The Changing Light at Sandover

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The Changing Light at Sandover Page 24

by James Merrill


  WAS PUT IN NEFERTITI’S HAND AS THE IDEA FOR

  ITS USE OCCURRD TO HER. GOD B IN INFINITE PITY

  LET THEM GO FROM THEIR AGONY OF V WORK WITH THEIR WORLD

  AS A BURNING SHROUD AKHNATON AT THE END SLEPT ONLY

  DRUGGD, NEF NOT AT ALL HER IMMENSE KOHLRINGD EYES BLAZED ABOVE

  THE WORKMEN DAY & NIGHT AT THE END IT WAS SHE WHO DREW

  THE KNIFE OVER THEIR 4 WRISTS. SHE IS NOW OUR (M) PATRON:

  DREW UP THE FIRST V WORK SCHEDULES SET ORDER IN THE LAB

  How so?

  THEIR COMPLEX FORMULA INCLUDED A PARTIAL 00.

  WOMEN HAVE THE EGG IN THEM U KNOW IT IS OFTEN THRU

  A WOMAN THAT THE POWER ELEMENT FULFILS ITSELF.

  AKHN/NEF OUTLIVED BY ONE FATAL YEAR THEIR USEFULNESS WE

  CALL THEM FAVORD AS GOD B PERCEIVING THEIR FINAL GREAT

  FOLLY ALLOWD IT THEY WERE THE GENIUS & & &

  THE WARNING

   One nature dual to the end…

   AN ODD FEATURE OF THEIR COURT WAS THE ABSENCE

  OF THE COLOR BLUE A NOTE THEIR MUSICIANS HAD ALSO

  ELIMINATED FROM THE SCALE THE RIVER WAS DYED RED.

  ONE DAY AN AMBASSADOR APPEARD A BLACK KING IN A

  BRILLIANT BLUE ROBE AKHNATON & NEFERTITI FAINTED

  AS U JM NEARLY DID AT THE SIGHT OF THAT BLUE CAKE!

  7.3

  When usefulness is past—I’m thinking of

  Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane crashing—all you do

  Is touch a little switch that terminates?

  THIS OUR PENULTIMATE LESSON THE END OF USEFULNESS:

  NATURE IS A RUTHLESS FORCE AT ONCE FECUND & LAZY.

  AS A FAVORITE SLAVE WHO IN A SENSE KEEPS THE GREENHOUSE

  GREEN IF UNTIDY SHE HAS GOD’S EAR HE HAS TOLD HER MAN

  MUST RULE YET MAN USES SCIENCE TO PROLONG NATURE’S SPAN

  SO CONSTANT TENSION HARD UPON AKHN/NEF’S CATASTROPHE

  NATURE REVENGED HERSELF WITH TIDAL WAVE & VOLCANO,

  SAYS LEGEND & IN ALL LEGEND IS THE LAVA OF TRUTH

  What is her good word—Be ordinary?

  THIS IS THE ISSUE & THE ESSENCE OF GOD B’S NEED FOR

  THE SCRIBE. BENIGN NATURE IS LIMITED TO PROFUSION.

  GOD WANTS BOTH HIS CHILD & HIS SLAVE TO GET ON TOGETHER

  BUT MAN WANTS IMMORTALITY & NATURE WANTS MANURE.

  MAN UNKNOWINGLY SAVAGES THE NATURE AROUND HIM

  & NATURE RETALIATES BY REPEATING MAN AS IN

  A DISTORTING MIRROR SO THE STRUGGLE GOES. GOD WANTING

  PEACE & PARADISE MUST RELUCTANTLY TAKE FROM NATURE

  MAN’S REPRODUCTION & LEAVE ONLY HIS ENVIRONMENT

  TO HER THIS IS WHERE WE COME IN TO THIN & PRUNE & CLONE

  WE HAVE SD B4 THAT SOULS PRECIOUS TO US LIKE EINSTEIN

  OUTLIVE THEIR USEFULNESS SO ANOTHER DUALITY:

  MIND AS USEFULNESS DECAYS TO MIND AS NONUSEFULNESS

  & WE NOW SEEK LICENSE FROM GOD B TO REVEAL SOMETHING

  OF HEAVEN TO THOSE SOULS WE NEED BACK

  You’re doing that already. Look at Jung’s

  Account of his near death. In every way

  More telling than the country-sweeping book

  D found in Boston—interviews with people

  “Brought back alive,” as to some local zoo,

  From the Beyond. All no doubt true, but what

  People! Not a Lab soul in the lot.

            INDEED NOT U HAVE

  SEEN THE DANGER OF OUR NEW EXPERIMENT? USEFUL SOULS

  FLOCKING TO US A SUICIDAL EXODUS OF YOUTH

  SMARTING UNDER THE LASH OF NATURE’S LAW: MATE PROPAGATE

  & DIE. SO UNTIL WE CONT NO NO NO UNTIL GOD B

  CONTROLS THOSE GROWING PAINS WE MUST REVEAL WITH DISCRETION

  & ONLY TO THOSE WHO LIKE YOU 4 ARE SAFELY PAST THEM

  MES ENFANTS NAUGHTY NATURE!

    WE MY DEARS

  LEARNED IT AT THE BREAST THE SHEWOLF’S TEAT!

  JM: Don’t talk that way! Who can compete

  With Nature? She’s Mind’s equal. Not a slave

  But mother, sister, bride. I think we’re meant

  To save that marriage, be the kids who stay

  Together for their parents’ sake. DJ:

  Who wrote “The Broken Home”? No accident!

  7.4

  FOOTNOTE: SOUNDWAVES PRODUCE COLORS ARE U AWARE OF THE

  NUMERICAL VIBES THAT RESOUND IN CERTAIN LETTERS? JEW

  THE J’S NUMBER IN MOST ROMAIC & SLAVIC TONGUES: 10

  E:5 JEW RINGS WITH THE COMBIND FORCES OF THE DECAD

  & OF THE 5

  7.41

  WE NOW COME TO YR ?S ON THE 5.

  IN SEEKING TO USE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN OUR

  RESPECTIVE LANGUAGES I MAY HAVE OVERDRAMATIZED.

  FOR EXAMPLE MANMADE NUMBERS (MILLIONS TRILLIONS) ARE CRUDE

  FIGURES OF SPEECH TO EXPRESS WHAT FOR MAN IS NUMBERLESS.

  PHYSICISTS HAVE NOW DISCOVERD THERE IS NO NUMBER 1.

  AS .999999999 IT TREMBLES

  ON A DIGIT CENTRAL TO THEIR LOGIC THUS WE MAY ERR

  OR SIMPLIFY IN OUR NEED TO AWAKEN YR TALENTS

  THERE ARE 2 CHIEF DENSITIES: PHYSICAL & OF THE SOUL.

  THE SENSES SERVE AS A LINK BETWEEN THEM BUT FOR THE REST

  5 IS NOT EASILY ILLUMINED I NOW SEE THAT I

  HAVE MADE AT ONCE TOO MUCH & TOO LITTLE OF THIS MAGIC

  PENTAGRAM UNDERLYING THE ENTIRE DUAL REALM

  OF DENSITY 4 SEASONS & 1 SUN: 5 SUN ENTERS

  & IS STORED IN THE GREEN LEAF & BLADE BECOMING A NEAT

  5TH SEASON FOR NATURE’S DENSITIES (VEG ETC) & OURS (SOUL)

  DO NOT EXCLUDE EACH OTHER THE 4 ELEMENTS SHE BINDS

  EXCHANGE (AS WE IN OUR LITTLE SEMINAR) PROPERTIES:

  WATER & FIRE ARE PART AIR, BLOWN DUST AN AIRY EARTH

  & JUST AS NATURE RULES THESE, SO LIGHT & THE 00 RULE

  THE COLORS YET NATURE MEASURED ON THE FAIR SCALES OF LIGHT

  IS OF AN INFERIOR RANK SHE & HER ELEMENTS

  WD FAIL WITHOUT LIGHT & ITS COLORS, AS WE WHO APPROACH

  THE DWELLING PLACE OF LIGHT NOW BEGIN TO SEE NATURE IS

  SO VAST AN OPERATION WE CANNOT UTTER EVEN

  IN NUMBERS HER WAYS, SO IT IS NO CLICHE BUT MERE TRUTH

  TO SAY: THE MALE REIGNS IN NUMBER, THE FEMALE IN NATURE

  Cup moving faster and faster, quite carried away—

  Is he OK, our mathematics master?

  IN NATURE YES IS VIOLENCE AS HER FRIENDLY RIVALS

  WE ASK OF HER ONLY HER LEAST COMPETITIVE FORCES

  BUT SHE DOES NOT ALWAYS COMPLY AS U YRSELVES WILL SEE

  WHEN SHE COMES TO U

  Here the cup sweeps—is swept?—clear off the Board

  Into the wings, a single violent swerve.

  7.5

  Moments later, we get back our nerve:

  WELL COUGH COUGH WIPE MY EYES DEAR ME WE’VE GROWN

  TOO (HOW DID U PUT IT CHER COLLEAGUE)

  COMPLACENT? NONCHALANT? YR EARLY POEM

  ABOUT THE OTHER WORLD I don’t quite see…

  ‘WHY DO U NO LONGER COME TO ME’

  YR DC AT THE END That’s Nature talking.

  EXACTLY OUR CHAP SAYING SHE’D COME TO U

  WAS HAULED OFFSTAGE BY A HOOK LIKE A BAD TAP

  DANCER ON AMATEUR NIGHT We haven’t lost him?

  —Question that gets a very cross reply:

  HE WILL RETURN & NOW WE LEAVE U

  That was 00! Maman? UNDER MY SEATr />
  Surely Nature had a friend in you?

  SHE DID NOT WHEN I TRIED TO GROW CAMELLIAS

  THE SLUT Oh hush—I mean, she’s not a slave!

  THE 1003RD NIGHT MY BOY? Well, yes,

  Put it that way. Sultan Biology,

  Held by her beauty and inventiveness,

  Comes to love— INDEED AD NAUSEAM

  Why is everyone so anti-Nature?

  ENFANTS LETS SLIP OUT FOR A SMOKE & SCRAM

  DJ: No one’s upset about our peacock?

  Tomorrow we can’t meet. I have to go

  Early to Boston for a check-up. so

  NOW ITS CLEAR: ANOTHER TRIAL HE PASSED

  B4 THIS TIME WE’LL MAKE HIS COLORFAST!

  7.6

  Free evening, and an hour in which to write

  My mother—free, half sober, quite alone—

  Or why not telephone?…

  Let, instead, the stardeck’s otherworldly light

  Call me. Up there’s the stratosphere

  Of (how to put it) Mind, that battiness

  Chose over some maternal Nature’s less

  Perfectly imagined realm down here

  Of random tide and gale, of sweet and bitter

  She calls home. Sent spinning by her kiss,

  Did we choose artifice,

  The crust, the mirror meal? Could we devise no better

  Than that the argent grub consume us?

  That, safe here, where security is vain,

  We be delivered from her clinging vine

  And the forgiving smother of her humus?

  Once out of nature, a mercurial

  Inch, look back! Sea, jungle, alpine snow,

  Buff desert far below

  Alternate by “turns” as in a music hall.

  So distanced, it could be the way

  Of our own world, as the fops in Congreve knew

  With their strut and plumage—ah! mightn’t Mirabell do

  For our peacock’s name?—and flowery word play

  Based on her wee wild orchid in bumblebee

  Motley, her anthology pieces that led

  Back through such juicy red

  Volumes to seed. All this is eminently me—

  Not that the faint alarm pre-set

  In “Strato’s fear of mind” goes off upon

  Impulses pure as those of the snowflake pun

  She utters when her mood is zero. Yet

  I’m taken in no more than half. The somber

  Fact is, I remain, like any atom,

  Two-minded. Inklings of autumn

  Awaken a deep voice within the brain’s right chamber

  Asking her: “What have you done with

  My books, my watch and compass, my slide-rule?

  Will you, whom I married once for real,

  Take back your maiden name now, Mrs Myth?”

  She answers with a tug of the old magnet,

  Making me look up from where I sit.

  Cocked to those infinite

  Spangled thinnesses whose weave gosling and cygnet

  Have learned already in the shell,

  The mind’s ear registers her vocalise.

  Flagstad herself had no such notes as these

  Of lashing hail and rapturous farewell.

  I’ve dialed. A humming black dust eats the mirror,

  Stardust in negative, between the rings.

  Ah God, a thousand things

  Could have happened, where is she, my heart contracts in terror

  —But no, she answers. And a spate

  Of what she still calls news (weddings and weather)

  Sweeps me away, bemused, glad to be with her,

  Communing where we don’t communicate.

  7.7

  10 DAYS OF YR TIME AHEAD WE GIVE U BACK 741

  Thank you, 00. A silence. Very feebly:

  QUESTIONS?

  Peacock, what’s wrong?

  I AM HERE I AM MORE CAREFUL

  Poor darling, were you punished?

       WE MUST GO ON

  THE WORST IS BEHIND US OUR JOINT OPERATION PRONOUNCED

  A SUCCESS WE COME NEXT (& LAST) TO A RESTORATIVE

  REVIEW OF ALL U HAVE UNDERGONE YR NEEDS WILL DICTATE

  ITS TEN LESSONS NUMBERD IN REVERSE MUCH AS THE EAGER

  CONVALESCENT COUNTS THE DAYS THAT SEPARATE HIM FROM HIS

  RELEASE INTO LIGHT LESSON 5, A SIMPLE PROTOCOL,

  WILL BE DELIVERD BY AN (M) ORDERLY IN WHITE

  JM: Our first angel, oh my word! DJ:

  But what did you do wrong the other day—

  Speak against Nature? PLEASE

   Won’t we ever hear?

  SOME OTHER TIME I AM (I MAY SAY) IN EXCELLENT VOICE!

  REMEMBER U 4 TIRE SO WE HAD TO CHOOSE A POINT

  IN OUR TALKS WHEN A NEEDED & (PARDON) NATURAL BREAK

  WD OCCUR THE NEXT WILL COME BETWEEN LESSONS 2 AND 1.

  NOW LET US SAY TO OURSELVES ONE WORD WHEN I POINT TO :

  PLEASE

  The cup points to the colon. Please, we think.

  SO HERE I AM! O JOY I HAVE BACK MY FINERY!

  MES ENFANTS HE HAD NOT BEEN VISIBLE

  ONLY HIS VOICE

  GONE LIKE A ROMAN CANDLE

  POOR FELLOW VICTIM HERE AS WHO IS NOT

  OF HIERARCHY HE OVERSTEPPED & GOT

  CALLED IN I FANCY FOR A CUP OF TEA

  WITH THE HEADMASTER

  MEANWHILE HERE WE SIT

  IN GLOOM NO LIGHTS & WHEN I THINK HOW PRETTY

  THOSE RAINBOW BEAMS HAD MADE US

     HOW STARTLING TOO

  WILL BE THE WHITE SPOT IF & WHEN IT COMES!

  Shall we try thinking Please again? It worked

  Just now. It even worked for Tinker Bell

  In Peter Pan. The audience applauding

  Its own belief in fairies (and in kitsch)

  Restored her glimmer to the nursery niche.

  One, two, three, all together— Please!

      MES CHERS

  QUELLE SUDDEN RADIANCE And Ephraim, quel

  Unexpected treat to find you here!

  What’s new? HAVE U TIME FOR A STORY? Yes, do tell!

  GOOD IT WILL DEMONSTRATE THE MECHANISM:

  MILANO. FESTIVALE. WORKINGCLASS

  NEIGHBORHOOD. PLUMP WOMEN & RELUCTANT

  DRESSED UP TEENAGERS WITH SLICKED DOWN HAIR.

  BEATA LUCA’S SIDEALTAR A BLAZE

  OF FLOWERS & CANDLES. SCENE SHIFT: BLACKEST HEAVEN,

  COLLOQUY OF SAINTS. ‘PEAK AGATHA!’

  (WITH AT HER ELBOW U KNOW WHO: MM)

  AG: SISTERS, BRETHREN, ONE BEATA L

  BEGS LEAVE TO VISIT HIS LOYAL WORSHIPPERS…

  CHORUS OF NAYS! AG:…WITH THE POET KALLMAN.

  CHORUS OF SHRIEKS! BEATA: MA LO VOGLIO!

  NEW VOICE: PERMESSO? MM STEPPING FORWARD

  GIVES BRILLIANT SPEECH BEGINNING ‘PERCHE NO?’

  SCENE SHIFT: PLUMP WOMEN STUNNED, TEENAGERS WIDEEYED

  WATCH ONE TALL CANDLE LEVITATE & BE BLOWN

  OUT! A DISTANT PAIR OF VOICES RINGS

  WITH (AS CK PUT IT) BALLSY LAUGHTER.

  LUCA’S CULT SETS OFF A STREET RIOT. 2

  POLICEMEN INJURED. LUCA CREDITED

  WITH SOOTHING ONE OF SEVERE PAIN IN GROIN.

  MM HAULED ONTO MAT. L’S CASE PLACED UNDER

  EVEN CLOSER SCRUTINY & CK’S

  STAMPED ‘FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION’ 10 MORE DAYS
/>   7.8

  I AM REPROVED & REDEEMD BY YR GOOD OFFICES. WE

  MUST NEVER PERSONIFY THE FORCES WE DO NOT KNOW

  You warned us about that. We go right on—

  Look at my starstruck hymn to Mother N!

  THE STUFF (IS THAT THE WORD?) OF YR WORK JM IS ONE THING

  And of yours another, granted. But God B?

  You make a person of Him constantly.

  AH NATURE IS FAMOUS FOR TOWERING & TOUCHY PRIDE,

  GOD B THE HUMBLEST OF US ALL: HE KNOWS HIS RANK

  A thoughtful pause. Then JM: Mirabell!

  We haven’t asked you, do you like your name?

  INDEED

  IT QUITE SUITS THE PERSON U HAVE MADE OF ME HAS SOMETHING

  OF THE MIRACLE? THE MIRAGE? & SURELY OF THE PLUM!

  NOW B4 US LIE OUR TEN RECUPERATIVE LESSONS

  10: SOUL WE HAVE LEARND IT EXISTS IT IS IN THE LAB WHEN

  OF A CERTAIN VALUE, IN THE BUREAUCRACY WHEN NOT.

  SOUL NEEDS A BODY TO BE USEFUL HENCE MAN IS NEEDED.

  SOUL IS AN INVENTION OF THIS 3RD WORLD MAN HAVING BEEN

  CHOSEN BY GOD TO EVOLVE FROM THE SUBSIDING WATERS

  HIS SOUL WAS PERFECTED, 12 P/C ENTRUSTED TO THE

  ANGELS, THE REST TO WORKERS SUCH AS WE. WE SET ABOUT

  MAKING THE SUPPORTIVE (M) BASE OF THE SOUL THIS WORK DREW

  ON ENERGY SOURCES U KNOW UNDER THE LOOSE HEADING:

  DENSITY. THEY STEM FROM THE 4 ELEMENTS BUT THE 5TH

  & RULING ELEMENT IS NOT OURS TO USE. WE USED (I

  SPEAK ONLY OF THE FIRST SIMPLE SOUL WE CONSTRUCTED &

  PLACED IN THE EARTHBOUND APE) WE USED THE ENERGIES OF SALT

  & OF (IN PARTICULAR CONFINED PLACES, WITH SAFEGUARDS)

  THE HEAVY ELEMENTS: TOUCHES GOD B PERMITTED US

  OF OUR ANCESTRAL POWER, BUT LOCKD INTO A STRUCTURE

  WHICH IF OPEND MEANS DESTRUCTION. WE PRODUCED IN A WORD

  A SERVICEABLE SOUL. IT GUARDED MAN & ESTABLISHD

  HIM AS A SPECIES APART PROUD UNABLE TO REVERT

  THAT FIRST SOUL (WE SIMPLIFYING WILL CALL THE BASIC SOUL)

  WE SLIPT INTO AN APE FETUS THAT RARE SINGLE CREATURE

  AFTER 1 MORE VISIT COVERD IN BLINDING LIGHT CAME FORTH.

 

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