The real is nourished in the space between things.

In the theater of the real, look around,

hate, violence, cruelty quarrying veins of stupidity—

that intricate dance.

Abject, regnant ideologies in someone’s idea

of the enlightened, though I never found it,

but you can buy and sell the sunrise.

 

How do you regard the stars in the cold dark?

Ah, dreamer, they’re a long way off.

And the dappled light, then the dreams.

The sliver moon pours thin light on the shadow.

There’s nowhere to hide

while the world transforms itself…

riven one way, another.

Last thing, I’m the blind one yearning.

Infinite sadness.

 

Stephen Cipot

Garden City Park

Author’s note.  What began as a Tanka kept going.  After I finished writing and checked it over a few times I consider the poem to be a quasi-Midrashic story.  It also brought to mind a short story I read as a teenager by the British astronomer and writer Arthur C. Clarke, “The Nine Billion Names of God.”

Mr. Clarke is best known for his seminal “2001, A Space Odyssey,” which was directed and produced as a movie by Stanley Kubrick.  Mr. Kubrick also produced and directed “Eyes Wide Shut,” starring Nicolle Kidman and Tom Cruise, written by Frederick Michael Raphael, another challenging favorite author of mine.

Mr. Clarke was a prolific short story writer.  Short stories used to be widely published by the mainstream book publishers and in newsprint but have since fallen out of favor due to economic and cultural reasons; short stories do not sell well enough to fill gaping cavernous bottom lines and the readership has decreased precipitously—a Catch 22 for short stories.

This is more than a shame. For one American authors had perfected the narrative that we are familiar with today. And because good short stories are compact and can pack a powerful punch.  I consider it a great loss that we’re all a little poorer for.

In the case of Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God,” we’re asked to consider what is the purpose of “man?”

Why exactly are we here?  The protagonists of the story assumed that salvation would automatically be proffered upon them when they had uncovered all of the possible names of God.

Though upon completing the noble task were ready to celebrate only to be completely surprised, looking up into the night sky they saw that one by one the stars were going dark.  And that’s when the problems really started.