The Changing Light at Sandover
Page 26
WE BELIEVE THE ONE UNSPOKEN REVELATION MUST DWELL
IN THE NUMBER 5 WE ARE NOT UNAWARE THAT U FELT
OUR EXPLANATION OF NUMBERS INADEQUATE. DEATH IS
SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE FOG OF 5. AS PALACE SLAVES WE ARE
NOT ALLOWD IN ALL ROOMS
You get vibrations from the number five?
(M) YES
DJ: I thought his number was fourteen.
JM: But one and four make five. Oh, by the way,
Your entourage—still fewer every day?
Instant nervousness from Mirabell:
WHA, CALL THE TUNE!
TOO SHYMAKING CONFRERE DON’T U AGREE
TO SPEAK O WELL HERE GOES EXTEMPORE:
TOMORROW THE RULES COMMITTEE IS GOING TO SIT
ON PLATFORMS NOTHING IF NOT DEFINITE
Rules are the topic? YES DID U LIKE MY COUPLET?
First rate! so APT FOR THE OCCASIONAL
These posthumous ephemera, Lord knows,
Will keep your fans and critics on their toes.
BURN THESE ! Maria…? RAVISHING IN YELLOW
ENFANTS MES VRAIS ENFANTS How childishly,
You mean, we sit and banter at your knee
After our lessons? NO NO I AM FREE
OF ALL OLD BLOOD TIES & CONNECT MY LIFE
WITH YOURS
WHICH MAKES ME? Careful, this begins
To smack of incest— WE ARE NOT YET TWINS
8.3
6: AS WITH MAN, SO WITH THE GOVT OF HEAVEN GOD B MADE
HIS LAW OF SURVIVAL & IT IS THE BASIS OF OUR
EVER HEAVIER V WORK WE IMPLEMENT A SYSTEM
OF RULES WHICH GOVERN US & YOU THESE NOT OBEYD WD GIVE
CHAOS A WEDGE &, NOT UNDERSTOOD, HAVE TURND OUR LESSONS
THE COLOR OF CHAOS IN YR MINDS. OUR DELEGATED
V WORK IS SUCH THAT WE MUST LOOK NEITHER RIGHT NOR LEFT NOR
UP NOR DOWN BUT WORK AT OUR OWN LEVEL IN A COMPLEX
HIERARCHY. THUS WEATHER IS THE PROVINCE OF NATURE &
SIGNALS MESSAGES THE TRANSPORTING & DELIVERY
OF SOULS, OURS: WE ARE MERCURY
Mercury—of course! How simplewitted
Never, never to have thought of it.
RULE 1: MAKE KNOWN TO MAN
THE SURVIVAL CLAUSE. WE MAY NOT USE THE EERIE PORTENTS
BELONGING TO NATURE, BUT THRU GENES & PSYCHE’S EYESCOPE
EMIT OUR MESSAGE OF SURVIVAL IT INCREASINGLY
GOES UNHEARD MAN IS AMOK & CHAOS SLIPS IN (UPON
COLLAPSE, IN INTELLIGENT MEN, OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF).
NOW GOD B ACCEPTS NO BLAME LAID ON HIS DARLING MANCHILD
SO WE SHIFT THE SCENERY MANIPULATE & ENFORCE
RULES UNKNOWN TO MAN YET SPRINGING SEEMINGLY FROM HIS OWN
SURE SELF WE PLUNGE DEEP INTO THE ATOM WITHIN HIS CELLS
& THERE BEGIN SLOWLY HAULING THE SLUDGE OF DISBELIEF
AWAY & CARRYING IN THE GERM OF REASON: WE CLEAN
OUT THE WINECELLAR
As we this morning pumped the muddy mess
And put our salvaged bottles back—yes, yes!
THIS IS ALL (M) WE DO OUR V WORK
IN A MULTIPLE OF FORMULAS & STEP BACK TO SEE
IF MAN STANDS TO ATTENTION WHEN THE RULES ARE CALLD ALAS
ONLY A SMALL PER CENT IS HEARD & ACTED UPON. THUS
ATOMIC TESTING HAS MOVED UNDERGROUND
INDEED MY DEARS! YR MOTHER’S SOUFFLE FALLS
QUITE FLAT & CRACKS GAPE IN HER KITCHEN WALLS
THIS TOO MUST CEASE
SO NATURE BRINGS OUT HER EARTHQUAKE & MAN AT LAST WILL STOP
PLAYING WITH HIS DANGEROUS NEW POPGUN. THE ATOM MUST
BE RETURND TO THE LAB & THE USES OF PARADISE
THIS IS NO AGE FOR EASY REVELATION. NO SINGLE
PROPHET CD BE HEARD EVEN THE SCRIBE WORKING TO GENTLY
CURB GENTLY PERSUADE IS CONFINED BY SPECIALIZATION:
A MERE 2 MILLION CLONED SOULS LISTEN TO EACH OTHER WHILE
OUTSIDE THEY HOWL & PRANCE SO RECENTLY OUT OF THE TREES.
& SO FOR U THE HARDEST RULE: THE RULE OF THE RULERS.
POLITICIANS HAVE LED MAN DOWN A ROAD WHERE HE BELIEVES
ALL IS FOR ALL THIS IS THE FOOL’S PARADISE ALL WILL BE
FOR ALL ONLY WHEN ALL IS UNDERSTOOD. THE NUMBERS OF
MAN IN PARADISE WILL BE DETERMIND BY THE LIMITS
HE SETS ON HIS OWN NUMBERS, & WHEN THE RULE OF NUMBER
IS OBEYD BEYOND THE SMALL CIRCLE OF THE 2 MILLION.
2 CHILDREN PER COUPLE: IS IT NOT A SIMPLE RULE? YES.
IS IT UNDERSTOOD? NO. & NOW U SEE HOW RAPIDLY
& INTENTLY WE MUST WORK IN OUR FRIENDLY RIVALRY
WITH NATURE FOR NATURE IS IMPATIENT: CLEAR OUT THE TREES!
KNOCK DOWN THE FLIMSY CITIES KILL OFF THE EXCESS MILLIONS
START FRESH! BUT GOD B’S CHILD IS UNAWARE OF HIS FATHER’S
GRAND DESIGN. IMAGINING ONLY THAT THE GAP MUST BE
FILLD, HE RESPONDS TO NATURE’S OTHER SIGNAL: REPRODUCE!
SO GOD B ORDERS US: CORRECT THE SIGNAL. FOR BETTER
OR WORSE WE HAVE MADE YR COUNTRY THE EXAMPLE SETTER.
THE PILL IS OURS & THE USES OF FASHION (UNISEX)
& THE REVOLT OF THE FEMALE THESE ARE THE NEW RULES &
THE SLAVISH COPYING OF THEM, HOWEVER OBNOXIOUS
TO NATURE, MUST WORK ITS WAY UNTIL, BALANCED FROM WITHIN,
MAN LEARNS TO RULE HIS NATURAL COMPULSIONS. THERE NOW! OUR
PATIENT SURVIVES A PEEK IN THE NURSE’S MIRROR: PALE &
HOLLOWCHEEKD BUT NO FEVER: CLEARLY ON THE MEND ?S
DJ: I’ve been so starved for candy lately—
A natural compulsion?
INDEED U NEED ENERGY OF A RAW SORT THE HARDEST
WORK IN THE FIELDS OF V WORK IS PREPARING THE WORKER
JM: Moreso
Than setting this in order? I don’t know…
COURAGE JM YOU HAVE SET DOWN ONLY ONE OF THE 3
TAPS OF THE CURTAINRAISING STAFF (FIRM & FORMAL AS THE
SHAKEDOWN OF OUR THERMOMETER) ON WITH THE COMEDY!
HE NODS ONCE MORE TO ME MY DEARS & SO:
NEXT ON THE MORROW
WE SHALL PRESUME TO BORROW
AN ENTRANCE CARD TO HEAVEN FOR US ALL
BY SIMPLE USE OF PROTOCOL
DJ: No Mirabell tomorrow—who’ll
Take his place, I wonder? WE DON’T ASK
These funny verses? JM: It’s a masque.
INDEED MM IN BLUE FOR REASON & RULE
TOOTLES AWAY ON HER ENCHANTING FLUTE
You her Tamino, Wystan! YES MY DEARS
OUR TRIALS BY FIRE YIELD TO THE TRIAL BY TEARS
Are you still being stripped? I’VE LOST THAT HALF
EMBARRASSED NEED TO MAKE THE OTHERS LAUGH
And are you pleased to lose it? PLEASED TO BE
MES ENFANTS AS THEY WANT US
8.4
Mercury!
With new eyes we confront the mirror,
Look beyond ourselves. Does he appear?
Never plainer, never more hidden, his glassy
Foyer, his permeable impasse.
Reason might argue that to enforce our absence
Upon it wipes the gleaming slab
Of him as well. Instead, this quasi-
Liverish cloud betrays
A presence hitherto unseen; this acne,
Not yet disfiguring, points to…a black
Alter ego? an alchemical Jekyll
Mappin
g the orbit of the long, long trek
Back? To what? Life after life leaves uncompleted
The full reversal. Dust under their feet
We’ll be, that hypothetical last couple’s
With new eyes gazing where their cup
Runs over, where the fruit of infelicity,
Once glittering whole, has rotted away to this
Inky pit the old personal silver
Barely scurfs. Ah but by then the lord of chill
And fever will have lit, askance courier,
Upon the wall of your or your or your
Unbuilt house. You will at his convenience
Have glimpsed among thousands the five or seventeen
Or forty year-old self consigned like raiment
Worn only once, on such-and-such a day,
To the hope chest that cramps and crystallizes
The secret backward flow. Conniving eyes—
A star-swift glance exchanged—you’ve yielded.
And will his lord now come to claim the field?
8.5
GREETINGS!
THE APPROACH OF OUR MASTER IS ACCOMPANIED BY A CEREMONY OF MANNERS, THIS BY VIRTUE OF HIS GREAT WISDOM AND HIS HIGH POWER.
WE WILL ASK OF YOU YOUR CLOSE AND SILENT ATTENTION. BEFORE, YOU WILL SPEND A FULL DAYCYCLE EATING NO MEAT AND KEEPING FREE OF ALL MINDAFFECTING CHEMICALS. THIS WILL INCLUDE THE USE OF ALCOHOL AND NICOTINE.
WE WISH FOR YOUR UNCLOUDED REASON AND EXPECT YOUR TOTAL REVERENCE.
OUR MASTER IS BENIGN AND MERCIFUL. HE IS THE CHOSEN MESSENGER OF OUR UNIVERSAL GOD. HE WILL COME WITH A SINGLE DAYCYCLE OF WARNING, AND BE PRESENT TO YOU DURING THE ONE HOUR PREVIOUS TO THE SETTING SUN.
HIS MESSAGE WILL BE RECEIVED BEST ON THIS ALPHABET UNCLUTTERED BY OTHER OBJECTS.
HE IS NOW READYING HIMSELF AND WILL APPROACH YOUR CENTER BEFORE THE NEXT MOONCYCLE. HE IS OF HIGH STATION AND HAS HAD HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
QUESTIONS?
ADIEU!
A GREAT BEAUTY MY DEARS! A BLAKE! SERENE
MORE THAN HUMAN FEATURES WHITE WINGS TIPPED
BY THE FOUR COLORS! ALWAYS KNEW BLAKE HAD SEEN
SOMETHING THE CURIOUS ASEXUAL
QUALITY: THE VOICE A MAN’S BUT O!
MELODIOUS & RAVISHING WE WEPT
IN OUR RED ROBES
& VANISHED MES ENFANTS
BUT FOR OUR WET FACES INTO YOUR WALLS
He came alone? YES The lighting? WHITE
WE ARE STILL BLINDED BY IT GONE, THE 4
COLORS HAVE SUFFUSED THE ROOM No fear?
ONLY GREAT AND MIRACULOUS RELIFE
Relief? BOTH BOTH IF WE ARE CAPABLE OF THIS
WHY NOT OF EVERYTHING? O LORD HOW ONE
DESPISES UNGRATEFUL WILLFULLY IGNORANT MAN!
“Despise”—is that the lesson? ITS UNGRATEFUL
AFTERMATH MY DEARS IT WAS A MOMENT
Now if we can only help DJ
To stay sane without smoking one whole day.
THEY WILL SEE TO THAT DJ: No meat—
That’s no great hardship. We can always eat
Fish, don’t you think? JM: There you go, straightway
Looking for loopholes. DJ: That’s not fair!
I’m your right hand, I’m on the side of life!
HE MY DEAR IS IS IS THE SIDE OF LIFE:
THE SOURCE OF LIGHT THE VERY POLLEN OF
THE POWER PLANT An archangel? WELL NO
& YET I RATHER THINK JM THAT WE
WILL PRESENTLY WILL PR WILL P P P
—Gently kept from finishing his piece
And, like a toddler, led into the wings.
8.6
4: THE SOURCE OF LIGHT WHEN WHA IDENTIFIED YR
VOICE OF YESTERDAY AS BELONGING TO THE S/O/L
HE WAS CORRECT WHAT U HEARD CAME TO US AS A WHISPER
THRU WALLS & WE SAW NOTHING, FOR SUCH A FORM IS ONLY
TO HUMAN MINDS IMAGINABLE. THUS THE S/O/L
IS ROOTED IN THE LIVED LIFE ONLY MAN RECEIVES GOD B’S
MAIN MAGIC: IMAGINATIVE POWER THE APECHILD FIRST
HAD TO IMAGINE THE THIRSTQUENCHING VIRTUE OF WATER
& GOD ALONE CD PRODUCE THAT IMAGE. HIS ANIMAL
STEPBROTHER BLITHELY FORESOOK THE TEAT FOR THE WATER HOLE,
BUT BASIC MAN’S 1ST STEPS WERE TAKEN IN HIS MIND THERE4
WE KNEW HE HAD COME FROM THE S/O/L THIS IS WHERE? WHAT?
WE KNOW ITS POWER EMBODIED IN MAN BUT KEPT FROM US
IS ITS FULL MYSTERY WHICH IS AN AIR WE CANNOT BREATHE.
WE DO NOT PUT OUR EARS TO THE WALL LEST WE PERISH FROM
AN UNKNOWN GRIEF YR VISITOR MUST BE OF A BEAUTY
BEYOND IMAGINING & HE ONLY A MESSENGER!
MY BRAVE GETUP IS RIDICULOUS IN THIS LIGHT HE BROUGHT
Not to us. Our poor imaginations,
For better or worse, provided it.
AH U ARE EVERREADIERHow so?
YR KINDNESS ONE IS QUITE
TIMID ABOUT REAPPEARING AFTER WHAT U HAVE SEEN
& TASTED (SOLID FOOD AT LAST: YR RELEASE DRAWS NEARER)
I WILL HOWEVER GO ON BRINGING IN THE COPYBOOKS
& BETWEEN LESSONS 2 & 1 WE’LL HAVE A SCHOOL PICNIC!
—This last all happy eagerness. DJ:
Was our room insulated for that visit?
O NO THE S/O/L IS OF THE ELECTRICAL &
RULING WORLD
JM: Our lessons’ backward numbering
Helps just to dramatize our “convalescence”?
THAT PLUS THEIR INDUCTIVE NATURE IF THEY MOVED
AS THEY DO FOR US, FROM DIVINE CONCEPT RADIATING
HEALTH TO THE POOR INVALID PARTICULAR, HOW WD U
EVER GET WELL? EVER GRASP THE CONCEPT?
Soul, poorest of particulars? Although
We’re getting used—and being used—to set
Less store upon such trivia, you forget
How slow we are, dear Mirabell, how slow!
IS NOT THE SOUL
IN ITS TRANSIT & CHANGE LIKE THE PSYCHE IN DAILY LIFE?
DO U NOT, ALONE, WEAR ONE FACE? WITH OTHERS, ANOTHER?
SPIRIT & SOUL MY BOY LIKE GEIST & SEELE
DON’T CONFUSE EM! READY FOR THE TRAILER?
AHEM: IF LANGUAGE IS THE POET’S CHURCH
LET US CONSTRUCT
A TO Z AN ALTAR LIKE AN ARCH
GROUNDED ON NUMBERS DRAT WHAT RHYMES WITH UCT?
ON NUMBERS HMM I TWITCH IN MY RED GOWN
LIKE AN OLD CARDINAL WHOSE LATIN’S GONE
NO DOUBT THE STRIPPING PROCESS So you’re also
Changing clothes each session, like Maria?
SHE THE WHOLE RANGE (LOVELY PALE ROSE TODAY)
ME STRAIGHT FROM COMFY BATHROBE INTO RED
A CHANCERY JUDGE ALL BUT THE WIG! Is “law
Like love” in Heaven, Wystan? I FORESAW
AS WITH CK & HIS EMERGING NATION
AN AFTERLIFE MY DEARS OF ARBITRATION
OR SO THEY TELL ME NOW TOMORROW’S THEME:
THE BOARD ITSELF DIFFY TO WRITE A POEM
ABOUT A POEM
MES ENFANTS I TRY
MIGHTILY TO RESIST PREENING Why
Resist then—since you’re clearly in the pink—
Or is there more? ENOUGH FOR NOW I THINK
8.7
3: THE STAGE WE ARE ON IS LIKE ALL STAGES A HALF ARC
THUS THE LEGEND OF NOAH THIS HALF MOON SHIP BORE THE DUST
GOD B SAVED OVER FROM THE FALL & ITS PARTICLES WERE
FORMULAS ATOMIC STRUCTURES COMMUNICANTS OF LIFE
WITH LESSONS, HELPD U TO CONSTRUCT A METHOD OF YR OWN.
2 BY 2 WE HAVE ENTERD YR MINDS & NOW YEARS LATER
THE COMMUNICATION IS AFLOAT OVER A DROWND WORLD.
WE ARE NOT ALAS TO BRING U TO OUR ARARAT WE
ARE TO BRING U TO THE MEANINGS U NEED MUCH AS THE ARK
BROUGHT NOAH TO THE PEAKS & SLOPES OF A NEW WORLD. THIS BOARD
IS FOR US A FIELD OF WORK. OVER IT HAVE PLAYD THE LIGHTS
OF OUR INTELLIGENCE & ON IT THE STUFF OF YR OWN.
FRIENDS U HAVE SAT WITH & URGED TO TRY THEIR (M) LUCK DO SO
IN VAIN: THIS FIELD IS FORMD BY LONGSTANDING EXPERIENCE.
O AT TIMES OUR CENTERS HAVE BEEN SIGNALD AS BY FAINT CRIES
OUT OF A FOGBOUND SEA & OFF WE HAVE RUSHD TO RESPOND
BUT FOUND ONLY A HAND GRIPPING THE EDGE OF A RAFT
“Longstanding experience”—DJ’s and mine?
YES
A FIELD OF STILLD COMPLAINTS EARTH-RICH IN TRUST & EAGERNESS
& OBEDIENCE TO A HAND AT THE TILLER
Listen—how in his words the furrowed sea
Contracts to a hillside plot the sailor plows.
As for experience, we had none, yet got
Twenty years of Ephraim, didn’t we?
BUT NOT US
We rather hoped our friends might also get
Some chatty voice from the Bureaucracy.
IT SEEMS THEY HAVE NOT THE COMPATIBILITY NEEDED
OR ELSE THAT THEIR WISH FOR A THRILL IS AS OFFENSIVE TO
TRUE EXPERIENCE AS A WASH OF SALTWATER TO VEG.
THIS COMMUNICATION HAS BEEN CLEARD & ITS 1ST PLANTINGS
HARVESTED. DO UNDERSTAND WE ARE NOT UNWELCOMING
TO THESE FRIENDS OF YRS WE READ THEIR NOTES OF INTRODUCTION
BUT THEY ARE HELD FORWARD IN HANDS NOT SHAKABLE BY US.
WE CD LIKE MATCHMAKERS COMB THE BUREAUCRACY FOR PAIRS
OF COMPATIBLE PATRONS BUT DO WE NOT SEE U PUT
A BOOK INTO SOMEONE’S HAND: READ THIS! DO YOU NOT KNOW BOTH
BOOK & HAND? YET HOW OFTEN
…Is it worth while? Indeed.
PLEASE THIS IS NOT CYNICAL
You’ve made your point.
Besides, what if our friends had notably
Been taken up? DJ, don’t you agree,