November 2022
Robert Wexelblatt
wexelblatt@verizon.net
wexelblatt@verizon.net
Author's Notes: The first piece is about instants atomized, connected, detached, preserved; but it is also a love poem mining astronomy for metaphor. It is an attempt to translate a transient mood into something firmer, to articulate complicated feelings—perhaps too many of them.
The second item is found poetry. I had a minor problem with the function of a university site and asked the IT experts how to fix it. Their response was useless for resolving the glitch but struck me as pretty good unintended Cyber-Age satire. It is offered verbatim as received.
The second item is found poetry. I had a minor problem with the function of a university site and asked the IT experts how to fix it. Their response was useless for resolving the glitch but struck me as pretty good unintended Cyber-Age satire. It is offered verbatim as received.
Verses in the Form of a Starry Night
Could be paradise is a moment not a place, a moment like a monument that you can return to in all weathers and see pigeons. Our grand occasions stand up so well to gales they seem outside of time yet not one will be there unless you are. Hellish moments are durable too, shameless, ugly statues. Each instant is intimately joined to the one before and the one after, a trio of paper dolls among the millions; only the most ecstatic and disgraceful detach themselves and soar, turn into dark planets or bright stars. To summon the exquisite we must exert ourselves to remember, to banish the vile apply equal and opposite force. It’s melancholy to think how the foul can darken and the dazzling dim. Should I confide to you my favorite paradise you’d scoff, then that moment too would detach from my telling and your reproof would make another paradise, stone statue in a fountain, matchless paper doll, newfound planet, a constellation to which I could assign your luminous name.
A version of this poem first appeared in Innisfree Poetry Journal
Advice From IT
You may wish to attempt clearing your cache. Attempt from another supported browser. Attempt to access the site through a private or Incognito browser window. Enable cookies. Enable mixed content. Check your network speeds at speedtest.net to make sure you are getting good speeds. If you are running multiple applications, try closing apps that are not required for the task you need to complete. Disable extensions in your browser. Try restarting your computer.
©2022 Robert Wexelblatt
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