Baudelaire would have surely welcomed
the current trend of on-line computing
and data storage.
His fascination with clouds,
expressed in several poems,
suggests this.
He clearly delighted in observing
what he called “moving structures
God makes with vapors,”
and “wonderful impalpable constructions.”
And then there are his touching self-portraits
as a cloud-monger, as a stranger
captivated by the clouds that float by.
All of this leaves little doubt
regarding the true destination sought
by the man whose soul appealed
for the displacement of human activity
“anywhere out of this world.”