nine-to-five – hidden pilcrow

The Flammarion engraving is a wood engraving by an unknown artist that first appeared in Camille Flammarion's L'Atmosphère: Météorologie populaire (1888). The image depicts a man crawling under the edge of the sky, depicted as if it were a solid hemisphere, to look at the mysterious Empyrean beyond.

Random thoughts swirling through the poet’s mind after waking up

Published on 28/05/2024 by Maciej Modzelewski1 Comment

For millennia, people thought
that the sun revolved around the earth,
and it took a great deal of ingenuity,
pursued by burning at the stake,
to mentally set foot on the former,
or rather beyond both celestial bodies.
And yet we still have ardent flat-earthers among us.

After only a few miles on the bike,
a well-oxygenated brain may absorb a fair dose
of Wittgenstein or decide to leave the typical nine-to-five
for something more exotic, like a snake milker,
a ravenmaster, or a professional mourner.
If you are particularly lucky, you might even land your dream job
as an eternal employee, although that would require moving
to Gothenburg in Sweden.

My father used to say, ‘Ordnung muss sein,’
so that I would know that bending over a stool
and counting aloud the blows with his army belt
was for my future good;
otherwise, I could mistake it for an act of cruelty.
I wonder what his views would be
if he lived to see today, when even a light smack
is a criminal offence.

journalist interviewing people in the street

Hunters

Published on 21/08/2023 by Maciej Modzelewski1 Comment

This is not your typical nine-to-five—utterance hunt, I mean. You struggle all day long
and through the night, whether it be journalism or poetry, just to get a glimpse of the truth
once in a while. I have been there, so I know. The only difference is that in one, you chase
facts of life embraced in words, while in the other, you pursue words embracing facts of life.

a man in a room with two desks, white and black, looks out the window

Monochrome

Published on 19/08/2023 by Maciej Modzelewski1 Comment

I have two desks at home, one for work and the other where the rest of my life takes place.
Coincidentally, the former is white, contrasting sharply with the near-blackness of the latter,
although I would not seek any particular meaning in that, and besides, both gather dust just
as quickly. But when I think about it, white really emphasises the futility of my nine-to-five,
while black goes well with the solitude of the remainder of the day. Perhaps there is meaning
in colours; I just missed the right palette.