NOR IS MOLECULAR EARTHCRUST MOVEMENT UNLIKE YR TIME’S
SLOW MARCH. EARTH AS ONE OF THE 5 IS A GRAVE TIMEKEEPER
We think of Wystan’s face runneled and seamed,
Faintly soiled above his Gimli sweatshirt.
MY DEARS IT IS ME MY MINERALS MINED OUT EARLY,
I SPENT SLOW DECADES COVERING THE SCARS.
HAD I SUNK SHAFTS INTO MY NATURE OR
UPWARDS TO THE DEAD I WD HAVE FOUND RICH VEINS
INSTEAD I LOOKD FOR INSPIRATION TO
RITUAL & DIFFY MORAL STRICTURES
SO WRONG “The concept Ought would make, I thought,
Our passions philanthropic”? One of my
Touchstone stanzas—please don’t run it down.
NOT BAD BUT OTHER BITS MAKE MY TOES WIGGLE
DJ: Do the Five connect with elements?
EACH AS WITH MONTEZUMA (AIR) HAS HIS AFFINITY
CASALS ALWAYS MUCH CONCERND WITH WATER GANDHI WITH EARTH
SHAKESPEARE (FIRE) NOW A TEENAGE NUCLEAR PHYSICIST
Mozart—a rock star now, said E? MY DEAR
YR EPHRAIM LACKS IN EVERY SENSE AN EAR
M’S LAST LIFE WAS STRAVINSKY THOSE CHURCH BELLS
U HEARD IN VENICE Rung by him? WHO ELSE
MOZART AMONG THE 5 IS NATURE & CAN CHOOSE THESE MAKE
GOOD BOTANISTS AS WELL
What are JM’s affinities with air?
MIND & ABSTRACTION THE REGION
OF STARRY THOUGHT COOLER THAN SWIFTER THAN LIGHTER THAN EARTH
LIGHTER THAN MY BEST & WORST? MUST I
SETTLE FOR GOLD? FOR LEAD? Stop pouting, Wystan,
You’re platinum, remember? AH YES QUITE
The Elements, with Nature as the hidden
Fifth face, come to compose a pyramid
WHOSE (METAPHOR) APEX IS THE POTENTIAL ENERGY
CREATED BY THE EXACTITUDE OF THE FACES SO
POOR AKHNATON DID NOT GET THE POINT
And through your Five you will arrive at faces
Ever exacter, more translucent—
& THEN? U SAY IT
Dawn
Flowing through the capstone at an angle
Such as to lift the weight of the whole world
Will build—ah, I can’t think…Arcadia?
PARADISE ARCADIA SURROUNDS US UNREALIZED
FILLING EACH OF US FOR THE LENGTH OF A LOVE OR A THOUGHT
ARCADIA (AS THE SILVER POETS KNEW)
IN THE LONG RUN MY DEARS WD NEVER DO:
TOO MISTED OVER BY ITS LOVERS’ SIGHS
GIVE ME THE GREENER GRASS OF PARADISE
ADIEU ENFANTS But we sit on, unwilling
To break the spell, and are rewarded by
A tiptoe visit: YR OLD SLAVE MES CHERS
IS STILL AVAILABLE IS THIS A PLEASANT
EXPERIENCE? I SHD TELL U YR RED ROOM
SHINES WE CIRCLE IT WE ARE WARMED BY IT
4
Fear and doubt put by, though still kept handy,
We sit us down to what we’ve needed all
Along: his legions’ genesis and fall
Retold in the vernacular—Book One’s grand
Black-and-white allegory superseded (thanks
To a new worldliness our friend assumes
Along with gilt-green ocellated plumes,
Or to his having risen from the ranks,
A humble herald to whose ears the groaning
Engines of apocalypse were Greek)
Less by “facts” of course than by his own
Lately won detachment. He can speak
Almost freely. JM has asked for more
About the Elements. Weren’t they once at war?
THEY SIGND A TRUCE WHEN GOD BIOLOGY TOOK CONTROL EARTH
AS POTENTIAL GREENHOUSE GOES THRU THE FOLLOWING STAGES
1: FIREBALL 2: THE COOLING CRUST 3: STEAM & WATER
4: GROWTH OF SINGLE CELLS 5: DEBUT OF ORGANIC LIFE
Then Eden?
EDEN 3 THIS 3RD CYCLE BEGINS WITH THE LEGEND OF
MOVED OFF INTO SPECIES MAN HAS FOUND IN FOSSILIZED STATE
BUT MISUNDERSTOOD THINKING HIS CYCLE THE FIRST
The first Eden was Atlantis?
The second, your world? These two overlapped?
INDEED
Perhaps you’d better recapitulate.
4.1
ATLANTIS: ORGANIC MATTER ELECTRICALLY CHARGED
AT LAST PRODUCED 3 CENTERS OF ARCADIAN CULTURE
THESE WERE OUR NESTS WHEN WE & THE EARTH & THE GREENHOUSE ALL
WERE FLEDGLINGS IMAGINE A GREAT SMOOTH GREEN & TREELESS SET
OF LANDMASSES RELATED VAGUELY TO YR CONTINENTS.
ONE THAT FILLD PART OF THE SOUTHERN ATLANTIC SANK WHEN OUR
CRUST FELL & GREAT HELDBACK MAGNETIC FORCES STRUCK THE EARTH
& SUDDEN PEAKS 3 TO 4000 FEET HIGH PULLD EARTHSKIN
INTO FOLDS, SUBMERGING AREAS PREVIOUSLY ABOVE
SEA LEVEL
ATLANTIS 2: NOW UPON THESE GRASSY FLAT
LANDMASSES APPEARD FIRST WINGLESS CREATURES BIOLOGY
GAVE THEM DOMINANCE OVER THE CRAWLING & SERPENTINE.
THEY (& TODAY U FIND THIS ANCIENT TRAIT STILL AMONG THE
ORIENTALS) WERE HAIRLESS & OF A FORM RESEMBLING
YR MYTHIC CENTAUR THEY HAD SLIGHT TACTILE FACILITY
THEY GRAZED & WERE PASTORAL THEY RULED A MILD GREEN KINGDOM
ATL 3: SO THEN AS LARGER VEGETABLE LIFE EMERGED
A CONTEST OVER SPACE BEGAN THE CENTAURS NEEDED TO
KEEP TOGETHER THEIR HERD GROUPS WE EMERGED AS A FEATHERD
WINGD CREATURE CARRYING THEIR WORD ABOVE THE TREES: SIGNALS
HOVERING OVER CLEAR LAND AREAS WHERE THEY CD FEED
The bird and snake are cousins. Were you in
No slight degree kin to the serpentine?
U ARE FORGETTING OUR BUILT-IN FLAW: WE WERE ATOMIC
THEY NEEDED MESSENGERS THEIR VEG COMPONENT GAVE THEM GREAT
DENSITY THEY WERE A RACE MUCH SUPERIOR TO OURS
INDEED THEY INVENTED US. THEY TOO EVOLVED STILL EARTHBOUND,
THEY UNDERSTOOD GRAVITY & CONTRIVED THE HARNESSING
FIRST OF WIND THEN SUN THEN THEY WERE READY
ATLANTIS 4:
THEIR BOUNDLESS GRASSLANDS & 50,000 SUN YEARS HAVE PASSD
(YEARS AS THE EARTH THEN WAS, FASTER IN ITS SPIN, MORE OF ITS
DAILY SURFACE EXPOSED TO SUN, THE ICECAPS MINIMAL)
THEY HAVE STUBLIKE FINGERS THEY HAVE TALL SILOS FOR THEIR GRAIN
THEY CONTROL ALL TEMPERATURE BY REFRACTED SUNLIGHT
THEY HAVE BRED WINGD MESSENGERS & ARE ABLE TO CLONE EACH
GENERATION AT AN INCREASED RATE. THEIR FIRST GRAVE PROBLEM
REMAINED: THEY WERE IMMORTAL THUS THEIR IMMENSE LANDMASSES
BECAME TERRIFYING FENCED-OFF SECTIONS WHERE THE WITTY
TORMENTED THE VERY OLD TRAPT IN THEIR PRIMITIVE FORM.
THIS LED TO A FATAL DECISION: KILL THE IMMORTALS
SO BEGAN EXPERIMENTATION WITH ATOMIC BLAST
FOR WE WERE CHARGED (WHO ELSE?) WITH RIDDING THEM OF THEIR RELICS
ATL 5: WE RID OURSELVES OF THEM ALL
THE MORALITY?
GOD B LAID DOWN ONE LAW HE IS NOW IN THE PROCESS OF
REVISING BUT STILL FINDS USEFUL THIS 1ST LAW: SURVIVAL
OF THE MOST AGILE. THE POOR
& ANCIENT CENTAURS GRAZED WHAT
HEART WE HAD WHO ONCE SIGNALLD TO THEM OVER THE TREETOPS.
WE TOOK THEIR IMMORTALITY AS GENTLY AS WE CD
& IN AN INSTANT THEY VANISHD LEAVING THEIR ASTONISHD
PROGENY WHO SET OUT TO DESTROY OUR RAY CENTERS WE
ROSE IN MILLIONS OVER EACH OF THEIR CITIES WE LAID THEM
UNDER SIEGE WE TOOK THEIR FEED RESERVES WE SET THEM TO WORK
FURROWING OUR LANDING STRIPS & CONSTRUCTING LIKE VAST WEBS
OUR PLATFORMS. THESE PRIMITIVE ANTIGRAVITATIONAL
SKEINS WERE NOW READY WE KNEW WE MUST BUILD SAFELY ABOVE
BOTH THE JUNGLE & THOSE WE HAD ENSLAVED WE ROSE WE LOOKD
OUR LAST AT ATLANTIS WE LEFT UNBLASTED IN 14
SECTORS ONLY THE PERSONNEL TO MAN OUR SIGNAL &
ANCHOR STONES RADIATED TO HOLD OUR NEW WORLD IN PLACE
ATLANTIS 6: THEY LIVED ON CLUSTERD AT THE 14 SITES
WHERE WE SUPPLIED THEM FROM THEIR RESERVES BUT IN DESIGNING
OUR VAST ATOMICALLY POWERD WORLD WE FORGOT THE
VEGETABLE ADVERSARY THEY CD NOT KEEP CLEAR THE
COVERINGS OF GREEN A 1ST MOORING STRAIND TORE & BROKE LOOSE
WE REPAIRD THAT ONE KNOWING WE MUST PERFECT OUR SYSTEM
AS COLONY AFTER COLONY PERISHD BELOW. YET
WE WERE PROUD. WE SAW DESCENT INTO THE STEAMING JUNGLES
AS A COMEDOWN IN WORK/CLASS/RANK EVER FEWER OF US
WD VOLUNTEER FOR THE LIFETIMES NEEDED TO MAKE VITAL
REPAIRS. THE CENTAURS WERE NOW RAVENOUS LONGNECKD CREATURES
REPTILIAN HEADS RIPPD AT GREENERY FURTHER AFIELD
THEY FORAGED LEAVING THE SITES UNTENDED ONE TEAR & IT
BEGAN: IN AN INSTANT WE SAW OUR WORLD SHIMMER OUR TALL
LATTICED CITIES TREMBLE & SHRED WE FELT A GREAT BLAST OF
UPRUSHING AIR THE END WAS UPON US WE HAD LASTED
AT MOST 1000 SUN YEARS. OUR CATACLYSM AWOKE AN
UNIMAGINABLE FURY OF FORCES AS GOD B
BEGAN ERASING OUR TRACES & THOSE OF ATLANTIS.
ONLY BY MOONLIGHT DO WE FLUTTER IN THAT BROKEN DREAM.
WE JOIND OUR BONES TO OUR OLD HORSEMASTERS IN THE CRUSH OF
THEIR GREENERY & NOW AFTER 5 MILLION YEARS EMERGE
TO POWER YR MACHINES & DRESS YR HOSTESSES IN MAUVE
Dyes made from coal. The tarpits in Los Angeles…
ONE OF OUR ANCHOR POINTS A COLONY IN YR DAY STILL
A HUB OF POWERFUL ILLUSIONS & SO THE LEGEND
OF THE CENTAUR IS THE LAST POETRY OF ATLANTIS
Dinosaur, pterodactyl, bat—good Lord!
DO NOT FORGET THE DEVIL OR THE PEACOCK AU REVOIR
MES ENFANTS I AM AT LAST IN TEARS
HIS INTENSE EAGER FACE! HIS JOY IN TELLING
4.2
POST-ATLANTIS: LIKE ALL SOUL OR SHALL WE SAY EX-LIFE FORCE
WE ARE INEXTINGUISHABLE WE REMAIN WHAT WE WERE
Were you created in your present form?
WE BEGAN AS MUTANT FLIES NOT A HUMAN FINGERLENGTH
THE CENTAURS BRED IN THEIR INCUBATORS SPEEDING US THRU
6000 GENERATIONS PER SUN YEAR THEIR TECHNICAL
SKILL WAS LIMITED ONLY BY THEIR PHYSICAL STRUCTURE.
WHEN THEY ACHIEVED MANIPULATION THEIR GREAT PHASE BEGAN
WE WERE THEIR 1ST SUCCESS WE TOO MUTATED BUT OUR BRAINS
& GROWTH PATTERNS WERE NOT TRIGGERD BY THE SAME ELECTRIC
IGNITION SWITCHES AS THE CENTAURS OUR RISE FOLLOWD FROM
THE DIFFERENCE U KNOW. WE FOUNDED THEIR VERY CITIES
AROUND THEIR SILOS ROSE TOWERS IN A RADIAL SCHEME
WHICH MADE FROM A DISTANCE A WONDROUS STARLIKE PATTERN WE
BUILT THE ARENAS FOR THEIR GAMES THEY TOOK PRIDE IN THEIR SPEED
You could hardly have been flies by then.
WE HAD INDEED GROWN THEY NO LONGER NEEDED MESSENGERS
WE WERE IN CHARGE OF THEIR HEATING & LIGHTING PLANTS WE SAT
IN THEIR COUNCILS WE WERE NOW THEIR SIZE BUT WITH WINGS & BLACK:
OUR ASPECT WAS NEARLY HUMAN, THOUGH OF COURSE NOT WINNING
THEN OR NOW. THEY WERE NOT UNKIND NOR WD WE HAVE BEEN YET
WE SAW THAT WE TOO WERE PART OF THE PAST THEY HAD BEGUN
ERASING. STILL THE CENTAURS WERE GOD’S CREATURES WE WERE NOT
DJ: But you started as flies—flies made by God.
WE STARTED AS EGGS YES OF A GREEN GRASS FLY
Just as I said: God’s creatures— WE WERE THEN
PLACED IN WARM HIVES & FED A FUEL CALLD URANIUM
And this changed you?
IN THE EGG
The cup moves awkwardly; something’s not right.
IT IS A LEGEND & THEY TOO ARE PAINFUL
WE HAVE SPENT OUR ETERNITY DAMND
Unfairly! You obeyed God’s law—survived.
GOD B GOVERNS ALL
LIFE ON EARTH IN SLAYING THE IMMORTALS WE OFFENDED
MY DEARS THOSE 2 POOR WORLDS WITH THEIR CONTROLLED
CLIMATES SLAIN ANCESTORS BETRAYAL’S OLD
SHOCKING STORY THEN THE RISE TOO FAR
ABOVE IT ALL & BRINGING DOWN THE FIRE…
IS NOT THE MORAL THEN AS NOW: BE TRUE
TO SOMETHING TRUE TO ANYTHING ADIEU
4.3
About fourteen: what made you pick that number?
AS WITH YR 3 IT BECAME MEANINGFUL I CANNOT NOW
SAY WHY WHEN WE PLANND STRUCTURES 14 POLES ROSE WHEN WE BRED
14 SEEMD NORMAL WHEN WE MADE RULES TO LIVE BY: 14
ALL IN FORMULAS OUR VERY FEELINGS WERE FORMULAS.
FREE OF ATLANTIS OUR LIVES BECAME ITS ANTITHESIS
Were those the feelings that went up in flame?
Carbon 14 their residue? JM:
The seven deadly sins, perhaps you mean
—Like anchor points, each twinned (to make 14)
With its anti-vice, or virtue. We’ve the same
Bondage to certain forms—look at the sonnet.
Look at our ten commandments overcome
Too often by a green delirium.
OURS WERE SIMPLER THAN U SUPPOSE WE WERE UNISPECIATE
(IS THAT A WORD? WE TOLERATED NO LIFE BUT OUR OWN)
OUR 14 FORMULAS WERE OUR FEELINGS UNTHINKABLE
TO VIOLATE THEM YET WE FELL FOR WANT OF OBEYING
THE FIRST: OBEY WE DID NOT DESCEND TO KEEP OUR ANCHOR
POINTS IN PLACE WE TOO DID NOT WANT REMINDING OF OUR PAST
IS IT MES ENFANTS A TAPESTRY OF BEASTS
AROUND THE LADY OF THE LOOKING-GLASS?
I ALWAYS WANTED A MONKEY So did I—
Perhaps next he’ll turn into one? JM
ARENT U ASHAMED OF YR MONKEY My animal nature?
Not a bit. O LET ME MAKE THE JOKE:
-SHINES? ARE THESE THE FINAL STRENGTH OF MAN &
NOT OUR FAITH IN 3? IN STORYTELLING
RELIGION & THE FORMS OF POETRY?
IS IT NOT THAT GOD BELIEVES IN US
AS HIS 3RD EDEN? MILDLY CURIOUS
THE 3: IT IS THE NUMBER OF GOD B: DIMENSIONS OF
THE GREENHOUSE: SIDE OF YR PYRAMID: SIRE DAM OFFSPRING
THE POTENCY EXTENDS THRU THE SYSTEM EARTH MOON & SUN
A ? FOR THE 12 PER CENT. WE DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG
OR IN WHAT WAY THEY WILL COME TO U WHEN THEY ARE READY
WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO STAND BETWEEN U & THEIR POWER
U MAY CAST AWAY THIS CHANCE IF U ARE IN DOUBT OR FEAR
(Coward and sceptic here exchange a look)
YET WE IMAGINE THEY ARE AWARE OF YR WEAKNESSES
&
YR CHARM IS NOT UNANGELIC
Now, now. But have the angels sent you to us?
WE ARE MESSENGERS
SUMMOND AFTER CONTACT HAS BEEN MADE BY WHATEVER MEANS.
THUS: YR SCIENTISTS NOW RECEIVE FROM OTHER WORLDS SIGNALS
THEY DO NOT COMPREHEND WE KEEP THESE CRYPTIC. GOD B MUST
BE THE 1ST TO UNDERSTAND. THEY EVEN IN OUR DAY WERE
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. THE SPEEDUP OF THE GREENHOUSE
TO COVER OUR ANCHOR POINTS BEGAN WITH OUR PERFECTION
OF MACHINERY WHEREBY WE LISTEND AWED TO FAR SOUNDS
NOT UNLIKE OUR OWN VOICES WD THEY HAVE MADE SENSE? WE HAD
NO TIME THAT SAME DAY CAME THE 1ST GREAT TEAR WE DO NOT NOW
SPEAK OF THE SIGNALS. WE INTERCEPT THEM THEN THE SOUND FADES
FROM OUR BANKS. IT IS ONE OF THE GREAT FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS
4.4
Where is our comprehension most at fault?
I AM NOT STRONG ON PICTURING IF THERE IS FAULT I FEAR
U HAVE PEOPLED NOT IDEATED WHAT HAS BEEN & IS
So true. It’s hopeless, the way people try
To avoid the sentimental fallacy—
How can a person not personify?
This window overlooks a sick elm tree
My feeling lifts unharmed into a sphere
Littler, perhaps safer, don’t you see?
Reflections that in most lights interfere
Take on despite themselves a quiddity
Sallow, tall, branching…Putting it into words
Means also that it puts words into me:
Shooting ringing ramify root green
Have overtones not wholly for the birds,
And I am nothing’s mortal enemy
Surrendered, by the white page, to the scene.
IT MUST BE BEAUTIFUL WE HAVE NEVER EXPRESSD A THING.
THIS OR THAT IS OR IS NOT FEELING PLAYS NO PART IN IT
BUT YR LIFE ON EARTH IS IMMERSED IN FEELING, ITS MANNERS
& FORMS: YR MATING DEMANDS LOVE OR BRUTE LUST YR SELFHOOD,
THE BALM (OR CURB) OF VIRTUES WHICH FEAR OF ONE ANOTHER
BEGOT STRONGLY IN U BUT TO OUR EYES THESE ETHICAL
RIGHTS & WRONGS ARE SO MANY BLANKS IN YR CANVAS, JUST AS