A portrait-sketch of a cool optimist named Alyosha Comey learning how to relax– sketched from a compressed/simplified maximalist perspective/point of view (Bernards, New Jersey; between Sunday, September 20th, 2020 and Friday, September 25th, 2020)

~ Poetry by Sean O'Connor; Contemplations, Daydreams, and Miscellaneous Notes (i.e., Jewelry of the Mind)

Bernards, New Jersey; between Sunday, September 20th, 2020 and Friday, September 25th, 2020

A portrait-sketch of a cool optimist named Alyosha Comey learning

how to relax– sketched from a compressed/simplified maximalist

perspective/point of view.

Alyosha Comey did not believe

in happiness per se, so he wouldn’t have called it that, but he finally

learned how to relax,

and feel free

of his previously substantial susceptibility to sensory

overload

and panic attacks, drinking till nearly blacking out; this novel relaxation

resembled for Alyosha a walk along a notably and newly crack-and-pothole-

free asphalt road, a newly erected bridge route

founded

on the uplifting

idea of significantly reduced doubt.

But what had his proneness to sensory overload and panic attacks even

been about? He partly blamed “postmodernism” and the Great Earth-

wide Information Flood of the Early Internet Age which had been inthe

midst of the Covid nineteen pandemic and The Great Culture,

Definition, and Meaning War––where, to quote Giuliani, “truth isn’t

truth”

and to quote my critics, “this isn’t poetry!”; “this isn’t prose!”; whatevs (?),

quoth Shakespeare: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any

other name would smell as sweet.” I wonder, is it me or them who is elitist or

are we both? Or neither? I’ve been trying to go more “folk”  but maintain an

intellectual approach like the Great Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Dostoevsky,

Ginsberg, Lopate, et alia …

“We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight/Ask himself if it’s him or them that’s insane” sang Bob Dylan.

…So how did Alyosha manage to chill out in the midst of all that cliquish

oligarchic schismatic nationalism, and extreme isolationist hyper-niche

unique boutique mystique, “just another voice in the wilderness”

Groupthink-ism-ese bullshit and also in sight that nearly outright Fascism

—“Trump Won’t Commit to ‘Peaceful’ Post-Election Transfer of Power” to

quote the New York Times 9/23/20 headline…   Well, he began listening to

classical music—Sergei Prokofiev–He had just happened to enjoy a tune, a

melody he happened to hear on a Spotify playlist he was listening to. (One

that played a random mix of things) “Who is this?” he said aloud, in awe of

the sound, so he wrote it down, and began Googling around to find out

more about this Prokofiev, so he could appreciate a closer listen, then that’s

what he did,

and it really just simply relaxed

him. His spine felt straighter.

His mind, (to the extent that we can conceptualize such a thing) instead of

racing chaotically,

felt as though a sailboat, methodically built for stability, sailing the vastness

of ocean in

tranquility. 

Published by Poetry by Sean O'Connor; Contemplations, Daydreams, and Miscellaneous Notes (i.e., Jewelry of the Mind)

Hi, I’m Sean O’Connor, a professional poet. Bob Dylan and John Lennon are my two favorite poets, my personal masters/ top literary role models, as they most profoundly impact me, move me, influence me, and inspire me. My poetry tends mostly to rhyme and embraces a cross-genre style and as such incorporates, in varying degrees, aspects of lyricism, fiction, the essay, and the prosimetrum. My themes tend towards the philosophical and psychological, exploring the idea of what it might mean and be like to live an ever improving life. My heroines and heroes of prose Thomas Mann, David Foster Wallace, Phillip Lopate, Michel de Montaigne, and Susan Sontag. As to the source of inspiration for my cross-genre style, I believe I am most in debt to Gloria Anzaldua, not just for her prosimetric writing, but because, furthermore, I believe she explains most vividly the intellectual framework and consciousness for cross-genre thinking. That said, I owe a great deal to Dr. Rosa Soto for giving me such a thorough introduction and study of Anzaldua. I'm not sure my mind would have been sufficiently primed to be so receptive to Anzaldua if were not for Dr. Leonard Winogora, who encouraged me and mentored me through my undergraduate work in Liberal Studies, and continued supporting my passion for interdisciplinary and even more crucially, critical thinking. Furthermore, professors Dr. Martha Witt and Dr. John Parras have both guided me as I've delved more deeply into both the theoretical meanings of "genre" as such, and how one might come to understand the three basic genres of literature more specifically. When it comes to the central philosophical-psychological theme of self improvement, which is my greatest interest, content-wise, I find that the insights of Andy Puddicombe, Tara Swart, Franlink Veaux, Martin Seligman, Abraham Maslow, and Shakti Gawain. Other poets and writers who, although are not my most primary influences per se, continually hold a special place in my aesthetic thinking include Among the rhyming poets: Claude McKay, Lord Byron, John Lennon, A.E. Stallings, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Among the free verse poets: Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and Denise Levertov. The fiction writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Robert Musil, Marcel Proust, Milan Kundera. The essayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Baldwin, Leslie Jamison. The literary diarists: Witold Gombrowicz, Ceasar Pavese, Samuel Pepys, Virginia Woolf, Anais Nin. I’m currently pursuing my MFA in Creative & Professional Writing at William Paterson University, where I also received my BA in Liberal Studies (with concentrations in Political Science & History). I also work as a writing tutor for Raritan Valley Community College. Aside from my writing, I'm vehemently political, fascinated with human sexuality, and love dogs. My wife and I have a Siberian Husky mix.

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