I have built
all about me
a little dark
ocean
composed of
doubts &
terrors
of night longings
& anxious
despair
& the poem
this work, this
arcing thread
of light
& bright voices
is my soul
writing itself
out — is
me ascending
the starry steps
to
il terzo paradiso
that fabled
heaven :
inner peace
Kierkegaard Dreams the Absurd
a poem from SK Rancy's chapbook Self-portrait In Hospital As Camus
Mediating on the absurd, the existential, and the sincere, the poems in Self-portrait In Hospital As Camus struggle with the futility of scientific and philosophical tenets of objectivity as framed by human suffering within the hospital’s walls. In vacillating between praising the wonder of human anatomy and scientific discovery while decrying the senselessness of man’s achievements and ambitions in the face of a meaningless and finite existence, this collection reaches its crescendo in the only reasonable apotheosis: if nothing matters, everything must.
