The Changing Light at Sandover

by James Merrill

  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

  THE FLOOD IT PUT OUT THE FIRE 6: ORGANIC MATTER

  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