micropoetry
November 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Mellifluent words come as slowly as the dawn,
suggest themselves in night to dozing brains
and disappear in sleep to whence they came.
And so, the one who witty words retains
will rush to thus record and keep the same;
words must be fixed in ink before they’re gone.
#micropoetry
suggest themselves in night to dozing brains
and disappear in sleep to whence they came.
And so, the one who witty words retains
will rush to thus record and keep the same;
words must be fixed in ink before they’re gone.
#micropoetry
"O vicious world, that’s built on bloody stones!
How many gentle innocents have died
within your savage garden, strewn with bones?
How many times has beauty bowed to force
upon the curve of evolution’s course?"
seanpatrick.phd/2025/09/14/s...
#poem #poetry #sonnet
How many gentle innocents have died
within your savage garden, strewn with bones?
How many times has beauty bowed to force
upon the curve of evolution’s course?"
seanpatrick.phd/2025/09/14/s...
#poem #poetry #sonnet
sonnet for an answer
…life exists in spite of cosmic law…
seanpatrick.phd
September 14, 2025 at 5:33 PM
"O vicious world, that’s built on bloody stones!
How many gentle innocents have died
within your savage garden, strewn with bones?
How many times has beauty bowed to force
upon the curve of evolution’s course?"
seanpatrick.phd/2025/09/14/s...
#poem #poetry #sonnet
How many gentle innocents have died
within your savage garden, strewn with bones?
How many times has beauty bowed to force
upon the curve of evolution’s course?"
seanpatrick.phd/2025/09/14/s...
#poem #poetry #sonnet
September 10, 2025 at 12:25 PM