Falls on the novel nightcap, but our eyes
Keep dimming with surmise—
The black dog, good as new, had known DJ,
Bounded in perfect rapture to the car!
No accident? Or else a dog that dies
So many deaths each day,
Emotional or cellular,
That death no longer…The town clock strikes ten,
Time, by our regimen,
To TENDERLY EMBRACE & SAY SWEET DREAMS.
How can I sleep? Where do I put my hand?
A fly embroiders darkness with insane
Frazzle and quirk. The room’s
Revolving, slipping sideways, and
9.9
Sun is rising. The cool, smalltown dawn!
Now through gently breathing shades it strums
The brass bed, a quick bar or two, and the long,
Hushed day—August 21st—begins
By whose unthinkable finale we
(However often, faced with splendors, left
Dutifully rapt—until, made “ours”,
Pressed in a freshman Plato like wildflowers,
The mummied angel slumbered) may for once
Find this pure dew of expectancy
Undried upon the skin. The hours change
Clothes in silence. Noon. No letters. One.
A highlight excommunicates the phone.
Things look out at us as from a spell
They themselves have woven. Young, windblown
Maria with dark glasses and Gitane—
Snapshot tucked in the mirror. Book by Wystan
Face up among the clouds and bats, all week
Open to Miranda’s villanelle.
Tin bird at attention by the salt.
The salt-cellar in its own right, a bisque
Egg one shy bluebell embellishes,
Found when we moved here, eldest of this troupe
Brought up to interact, to shrug off risk
At any level. Three. The hands that halt
Second by second coming round ablaze
—Crack! Like a walnut, only louder. Did—?
Who first, in this red room, saw nothing now
See nothing else: our baby pyramid
Overexcited, split along its flawed
Fire escapes to spectral rubble…Well,
Something had to give. And will light learn
To modify its power before our turn?
We humbly hope so. Four. No further sign
Of who approaches, or of his design—
Only the radiance inching into place.
By five the breath indrawn is held and held.
The world was everything that was the case?
Open the case. Lift out the fabulous
Necklace, in form a spiral molecule
Whose sparklings outmaneuver time, space, us.
Here where the table glistens, cleared, one candle
Shines invisibly in the slant light
Beside our nameless houseplant. It’s the hour
When Hell (a syllable identified
In childhood as the German word for bright
—So that my father’s cheerful “Go to Hell”,
Long unheard, and Vaughan’s unbeatable
“They are all gone into a world of light”
Come, even now at times, to the same thing)—
The hour when Hell shall render what it owes.
Render to whom? how? What at this late date
Can be done with the quaint idiom that slips
From nowhere to my tongue—or from the parchment
Of some old scribe of the apocalypse—
But render it as the long rendering to
Light of this very light stored by our cells
These past five million years, these past five minutes
Here by the window, taking in through panes
Still bleary from the hurricane a gull’s
Ascending aureole of decibels,
As numberless four-pointed brilliancies
Upon the Sound’s mild silver grid come, go?
The message hardly needs decoding, so
Sheer the text, so innocent and fleet
These overlapping pandemonia:
Birdlife, leafplay, rockface, waterglow
Lending us their being, till the given
Moment comes to render what we owe.
FROM THE WINEDARK SEA OF SPACE THE INCARNATIONS OF LIFE LEADING TO THE LIFE OF MAN BEGAN
PLANET AFTER PLANET ROSE IN THE LIGHT, BORE ITS LIFE, AND VANISHED
AND YET THE RICH WOMB OF THE SUN FOUND A NEW EGG AND VISITED LIFE UPON IT.
ORGANIC LIFE RESPONDED THE IMPULSES OF THE UNIVERSE WERE AS STEADY AS THE PULSES OF MAN
ANIMATE FORMS WERE AS VARIED AS THE FORMS YOU KNOW
AND AS VARIED AS THE PLANETS THEY EMERGED ON AND AS THE WEATHERS THEY LIVED IN.
AND SO IT WAS THROUGH THREE INCARNATIONS OF THE WORLDS PREVIOUS TO THE TRIALS OF THIS ONE
AND SO IT WILL REMAIN: THE DEEP DEMANDING IMPULSE TO LIFE.
THE GENIUS OF THE LIVING CELL IS ITS TIE TO THE REGENERATIVE HEAT & LIGHT OF THE SUN
AND SO AS YOU FACE THIS SETTING SUN YOU FACE YOUR ANCESTOR, AND THE SUN LOOKS THROUGH YOUR EYES TO THE LIFE BEHIND YOU.
EACH OF YOUR SUNCYCLES IS A STEP ON YOUR WAY TO YOUR ANCESTOR
AND THAT IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW OF YOUR PHYSICAL INCARNATE HISTORY.
WE BEGIN NOW A DISCUSSION OF YOU AS A SPECIES OF THE SUN’S MAKING:
SINCE THE FIRST STRIKING INTO LIFE OF A CELL THE ENERGY OF THAT CELL ACCUMULATED.
THIS ACCUMULATED ENERGY BECAME THROUGH EONS AN ANCIENT AND IMMORTAL INTELLIGENCE
WHICH ASSUMED AS MANY FORMS AS THERE WERE LIFE FORMS, YET AS IT GREW ABSORBED ALL THE DEAD’S ENERGIES, INCREASING IN INTENSITY EVEN AS THE PLANETS FAILED, AND SWARMING IN THE PATH OF LIFE.
EACH HISTORY WAS THE GUIDANCE OF THIS INTELLIGENCE. AT LAST
EARTH LIFE BEGAN, AND AT LAST AFTER EXPERIMENT THIS INTELLIGENCE FORMED MAN.
THIS IS GOD’S NAME
GOD IS THE ACCUMULATED INTELLIGENCE IN CELLS SINCE THE DEATH OF THE FIRST DISTANT CELL.
WE RESIDE IN THAT INTELLIGENCE
WE HAVE IN THIS MEETING FOUND YOU INTELLIGENT & YOUR SERIOUS NATURES AT ONE WITH US.
TWO HOURS BEFORE THE SETTING SUN, IN THE FULL DAYCYCLE BEFORE THE FULL OF THE MOON, WE WILL MEET AGAIN.
I AM MICHAEL
I HAVE ESTABLISHED YOUR ACQUAINTANCE & ACCEPT YOU. COME NEXT TIME IN YOUR OWN MANNER. SERVANTS WE ARE NOT.
I LEAVE NOW AS THE LIGHT LEAVES AND WIND MY PATH OVER ITS TRACK ON EARTH I AM A GUARDIAN OF THE LIGHT
LEAVE THIS FIRST OF THE FIRST TWO MEETINGS IN A CYCLE OF TWINNED MEETINGS IN A CYCLE OF TWELVE MOONS
LOOK! LOOK INTO THE RED EYE OF YOUR GOD!
III
SCRIPTS FOR THE PAGEANT
Il ne pouvait pas la quitter et lui avoua tout bas qu’il avait cassé le verve de Venise. Il croyait qu’elle allait le gronder, lui rappeler le pire. Mais restant aussi douce, elle l’embrassa et lui dit à l’oreille: “Ce sera comme au temple le symbole de l’indestructible union.”
Jean Santeuil
CONTENTS
Yes
Questions of Rank
The Second Visit
George on Birds
The Water Brother
The Earth Brother
The Shy Brother
Lesson 1: Primal Scenes
Lesson 2: Cave-Man and Lake-Dweller
Lesson 3:
How Much More?
Lesson 4: Of Suicide and a Pact in the Steam
Lesson 5: Meeting the Five
Lesson 6: Second Natures
Lesson 7: The Twelfth of It
Lesson 8: Heightened Senses
The Ascent to Nine
Lesson 9: Michael’s Fete
Lesson 10: Signals to the Galaxy
Wystan on God B’s Song
&
Samos
Two Deaths
A New Friend
Robert Taken Up
Lesson 1: Annals of Green
Lesson 2: The Monitor at Earth’s Heart
Lesson 3: A Brush with Nothing
Lesson 4: Madcap Muses
Lesson 5: The Lady of Sandover
Behind the Scenes
Plato Emerging
The Last Word on Number
A Metamorphosis Misfires
The House in Athens
No
Lesson 1: Black Magic
Lesson 2: Old Masters
Lesson 3: Oil for the Gears of Time
Lesson 4: Underground Testing
Lesson 5: The Wingèd Man
Lesson 6: Maria’s Secret
Making Song of It
Lesson 7: Wreathes Laid on Earth and Sea
Lesson 8: Angelic Designs
The Question Period
Lesson 9: Gabriel’s Masque
Lesson 10: God B His Mark
The Sermon at Ephesus
Appearances
Venetian Jottings
Exits and Entrances
Glimpses of the Future
Finale
SPEAKERS
God Biology, known also as God B
Nature, His twin. Known also as Psyche and Chaos
Michael, the Angel of Light
Emmanuel, the Water Angel. Known also as Elias
Raphael, the Earth Angel. Known also as Elijah
Gabriel, the Angel of Fire and Death
The Nine Muses
00, a senior officer in Gabriel’s legions
741, known also as the peacock Mirabell
The Five
Akhnaton
Homer
Montezuma
Nefertiti
Plato
Gautama
Jesus
Mercury
Mohammed
W. H. Auden
Maria Mitsotáki
George Cotzias
Robert Morse
Also The Architect of Ephesus, Marius Bewley, Maria Callas, Maya Deren, Kirsten Flagstad, Hans Lodeizen, Robert Lowell, Pythagoras, The Blessed Luca Spionari, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Richard Strauss, Alice B. Toklas, Richard Wagner, W. B. Yeats and Ephraim
Unice
David Jackson and JM, the mediums
YES
Yes. Cup glides from Board. Sun dwindles into Sound.
DJ and I look at each other. Well?
Yes, after all. The archangel
Did come to slovenly, earthbound
Us. And are we now washed crystalline?
(Not of curiosity:
We yearn for tomorrow’s inside story
From Maria and Wystan—what they won’t have seen!)
Nothing eludes the angel. And since light’s
Comings and goings in black space remain
Unobserved (storm-spattered midnight pane
Until resisted, a strange car ignites)
Why think to change our natures?
Whereupon
Both reach for cigarettes.
*
A new day—world transfigured yet the same—
We’re back at our old table. AWED MY DEARS
JM: Yes, Wystan? Help us picture it.
Our peacock had, I gather, coached you in
A little masque of Welcome? THERE IS NOTHING
COMPARABLE IN LIFE & RARELY IN ART
FIRST: THE WORD ALAS IS ‘COUNTENANCE’
Michael’s—like lightning, as the Bible says?
YES BEYOND THOUGHT WE BOTH FELL ON OUR KNEES
You too, Maman, who as a girl refused
To curtsey to your father’s guest, the King?
ENFANT LET WYSTAN TELL IT
IT REQUIRES
SOMETHING MORE THAN LANGUAGE MILD GLAD CRIES
AS IN THOSE MOMENTS WHEN AS NAUGHTY CHILDREN
EXPECTING PUNISHMENT WE WERE EMBRACED?
WINGS? NO & YET SUSPENDED WE LOOKED UP:
A GREAT ORIGINAL IDEA A TALL
MELTING SHINING MOBILE PARIAN SHEER
CUMULUS MODELED BY SUN TO HUMAN LIKENESS.
IN SUCH A PRESENCE WHO COULD EXERCISE
THE RIGHTS OF CURIOSITY: HAIR? EYES?
O IT WAS A FACE MY DEARS OF CALM
INQUIRING FEATURE FACE OF THE IDEAL
PARENT CONFESSOR LOVER READER FRIEND
& MORE, A MONUMENT TO CIVILIZED
IMAGINATION OURS? HIS? WHO CAN SAY?
ONLY, IF WE AS HUMANS HAVE CREATED
SUCH AN IMAGE THEN WE TOO ARE GREAT
The cup had moved so dreamily at first,
We thought we were losing him—until he spoke
Of Earth. MES ENFANTS FROM THE PAST A MOMENT
NATURALLY TRIVIAL IN COMPARISON
COMES BACK (so like Maria to explain
The miracle as if it were mundane)
WHEN I WAS 12 OR 13 VENIZELOS
HIS THOUGHTFUL SENTENCES ADDRESSED TO OTHERS
PRECEDED HIM: ‘THE GREAT PROPOSALS FOR GREECE
COME TO US FROM ON HIGH, FROM STRANGERS’ &
SO FORTH AND I FELT AS WITH THIS GOD
MICHAEL THAT WE WERE HEARING LOFTY WORDS
MANY TIMES UTTERED UNTIL (APPEARING) HE
BROUGHT AT LAST HIS MIND TO BEAR ON US
I MY DEARS FELT THE BOARD A SET OF NOTES
HE PRESENTLY GLANCED DOWN AT: 2 OR 3
MELODIOUSLY PITCHED & WITH THE TRUE
HOMERIC RESONANCE SUCH AN ENCOUNTER
IN LIFE WD HAVE MADE ONE ON THE INSTANT FREE
OF HABIT RITUAL ALL THAT BINDS, & NO
SIMPER OF ‘HOLINESS’ JUST THE HEAVENLY
BLAZING CALM ELATE INTELLIGENCE
“The red eye of your God”—did Michael mean
The sun was God? OR GOD’S ORGAN OF SIGHT
THE FOUNT OF ENDLESS VISIBILITIES.
NOW: DOES THE EYE CREATE THE OBJECT SEEN?
ONE TINY INKLING OF M’S MARVELOUS
PHILOSOPHIC VISTAS Lost on us!
DJ: He said next time we needn’t bother
With diet and deep breathing and the rest.
SUCH ROT ALL THAT SURPRISED OUR MIRABELL
DIDN’T HAVE OUT THE TINFOIL HALOS Tell
About his masque! THE ONLY MASQUE IN QUESTION
HID A BIRDBRAIN. HE OF COURSE HAD HAD
NOT THE FOGGIEST ‘GREAT DOORS’? THERE WERE NONE:
HIS (M) PERHAPS FOR CRUCIAL DISTANCING.
NO WONDER HE LIES ABASHED HEAD UNDER WING
LIKE A SWAN HIS CROWD U SEE (TO WHOM WE ARE
MERE FORMULAS) CANNOT CONCEIVE MAN’S EASY
LEAP ONTO THE OUTSTRETCHED PALM OF GOD,
CANNOT GRASP THAT ALL OUR LIVES ARE SPENT
IMAGINING SUCH A PRESENCE
NONETHELESS
OUGHTN’T WE ENFANTS TO STRETCH (NOBLESSE
&
nbsp; OBLIGE) A KINDLY HAND OUT TO OUR BIRD?
Yes, Mirabell, we love you. Come! HE STIRRED
Come, we need you! THAT’S IT HEAD UP! BRAVO
PLEASE GIVE YR MIRABELL A BIT OF TIME
HE IS AFRAID TO LOOK MY DEARS HE FANCIES
WE ARE TRANSFIGURED Mirabell, come on!
Is it true you’ve turned into a swan?
SHALL I? U JEST?
AH Y OUA RE REA L SOB LIN DINGT O ME ID O NO TSEE I
WILL GR OW USED THERE! NO SWAN ALAS BUT (ON THE OUTSIDE) YOUR
FOND PEACOCK STILL I HAVE BEEN ALLOWED NEW INFORMATION
THANKS TO YR SUCCESS MY SCHOOL IS NOW CHARTERED! TOMORROW
*
Questions of Rank
Mirabell’s information deals with Nature,
And high time. But first, the other day,
His wise old teacher, 00 as we call him
—Batman to Mirabell’s Robin, says DJ—
Had he been present?
O NO NONE OF OURS NO NO
You first said he would be.
WELL I WAS NOT THERE & AM
NOT U UNDERSTAND OF HIS HIGH RANK
The One in question intervenes—are all
These voices henceforth at our beck and call?
00: WE WERE FIVE
(Just that, and goes.) He was there, Mirabell!
HE HAS SAID SO
Forgive us for insisting. Now the news?
NATURE IS MISTRESS OF THE ROBES MATTER,
HER MATERIAL ITS CUT & STYLE, HER CEREMONY
WHO IS FOREVER CHANGING THE COSTUMES OF EARTH, OF MAN’S
VERY FLESH TO SUIT HER NEEDS & HIS. LET ME PUT IT AS
FORCEFULLY AS I CAN: THE SOCALLD ‘SUPERNATURAL’
DOES NOT EXIST. SHE IS NUMBER 2 PERSON
You’re mastering the Fem Lib idiom.
O I TRY
ALWAYS TO BE A LA PAGE AS MERCURY WE ARE THE
GOBETWEEN. YET IN PERSONIFYING MATTER/MATER
YOU MUST REMEMBER THAT MATTER IS NOT ALL, BUT OBEYS
THE DIVINE RATIO 88:12
Our strong point, Mirabell, has never been
Your Math. Now will the Twelve personified