Ode to a Rendered Chasm was written as a response to the integration of imperfection into everyday life. It is a desperate plea, scraping at the inevitable cliff of age and entropy and pain, asking to spare our life one more day of innocence. It is a fear of continued marring of the inner narrative that subconsciously describes itself as perfectly reactionary, unblemished neural firing, and as an unbiased agent in a static world. The book culminates in the poem Ode to a Rendered Chasm--the book's namesake. This epic poem is a postmodern take on the classical loss of innocence, fading in and out of a twisted Trojan War in which the Greeks lose, the heroes die, and evil reigns supreme. Ode to a Rendered Chasm sings its defiance to the humanist covenant that promises salvation in the fulfillment of a self that is scarred by its experience and must pursue objective goals to achieve self-actualization. The Chasm of individualized existence explored in this poem cannot be cured through metacognition, soul-searching, or anything found within yourself. It is this conflict between the cultural omniscience of humanism and confrontation with your own imperfection that the book attempts to render for the reader.
