"Let Me Show You the Life of the Mind"

[dukealien]

“Let Me Show You the Life of the Mind”

So said John Goodman’s character
in Barton Fink.
It’s my mantra, my way of the pilgrim,
I collect my visions and store them away
in a hidden fortress of solitude
The Prester John Memorial Library.
I was born an empath, and a lover of women,
it’s been my destiny for 70 years,
like Jean de Florette, the rational refuses me,
apocalypse is always just around the corner,
it will always be waiting, the corners keep coming,  perhaps a more descriptive word than "waiting" - "lurking?"
I am its messenger, a mutant Paul Revere.  or, since the speaker keeps them hidden away, a mute Paul Revere?
I’m the only survivor, Alphaville has long since
been replaced by strip malls 
and the discordant music of a corrupted world.
I seek out my muses and cultivate
their unrealities, experiments in dismay,
bind them into illustrated editions 
that go to the Omega Collection, it’s kept
locked away for the next generation
that will never come.  is there a reason for this depressing prediction, other than those strip malls?
This is my message in a bottle
but the bottle is empty and floats in a void
where the dead seem happy 
and the living thrive in their ignorance.  but without offspring for a next generation
Take my words for it, or don’t.
I’m almost done with my impossible task
and it’s been worth every minute
ticked off on the clock of things unknown.  concluding two lines are quite good, and do round off the message.

Had to look up several of the references, but the general tenor was clear enough.

As an explication of "the life of the mind" this is descriptive and concise, showing by means of the name-drops as the reader unpacks them in the course of  the story.

I found "empath" a bit discordant - an empathic person wouldn't feel so cut off, would he?  Or are we to infer that this results from rejecting his born empathy?

In basic critique, this is effective in leading the reader to empathize with the speaker's lonely life of the mind, if the reader is willing.  Perhaps the willingness could be cultivated with a more descriptive tour of the fortress of solitude's contents instead of exhibit headings (in the form of movie/literary references).

But, as is, it lives up to its title.