{"id":2176,"date":"2026-05-11T13:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:14:34","slug":"to-sysiphus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/to-sysiphus\/","title":{"rendered":"To Sysiphus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I performed this poem for the independent podcast Pilot Waves, for their series &#8220;poems about work&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pilot Waves Presents Poems About Work - Ivan Himanen: &quot;To Sysiphus&quot;\" width=\"580\" height=\"435\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PU6V15eRKwE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">Hey hey hey<br>Hold it hold it hold it<br>Hear me hear me just this once<br>Before we part ways for the millionth time:<br><br>What lessons can career ladders possibly teach your body <br>as you go through impossible motions, <br>pushing your case <br>in case of a promotion?<br><br>It\u2019s OK to fear to fail\u2014<br>You\u2019re human for God\u2019s sake!<br>come rock &amp; roll with me\u2014<br>I\u2019ve seen more than you think.<br><br>A technicolor TV in Rock Hill that once told me a tale:<br>Dorothy awoke on the bus \/ (now the only gringa) \/ To a man shouting on his iPhone: \/ \u201cBueno? \/ \u201cNo. \/ \u201cHamburguesas. \/ \u201cOkei. \/ \u201cPerfecto. \/ \u201cBye.\u201d \/ A Coca-Cola hiss,  \/ a Dorito crunch, \/ a wipe across his Levis, \/ he put his Oakleys back on. \/ \u201cWow,\u201d thought Dorothy,  \/ \u201cKansas is bigger than I thought.\u201d<br><br>A home where \u201chouse\u201d means more than sleep: <br>The place you learn to walk while pouring tea \/ learn to live with see-through graffiti \/ holidays are for coming home \/ instead of for leaving, giving thanks \/ for labored memories, crawling under the table \/ where vets and Kings sing songs in a tent for the open road, \/ before mom &amp; dad start yelling at \/ your unmade bed, your unread books, \/ your fallen teddy bears, and you\u2014 \/ Because the renters are arriving?<br><br>The meaning of rarity:<br>Shooting stars \/ Snow in sunlight \/ Doppelgangers \/ Dogs with socks \/ I once had a list of things \/ For rainy days, toasts, and pick up lines \/ Things I once thought were rare\u2026 \/ Until a Google cloud rushed in \/ And rained all over me \/ So I became a collector of rarities: \/ The purple tips of June thunderbolts, \/ Reservoirs of big boys\u2019 tears, \/ Thank-God-it\u2019s-Mondays, all sorts of Sundays: \/ some busy, some cold, some \/ with plastic presents on the bottom. \/ I collect unhurried breaths, they stay inside, \/ inflating me with some kind of wisdom. \/ Man, if you\u2019re lucky, I\u2019ll let you pinch my cheeks, and hear \/ The most annoying sound in the world. \/ But would you believe it, I ran out \/ Of space, even on the lawn, even \/ United Methodist wouldn\u2019t accept \/ The donation. So to stay one search ahead \/ Of Google, I now just mash them toget \/ herso there\u2019s no chance at all: \/ Snow on stars, unreach \/ able, Shooting socks, imp \/ ossible, Double sunlight, hiddenatt \/ hebottomofasunday, Doggone dangers, note \/ ventheoldestnewestcoverbandname.<br><br>What\u2019s worth seeing at end of the day:<br>When everyone\u2019s decided to call it that, \/ Chalk it up to another, just like the others, \/ Having sidestepped the country taboos and ticklish spots \/ And decide there\u2019s nothing else \/ But the copout of weird dreams. \/ That\u2019s when wonder rears its tiny head \/ And comes with an old drum out of the shed \/ The puckerbutts and titllations and fothermuckers dance \/ While jetsetters commonplacers seen-it-allers sleep.<br><br>To my rock-n-roll superstargazer, martyr, pencil-pusher:<br>IT is not a mountain to climb \/ IT is a mountain to descend, \/ and not by winding trails, either, \/ by cliffs and leaps of faith. \/ Those who stay can only marvel at the blue-eyed beauty of IT, \/ those who jump find out in time how deep the valley really IS.<br><br>From the bottom of a heart<br>a million joyous pebbles<br>Once again we rest our case:<br>Yours.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I performed this poem for the independent podcast Pilot Waves, for their series &#8220;poems about work&#8221;. Hey hey heyHold it hold it hold itHear me hear me just this onceBefore we part ways for the millionth time:What lessons can career ladders possibly teach your body as you go through impossible motions, pushing your case in&hellip;<a href=\"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/to-sysiphus\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">To Sysiphus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177,"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}