Ode to a Rendered Chasm: Poetry, Philosophy, and Comments on Consciousness

By Brett Seaton

Ode to a Rendered Chasm is composed of short free-verse poems, one prose piece, and an epic poem. The style ranges from romantic ballads to natural imagism to philosophical commentary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098305628

Book preview

Notes

Falling

shuffling along the sidewalk

hinged at the waist

I stay neatly between the lines

looking down, unsatisfied

and if my strides don’t match

the cracks, laying asleep at my feet

I will chop my legs down to the right length

and make sure I respect myself

I live in this Gothic house

cobwebs strewn about

with one candle and no clothes

dancing, always dancing

to keep both flames alive

warm white noise spills outside my mug

onto my hand and I watch

as it sizzles against my skin

like fire ants

leaving trails of red

they tell me that a magnet dies when heated

they say it slowly grows too uncontrolled

careening like a helicopter without a pilot

but when it has crashed and burned

it doesn’t spout flame or sizzle

it’s just gone

and when you come back and ask it to be someone

it stares blankly and says

Chaos is all there is

Scars on a twisted sapling

I call dungeons by their middle names

and listen to their throaty response

I got here on my knees

why shouldn’t I?

I hand out compliments like food stamps

my survival dependent on mountains

made to pave our roads when they rest

I paint this labyrinth black

in the hope it will sit and stay

congeal and create

twist and transform

catch me in the act

so I can have someone to apologize to

the dragons I have locked up inside my chest

sputter and spit

melting the clockwork

that keeps my hands and feet

in neutral

o circus, today I have brought

my dragons, a stolen car

10 protons, and a cross

Delphi demands it all

and I am given no solace

my friends do not look too close

or you will see the space between

for where I toil now

is all that she has seen

Dear Giants

brown and green twirl down

from a row of sycamore

into a growing fire

I sift through them

my eyes raking across them

in service to myself

cars fly through my mind

making my hands jitter and twitch

roadkill sleep in tandem

interrupted by those who would clean them up

they were godlike in their surety

shadows of planes and giants roll over

Reviews for Ode to a Rendered Chasm

[Hudson Headley · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The title is a lie. None of the content in this novel resembles anything on the front cover. Similarly the title seems to be something the author picked to try to sound fancy without having any true meaning. This Book was written by an author who was rushing to get something out to have an officially published book on their Resume. If you would like to struggle through made up idioms and poor metaphors or you would like to read a poor retelling of of regurgitated Greek philosophy that was done better thousands of years ago, this book is for you. The poetry is the best part of the book even though it lacks any complex structure or devices to make the poem interesting and insightful. Also, it seems to me this is less of poetry and more of short stories told in the form of “poetry” just so it can make the author look better. The author thinks philosophy is asking a bunch of nonsensical questions that aren’t backed in logic. They do this to give the reader and themselves the illusion that they are giving thoughts on consciousness and philosophy. Without any depth attached to the ideas the author tries to avoid any criticism of the faulty logic and false information weaved all throughout the novel. Content aside, the writing structure is very simplistic and reminds me of a writer who exudes confidence in their abilities and is too scared to take a step back and evaluate their work. Overall, if you are looking for philosophy or poetry told in the form of the story I would recommend any other book, my favorite being Thus Spake Zarathustra for this genre. This doesn’t even hit any of the check marks for a beginner.