Acknowledgements

All my projects require much perseverance to complete — and this volume owes its fruition, in part, to the devoted support of patient friends: Angie Abdou, André Alexis, Derek Beaulieu, Gregory Betts, Mikael Brygger, Anthony Etherin, Clara Etherin, Kenneth Goldsmith, Paul Huebener, Ken Hunt, Kathy Killoh, Paul Magee, Manijeh Mannani, Nick Montfort, Simon Morris, Daniela de Paulis, Michael Redhill, et al. Versions of “A Zoom Lens for the Future of the Text” have been presented for events on behalf of the following institutions: the SETI Institute (2023), the University of Canberra (2022), the University of the Arts Helsinki (2021), the Vermont Studio Center (2019), and the University College Dublin (2019). An early draft of “A Zoom Lens for the Future of the Text” has appeared in print at the Belfield Literary Review (2021).

Athabasca University has liberally supported the creation of “My Works, Ye Mighty” (and other poems) during my tenure as the writer in residence for 2023. Without patronage in service to a bold risk, this publication might not have, otherwise, existed.

“My Works, Ye Mighty” constitutes a rejoinder to the famous sonnet “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (who depicts the ruined statue of Ramesses II, undercutting the hubris of its Pharaonic vainglory). Shelley mocks the presumption of immortality in the inscription on this monument, even though historians in the era of Shelley credit Ramesses II with the invention of libraries (whose caches furnish every civilization with the means to outlast their own demise). My poem suggests that, throughout history, life itself has always wagered its own achievements against gradual erosion by entropy — and I imply that the cosmos itself might embody the godly ruins of such an artistic exercise, no less hubristic than any menhir in the desert. “A Zoom Lens for the Future of the Text” recounts my hope for the endurance of poetry across every scale of existence.