And craft we’re sealed hermetically inside,
Winged as by fever through the shrieking wind.
Mich.
WE HAVE ISSUED FORTH LED IN ORDERLY PROCESSION BY PROUD GABRIEL.
OUR PATH (WE INSIDE THIS LIVING RED, QUITE SAFE) WINDS THROUGH HOWLING SHADES IN BILLIONS
AND WE HAVE ARRIVED. GABRIEL, FASTEN THE DOORS! THERE.
CALM, QUIET, RANKS OF GABRIEL’S MACHINES & RANKS OF FEATHERED BACKS BOWING AS WE PASS.
HERE A FAMILIAR ONE: WERE YOU SLEEPING, MY SON?
As when an illustration’s needed in
A storybook, here against nothingness
Appears…a perfect image under glass?
An image’s lifesize, transparent skin
Reflected onto glass? The painted eyes
Have opened to the light, as it replies:
YES FATHER SUN, I SLEEP.
Mich.
TELL THESE SHADES, THESE BLINDFOLD MORTALS, OF YOUR V WORK.
A golden disc gleams on the phantom brow
—Ahknaton! as we gather only now.
Akhn.
FATHER, I AM, HAVE EVER BEEN YOURS. AH MY EYES! MY V WORK
LIFE AFTER LIFE HAS BEEN SEEING FOR HEAVEN INTO PHENOMENA.
Mich.
YES? THE FIRST THING YOU SAW?
Akhn.
YOU, LORD. YOU SHINING HIGH IN MIDDAY HEAVEN. IN OUR DAY
THAT WAS THE PALACE LEGEND, THAT WITH 4 EYES WE SAW:
I AND SHE, TWO HALVES, MANCHILD & FEMALECHILD
BORN EYES OPEN, REACHED FOUR NEW WET RED ARMS STRAIGHT FOR YOU!
AND LIFE AFTER LIFE MY V WORK, I SINGLE AGAIN,
WAS/IS TO SEE AND TO MAKE SENSE OF IT. AND SO
AS CURIE I SAW THE RADIUM IN THE DARKNESS GLOW,
AND KNEW. AS GALILEO SAW OBJECTS FALL, FORESEEING
THEY WOULD ALIGHT JUST SO. I NOW FLY OVER LANDSCAPES
KNOWING, O FATHER EARTH! WHERE IN THEIR FORMATIONS LIE THERMAL
ENERGIES, POWERS CLEAN & ABUNDANT, AS YET UNTAPPED,
WHICH ALONE CAN CLEAR YOUR HEAVEN, LORD MICHAEL, THAT I MAY SEE YOU.
I SLEEP AND AM HONORED TO LEAVE THAT DREAMING SHUTEYED ME.
The image fades upon its pedestal.
Mich.
WE CALL HIM MANY NAMES YET HE IS THE SIGHT OF OUR FIVE SENSES.
ON, GABRIEL? THIS ONE APPEARS TO STUMBLE TOWARD US.
Raph.
WHAT, ILL, LISTENER?
The path of live black wings bending, a young
Dwarf clad in homespun, large head cocked, has come
To light. At first he struggles as with some
Strange lethargy, and speaks with heavy tongue:
YES, LORD. I COME BEFORE YOU UNDER A DRUG. THEY TAMPER
WITH MY BODY. THERE! I AM FREE, AH FATHER RAPHAEL!
Raph.
HOW GOES YOUR V WORK?
Dwarf.
WE LISTEN, LORD RAPHAEL. OUT IN SPACE IS A MUSIC MAKING
DAILY SENSE, WE TAKE IT IN. DO I PLEASE YOU, LORD?
(This will be Montezuma. Now on Earth
As an East German astrophysicist
Kenning those signals—Mirabell, 2.1.)
Raph.
PROCEED. THESE GUESTS WOULD KNOW YOUR V WORK & YOUR HISTORY.
Dwarf.
LORD, AS HOMER THE SCRIBE I LISTENED & MADE SENSE OF FOLK MYTHS,
THEN AS THE PROPHET MOHAMMED I TOOK IN STORIES & GOSSIP,
SETTING IT STRAIGHT. AS MOZART MY INSTRUMENTS CAUGHT YOUR SPRING
SONGS, FATHER EARTH. THAT WAS ALL. BUT I NOW HAVE INSTRUMENTS TUNED,
LORD, TO THE VERY STARS, TO THE PANTHEON YOU CAME FROM.
I LISTEN, RECEIVING THE MESSAGES, MAKING SENSE OF THEM.
Raph.
SLEEP AND MEND.
(He wasn’t Montezuma after all?—
Something to clear up in the interval.)
Emm.
TOUCH, TOUCH, YOU HERE, TUGGING MY WATERY ROBE?
Now only is a jet of goldengreen
Quetzal feathers, in the next niche, seen
To rise from a maize vision—here displayed
On one knee, in his hand a rod of jade:
Mont.
LORD!
Emm.
COME, TELL US OF THE ARK & THE BULLRUSHES.
Mont.
LIFE AFTER LIFE I LIVE GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF THINGS,
O LORD FATHER EMMANUEL! REACHING DOWN FOR A TOEHOLD.
AS NOAH OR, MORE PRECISELY, THE FIRST TO SET FORTH ON THE SEA,
THE FIRST CREATURE TO FEEL THE BUOYANCY OF WOOD,
I UNDERSTOOD & FLOATED, AND SO THE MIGRATIONS BEGAN
AND THE USE OF THE HARD SEA SURFACE. THEN LIFE AFTER LIFE
FIRST AS HEALER, THEN AS CLAPPING MINSTREL, THEN AS THE
KING CALLED MONTEZUMA, WHO SUFFERED THE IRON GRIP
OF THE NEW WORLD, & HANDED OVER HIS GOLD TO NO AVAIL,
AS TOUCH I FINGER THE STUFF OF THINGS, LORD, AND MAKE SENSE OF IT.
Fades. But the next eidolon brightens in
A frame above the sudden quickening stir
Of wings: a presence far, far lovelier
Than her bust of colored limestone in Berlin.
Gabr.
NOW WOMAN, KISSING MY HAND WITH A LICK OF YOUR TONGUE, SPEAK.
Nef.
I, O LORD GABRIEL, DOWN THERE DROWN IN THE PAIN OF LABOR,
GLAD TO BE MOMENTARILY FREE.
Gabr.
SPEAK.
Nef.
SIRS & MADAME, LIFE AFTER LIFE, AS HALFDIVINED SISTER
BECOMING DISTINCT, I HAVE EXPLORED THE WORLD BY TASTE.
AS RACHEL I STUDIED EVE’S COOKBOOK, MAKING SENSE OF IT.
AS SHIVA LEARNED POISONS, & ONWARD, SERVING YOU MY LORD.
MY NAME LIFE AFTER LIFE HAS BEEN FAMED OR INFAMOUS AS
BEFITS THE DUAL NATURE OF TASTE: BITTERSWEET NEFERTITI!
Gabr.
YOUR TWIN?
Barely has her magic time to fade
(Sun is setting, will the lesson end
Before we meet the Fifth?) when an off-duty shade,
Not on a pedestal, a gay young blade
Bearded, white-robed, engagingly advances:
I AM HERE, LORD, THOUGH A CORPSE IN EARTH, MY PARENT NATURE,
NOSTRILS FILLED WHO FIRST CRIED SMOKE! FIRE! DO I PLEASE YOU, LORD?
Gabr.
TELL QUICKLY THESE FRIENDS OF YOUR V WORK.
Pla.
LORD, YOU NEEDED A TALENT TO SNIFF OUT THE NATURE OF MAN
& SO I MADE, AS PLATO, SENSE OF MAN’S NEED FOR HIS MIND,
& AS THE MOST FEARED KHAN MADE SENSE OF THE WHIFF OF BLOOD.
YOU HAVE USED ME LIFE AFTER LIFE AS THE GENTIL BREATHER, AS MUIR,
GIVING PLEASURE IN THE ROSE, AND MAKING SENSE OF IT.
Mich.
GO!
FLY BACK INTO YOUR SELVES ON EARTH! WE 8 WILL NOT DELAY
YOU, & WILL MEET TOMORROW, ANOTHER DAY
Exeunt hurriedly, as the last beams die.
*
Tell! Did they show you all the incarnations?
ONE EACH MY DEARS, BUT THE MOST GLAMOROUS ONE
That V in V Work is the Roman five.
& ‘LIFE’ IN OUR SALON TONGUE (GOD A FRENCHMAN?)
And it’s Homer (a dwarf!) who listens—Mirabell
Was wrong. I FEAR SO Do we now revise
His lessons? Let them stand? U ARE THE SCRIBE
One sees now how it works. Galactic signals
Come to thi
s latest Homer’s ears WHO THEN
CONFIDES THEIR MEANING BUT TO WHOM? POOR DUMB
E GERMAN TECHNOCRATS? Hardly: God B
Must be the first, our peacock said, to hear them.
And each bit of made sense adds to that great
Store of wisdom. THUS THESE 5 GO STRAIGHT
OVER THE HEADS OF WHATEVER BUREAUCRACY,
EVEN THE BROTHERS’ Each of the Five intent
On his own gift and his own element
Till, from the upwardness of midnight spark,
Returning dew, cadenza of the lark,
To meteor in field, fresh bread on sill,
All is a ghost of grist to Heaven’s mill.
DIVINE SIMPLICITY SO LIKE THAT WONDROUS
TALE OF GRIMM: SHARPEYES & EARTOGROUND,
SERVANTS WHO HELP THE UNWORLDLY PRINCE TO WIN
HIS LADY’S HAND But drugged, asleep, in labor?
GLIMPSES OF THEIR CURRENT STATES ON EARTH
Then Plato’s in fact between lives. GATHERING
HIS POWERS FOR THE NEXT That’s why you’ve had
Such easy access? SO I NOW PRESUME
Poor Mirabell, it seems to be his doom…
And Rachel? How he struggled to explain
Her name as formula! Well, wrong again.
YES & NO: IN THE BEGINNING MIGHT THE WORD
(OR FORMULA) NOT HAVE REMAINED UNHEARD
UNTIL IT HAD ENGENDERED BOTH ITS OWN
ANTONYM & THE ODD HOMOPHONE?
SO RACHEL. THESE OLD TESTAMENT NAMES I’VE
A HUNCH RING MANY CHANGES ON THE FIVE
And Nefertiti is now Plato’s twin,
Not Akhnaton’s—what’s that meant to mean?
TWINS WE ARE TOLD COME FROM THE FEMALE GENE,
THERE4 THESE LADIES & THEIR ESCORTS WEAVE
A LINE BACK TO THE PRIMAL (M)ADAM/EVE:
NO SOONER SINGLE THAN NEF ONCE AGAIN
TOOK ON A DOUBLE NATURE (ALL THOSE ARMS
OF SHIVA NOT THE LEAST OF HIS/HER CHARMS)
WD THAT BE THE GENETICS, WOMAN?
ME?
REALLY! HOW WD I KNOW? In other lives
You had— I REMEMBER THANK U BUT NO TWINS.
NO TEASING GLIMPSES EITHER, OF THE 5’S
PRESENT EXISTENCES YET MAY I SPEAK
MES ENFANTS AS A WILY SHARPEYED GREEK?
THEY HAVE SEEN US AS OF YESTERDAY,
PARTICULARLY YOU 2 What are you saying—
That one of them is somebody we’ve met,
Or will, on Earth? George Cotzias, I’ll just bet!
Notice how Montezuma gave no clue
To his current life? Remember then what you
Learned about George’s densities? Come now,
That must be the connection! YES & NO
The First Lessons: 6
The schoolroom as before. Enter the Brothers.
Mich.
POETS, A POEM! HERE’S WHAT I SHOULD LIKE AS SUBJECT:
YESTERDAY’S MEETING OF THE FIVE, YOU 4, WE 4, AND QUESTIONS.
WHA.
SIR?
Mich.
YES, SENIOR SCRIBE?
WHA.
MAY I ASK, IN YOUR FINAL COUPLET YESTERDAY
WERE YOU NOT USING A RUNOVER LINE?
Mich.
SCRIBE, RUN OVER?
WHA.
SIR, WE MEAN BY THAT, WHEN A LINE’S SENSE
AND ITS LAST WORD ELUDE COINCIDENCE.
Mich.
O SCRIBES, I WHO CAN WRITE ON WALLS CANNOT ALAS MAKE POEMS.
WHA.
(Nervous, eager not to give offence)
O NO SIR, ABSOLUTELY CHARMING, QUITE
THE OCCASIONAL VERSIFIER! I ONLY MEANT
THE DRAMA OF YOUR LINE-BREAK: ‘DELAY / YOU’
Mich.
TOO MODERN? EVEN BAD?
JM.
Most dashing, I thought.
WHA.
SIR, DO NOT GIVE UP
& ALL WE SCRIBES SHALL COME TO YOU TO SUP!
Mich.
RUNOVER, HMM. THAT’S A WHOLE NEW DIMENSION
A silvery bell peals. Light grows acute.
AS IS OUR CLASS TODAY. FOR MY BROTHERS & I WILL EXPLAIN THE SECOND OF OUR EACH THREE NATURES.
RAPHAEL, LET US PROCEED NOW TO REVEAL THE TWELVE.
Raph.
AT FIRST I PROTECTED IN THAT CAVE THE SWEET & INNOCENT IDEA OF MAN CONTEMPLATING HIMSELF.
NOW HERE IS MY SECOND DUTY IMPOSED UPON ME BY OUR GREAT FATHER: SUPPLY.
UP THROUGH MY SOILS, MADAME, COME GREEN SHOOTS, AS YELLOW SUN & BLUE WATER MIX IN ME. AND UP THROUGH MY VEINS COMES HEAT, & FROM MY PORES: OIL, & FROM MY PITS: COAL.
MAN SPRINGS TO LIFE & TO INDUSTRY AND I REWARD HIM WITH MY GOLD & SILVER
WHOSE SHADOW RICHES ARE URANIUM. YET, SUPPLY! CRIED GOD,
AND I OBEY. FOR EVEN UNDER YOUR LAKES & SEAS I AM, EMMANUEL, A BASE BUT GENEROUS NATURE.
Our school has every modern teaching aid.
Green fields ashimmer and great ore-veined peaks
Fill one frame. Then, as Emmanuel speaks,
They are replaced by a 3-D cascade
Overbrimming inexhaustibly
Font upon font of snow above a polar Sea.
Emm.
INDEED, R, U R (SEE LORD BROTHER MICHAEL, HOW I HAVE TAKEN TO THEIR LETTERS?)
& AS THE QUIET LAKE I EARLY STILLED HIS FEAR WHILE KEEPING HIS WISH TO RETURN TO ME AT BAY.
THROUGH MY FIRST NATURE, PEACEFUL & REASONABLE GREW THIS THINKING BEAST.
AND THEN OUR FATHER GAVE ME A SECOND DUTY: CARRY HIM.
& SO AS CHRISTOPHER I TRANSPORTED THE MANCHILD, & QUENCHED HIS THIRST & WASHED HIM
WHO BY THEN INNATELY WISHED FOR A BAPTISMAL CLEANSING OF HIS ANIMAL DIRT.
SO: REASON & PRIDE, CALM & PURIFICATION,
ARE MY TWO DOUBLE NATURES.
Mich.
YOU, SHY ONE, OR ME?
Gabr.
PROCEED, PROCEED.
Mich.
I BORE INTO THE CAVES & ONTO THE DANCING WATERS THE LIGHT! LIGHT! OF MY FATHER’S CRY. I BROUGHT IN THE NATURE OF IDEAS.
THEN GOD SAID: ‘DIVIDE THE TIME OF MAN
AND MAKE A REFLECTIVE NATURE WHERE, CALMED AT HIS FIRE, HE WILL TURN OVER THESE IDEAS AS TREASURE GATHERED IN HIS DAY.’
SO I THREW UP REFLECTION, MAKING DAY,
& TURNED IT OFF, CREATING NIGHT.
I BROUGHT INDOORS THE ROVING NATURE OF MAN WITH HIS 5 PLAYMATES.
DJ.
Reflection?
WHA.
WE DO NOT SEE LIGHT MY DEAR,
ONLY ITS EFFECT ON ATMOSPHERE.
Mich.
HOMEWORK! WELL? ARE YOU TIMID OF BOASTING, GABRIEL?
Gabr.
NO.
WHEN I ASSUMED MY SEAT NEXT TO OUR FATHER HE NOTED MY ONE NATURE, DESTRUCTION, & SAID: ‘IT IS NOT ENOUGH.
WE ALL MUST WORK. GO FORTH AS FIRE IN ALL ITS FORMS. IT WILL NEED ATTENTION, AND BE AN ABUSED NATURE, YET ATTEND IT.’
AND SO I CLEANSE TOO, IN A WAY,
& I ILLUMINATE REFLECTION, I SWARM IN VELVET ON MICHAEL’S TRAIN.
PERFORMING MY SECOND NATURE I PROMOTE THOUGHT, AGGRESSION, DREAD, AS THROUGH WOOD & COAL & OIL & ATOMS AND YES, LIVES
I GO UP IN FLAME.
MY FIRST NATURE: SELECTION. MY SECOND: THOUGHT.
AH MICHAEL, HENCE THE VERY HISTORY OF MAN, HIS EVOLUTION! FOR THESE OUR FATHER ENTRUSTED TO ME.
Mich.
SO, DEAR SHADES, DEAR SCRIBE & FAITHFUL HAND, WE KNOW 8 OF OUR NATUR
ES. NEXT,
ALWAYS SHY YET NOT LOATH TO DISPLAY,
WE WILL TOMORROW BRING FOUR MORE: ANOTHER DAY
Exeunt.
His last line comes through garbled:
TORROWMORE WILL BRING IN FOUR OTHER DAY.
SHH SHH SHALL WE SET IT RIGHT? MM
QUICK THE WASHRAG RUB OFF THE BLACKBOARD
THERE! And the poem Michael asked for? I’M
ITCHING TO TRY MY HAND PENTAMETER?
5 LINE STANZAS? GIVE/FIVE/LIVE? High time
He found some other rhyme-word besides “day”.
A TAG FROM GOETHE, NO? SEHR DISTINGUE
*
O LORDS WITH JOY & WHOOP & HOLLER
YOU GAVE US FOUR THE FIVE
BUT WHEN (FORGIVE) WILL YOU 4 GIVE
US THEM IN LIVING COLOR?
Very nice, Wystan. That should fill the bill.
NOW YRS? Oh no. Those stanzas won’t see light.
TOO UNFAIR! I THOUGHT IT (OVER YR SHOULDER)
BRILLIANTLY SOLVED RIGHT DOWN THE LINE JM:
TETRAMETER FOR US, PENTAM FOR THEM,
NEF EVOKED BY THE ONE FEMININE
ENDING, & PLATO BY THE ONE SLANT RHYME
But it was awful—not the slightest ring
Of life. DEAR BOY ONE CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING!
Let’s change the subject. Free of Mirabell’s
Brain-teasing ratios, it would seem the Twelve
Are just our angels multiplied by three.
INDEED SUCH EXQUISITE SIMPLICITY
DJ: But are these real powers, would you say,
These angels? I BELIEVE WE SHALL DISCOVER
THEIR POWERS ARE IN US QUITE AS MUCH AS OVER.
SO VERY BEAUTIFUL, WHICHEVER WAY
JM: Aren’t you on record as preferring
Truth to beauty, Wystan? Those machines
That powered your ideal lead mines, as a boy—
WHAT’S UGLY ABOUT A BIG ROBUST MACHINE?
I’m only saying you felt bound to choose
Over a possibly more stylish rival
The one that functioned best. ON EARTH MY DEAR,
TRUE. BUT EFFICIENCY IS WELDED HERE
TO BEAUTY AS THE SOUL IS TO SURVIVAL
Will Michael make a poet? HMM He’s read
No one much since Chapman. BUT CONFRERE
HIS WORDLESS SPLENDORS ARE BEYOND COMPARE:
WHEN GABRIEL SPOKE A STARRY UNIVERSE
POURED IN SERENE TUMULT FROM M’S BROW!
THE VERY NIGHT AS CHAPMAN WD AVOW.
VERSE HE MAY LEARN FROM US & THE DEAR KNOWS
THERE’S LITTLE WE CAN TEACH HIM ABOUT PROSE!
The Changing Light at Sandover Page 35