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, ,. THE ST~ JOHN'S COLLEGIAN April, 1960

Contents

A REPORT ON THE BIOLOGY STUDY GROUP Victor Zuckerkandl

THE PAMPHLETS Michael Elias

A SEQUENT TOIL OF SONNETS Charles G. Bell

MENO REVISITED Ray Davis

OVERTURE TO A PLAY Theodore Stinchecum

JOHANNA AND THE ELDERS Theodore Stinchecum

TWO POEMS Eyvind Ronquist

TWO POEMS N oel Meriam REPORT OF A MEMBER OF THE 1958/59 FACULTY STUDY GROUP Presented to the Faculty Seminar, Oct. 31, 1959

Victor Zuckerkandl

In the following notes I have tried to sum up what I have learned in the course of the Study Group's work - not so much of biology proper as from biology in reference to the more general problems which concern us as tutors at St. John's.

Three areas of study are considered. I, The Cell; II, Development and Maintenance of Organisms; III, Evolution.

. . ; " I, The Cell. - Here a great surprise comes very soon, a kind of ontological shock, if one may say so. One knows of course that the cell is the unit of life, that this unit is not ultimate but is itse lf a complex system producing the energy which the organism requires for its various functions and tasks. What I for one did not know is the way in which this is being done, as it is revealed in the more recent biochemical work. The conventional model of such a heating plant - a furnace into which goes some fuel and which qy burning the fuel produces heat - is completely inadequate to represent what goes on in the cell. This furnace produces heat by burning itself up and in the process building itself up again. Furnace and fuel are not clearly set apart, structure and function cannot be

. . . ~ . ~ . . cleanly separated, the c e ll exists as a balance of two opposite processes, destruction and construction going on simultaneously. The concept which tries to do justice to this sta te of a ff a irs is tha t of steady state or flow equilibrium - a balance produced neithe r by absence of action nor by nullifica tion of action as the r esult of two equal but opposite forces, but by opposite processes actually going on at the same time a nd compensating one a nother. It is h ere that the ontologica l problems arise: Wha t is the meaning of the word ._: '. • . J. ··- . 'is' in the statement ' the c ell is'; can we t a lk of 'being' when everything is affected by change or process; what is the subject predica te r e lation in the sentence, 'the c e ll functions' - could it not as we ll r ead 'the function cells'? Where is the e lement of ... .: - ·~ ~ ~: o{·.\ permanency h e re, the consta nt f ac tor, the residue of unchanging substanc e without wh ich one finds it difficult to conceive of the being of a thing, even to conceive a thing - wha t is the concept of thing if it is to apply to s omething of this nature? Certainly after this Leibniz' idea that a thing in motion is destroyed in every instance and recrea t ed in the same inst a nce d oes not a ppear as fant a stica lly speculative as it did before.

II , Developmen t and Mainte nanc e of Organism. - It is here that one comes face to f ace with the grea t issues tha t were and a re hotly debated by biologists a nd nonbiologists and which for the s a ke of convenience a re still frequently referred to by the obsolete terms of mechanism a nd vitalism. These are the phenomena which more than any othe r baffle the observer1 wh o approa ches them in the ordinary - 2 ~

framework of the physica l sci ences; phenomen a wh ich cannot e v e n be t a lke d -about without usi ng words like purpo se, intention, direction, plan, r egulation - words which the conceptual framework of science c annot absorb and wh i ch have no pl ace i n its explan a tion pattern. To mention just a few of these phenomena; the growth of the mushroom ••• the growth of a gourd ••• allometric growth . .. the healing of a wound ••• the fla tworm, the hydra, and the nematocystoo.behavior of c e ll colonies (slime mo lds).coendogenous rhythms and biological clocks. The a rgume nt of course t urns on t he sense in which those words - purpose, intention, e tc . - a r e used: i nnocently, in a metaphorical s ense, as r het orical device , as provisional terms ultimately to be replaced by concepts tha t do fit the framework of physics a nd chemistry; or are they s upposed to i ndica te the actua l presenc e in biologica l phenomena of a fact or which is ul timately irreducible to the concepts a nd explanation patterns of the physica l sciences. Two things eme rge r a the r clearly f rom t he rea ding of books by authors on both sides of the controve r sy" One, the introduction of non-·physicochemical

conce pts like intenti onality 5 purposi veness, direc tiveness is of no h e lp whatever i f it is not a t the same t i me either demonstrated or indic a ted how , by wh at st eps, these non-physicochemical agents do achieve their physicochemica l r esults _ Nowhere is this the case. If I state that by virtue of the qual ity of di rectiven e ss the events at one end of a long cell a re determined by the ac tion of the nucLe us at the othe r end, mil es away, comparatively speaking, and nothing furthe r is said about the communication hetween the two e nds, I h a v e t agg ed the problem and axpl ained nothing r On the other hand, many of those who want to k eep clear of extra-physicochemica l concepts still rea lize tha t these probl ems call for something more t han the typica l approach. To quot e from J. T o Bonner, Morphogenesis: "O f a ll the 1 qualities that are 'living , there are none which seem quite s o

unexplainabl e, so mystifying yet so charac t eristic as r e gula tion 1 for so many processes, such as growth, a r e psrfectly regulated; ••• If we knew how this pattern was achi e v ed, then we might not be so bothered • I : ' . by - we might even explai n - the wholeness of the orga nism, and not be driven t o e ntelechi esuo•• oI think, a f ter we have surveyed the f acts, tha t the whole subject of growth will seem bigger than the chemistry of synthesis, and that it will be more likely that this latter will s eem a s ~a ll (al though important) part of a l arger scheme ••. " (p. 61). " There must be some factor which t:.--: anscends the cell wa ll a nd unifies this cottony mass (of the mushroom), but what this factor or f a ctors might be is another matter .. oi t is the expla nation of this sort of phenomenon that makes us say that gr0wth and development is a problem. Rea lly it is many probl ems; but this one, the unifica tion of great masses of protoplasm i nto a oneness, a wholeness, has us more mystified 11 11 than a ll the others~ ( p .. 100) o This (the growth of the g ourd) is another exanple of t he principle wa have sta ted b efore, tha t growth is not a strictly mechanical problem; . • . the control of growth trans 11 I : ; .,, c ends the c e ll boundarieSo oo (pc 108),

: ~ :.; .

; _. _•:_,._. ·. As one reads the books deali ng with questi ons of principle, a rguing for or against one or the other, one gets bored very quickly ; ;.I ," " the whole debate of vitalism vs. mechanism appears more a nd more pointless. The f o llowing thr ee i nstances a r e adduc ed to bring out the pse udo c haracter of t he problem. Fi rs t : In the us ua l f or mula tion of the i ssue the s t a t ements: t he org~nism is (is not) a machine , - a nd: the organism c an ( c annot ) be explained by physics and c h emi s try - a re take n a s s a ying the same t hing wit h di ffe r ent words . In h is book " Die Physik und das Gehei mn i s des Lebens" Pascual Jor dan has d emon stra t e d t he error of t his assumption. Reduced to t he brie f e st summary his a r g ume n t r uns thus: Mode r n physics has t wo aspec t s: macro-physics, which is ma c h i ne physics, and mi cro- physics, wh i ch i s no t . In the ma chine t he mi c r o--event s disappear in the l a r ge aggr egates; the _ orga nism, a lthough a macro-syst em , is ac t ually contr oll ed , through me cha nisms of two stearing and one amplification, by micro-physic a l e v e nts . I t follows t h at the organism i s _po!_ a mac hine a nd may none the l e ss be understood on the basi s of the pri nci pl e s of physics a nd chemistry . Second: One of t he books th8 Group read had the title "The Direc tiveness o f Or gani c Activ i t i es". The thesi s of the book is: The qua lity of di recti veness dis t ingui shed livi ng things from ina nima te obj ec t so This thesis has been destroyed by t h e developme nt of t h e n ew e l ectronic machines whose behavi or shows ' direc tiveness' a na logous to that observed i n simple organi sms . Suc h mac h ines s e a rch

out friends 1 avoid enemies, look for the f eedi ng pl ace i f hungry ,

e a t a nd stop eating when they are repleni shed 7 and s o on , Certa inly , ,• these ma chine s a r e i nfini tel y l ess compl ex than the mos t primitive orga nism; s till , directive b ehavi o r can no l onger c l a i m t o b e t ~ e distinguishing ma r k of living thi ngs . Of cours e ] t he c ontra ry cla i m tha t with thi s t he living thi ngs have been p r oved t o be noth ing e lse tha n more compl ex machines woul d be nonsense; the p roo f destroys the a r g um e nt. We see from these ver y machi nes that i ncr eas e in

: .: .. :. . complex ity bri ngs about a qualitat1:_~ change i n the f uncti on - in this cas e t he change from a system that mechanical ly t ransmi t s s ignals

to one tha t can l ear n, r emember 1 make dec i s ions, c omp ose me l odie sn So the v e ry idea of a vastl y more complex machine is an empty i dea ,

·: . - .L. '1, ... s ince a ll t he quali t ies whi ch define 'machi ne ' migh t disapp ear and cha nge into some t hing quite di fferent as a consequence o f t he i nc rease in complexi ty. Third: Modern physics has formulated t he p rinciple of compleme n tarit y which states tha t two cont r adi c tory t heori es do n ot n e c essarily require an e ither-or deci sion; i n some i ns t a nces only both t ogether can guarantee an adequate underst anding of the phenome ncn i n questi o n m The b i g diffe~ence between t he s itua tion in phys i cs and in biol ogy is of course that in physic s we do a ctua lly hav e t wo s uch compl ementary theories, while in biol ogy we do not have t h e m; a n on- physicochemica l theory of biol ogy so far does not e xist.,

III . Evol u tion, The study of thi s area seemed i n a sense t he l e~ st s a tisfa ctory, bec ause here more than anywhere el se on e f eel s some thing like dogma tism in the a i r. There i s not dogma in the statement Mr. Si mpson made here l ast year in the discussi on: "Evolution is 11 . ·. ; .. . a f a ct - b u t it is in the t heory: The co. use of <:;Vo lution i s muta tion and n a tura l sel ection - p 2ri odo Dogmatic t oo is the way t h e the ory i s a rgue d: evi dence for i t i s c ited as pro of , evi dence against it must r e st on i ncompl eteness of i nformati on, mi s i nterpretntion of f a ct , or s ome other error in the r ecord. I n thi s way t h e theory c a n neve r be refuted. It woul d c e r tai n l y be f o oli sh to expec t t hat a strong and immensely successf ul theor y like that of nat ural ------~------...... -----

- 4 -

selection should be put in doubt every time a n observation runs against it. But the dispa rity between the c laim of universal validity and the size of the a rea left dark seems rather striking. At least some biologists insist tha t mutation a nd natural selection cannot be the sole a nd not even the dec isive f a ctor bringing a bout evolution beyond the limits of species or genus. Others list cha racteristics of form which they s how cannot possibly have functiona l significance and there fore c a nnot ha ve arisen through natural selection. In particul ar, the evolutionary process leading ta man is consideretl by some to be totally ununderstandabl e on the basis of the theory of

n a tural sel ection a lone . Man~ they say 1 i s not a primate plus some 'human' characteristics produced by mutation . Two specific objections may be cited, one small, one very big. The small one is concerned with the nakedness o f the h uman skin" Loss of hair c a used by mutation 1 1 in animals leaves precisely tha t kind of hair una ffected ( Spuerhaare ) which is completely l a cking in man. The big objection concerns l a nguage. La ng uage presupposes a vsry highly developed voc a l and auditory appa ratus; both Gre not higher devel oped in primates than in other mammals, a nd t hey are developed h ighe r in birds than in primates. So the the ory oust hypothesize missing links in which these organs a re supposed to have been higher developed.

Most enlightening to me was the ac qua intance with populat1on sta tistics; the concept of the genetic equilibrium of a population did away with the naive idea that muta tion was a one-way aff a ir. The genetic equilibrium appeared again as one of flow, with opposite processes of mu tation be t ween corresponding a l leles going on a t all times a nd b a l ancing o ut a t a number wh i ch corresponds to the relative freque ncy of the different mutati o ns "

Harold Blum's 11 Time's Arrow and Evolution" proved particularly interesting. He r e the concept of evolution is ext e nded b e yond the living to the non-living wor l d~ The idea o f f itness of the environ ment is brought into the picture, meani ng that combination o f chemical e leme nts which coul d function as an e nvironme nt for the origin, ~a inten a nc e, and development of life a s we ~now it. The a uthor trac es the evolution of this e nvironment from a n original sta te of ma tte r prese nt in the early sun to the s~a te o f ma tter on the earth at the time of t he origin o f life, account ing in particular for the highly improba ble presence here of hydrog e~ a n d oxygen in sufficient

amounts to produce larg ~ quantities of water 1 goi ng on to the evolution and maintenance o f life itself. The red thread running through the whole process , the guiding fac tor ; is t he ~eco~d law of thermodynamics, 'time's arrow'. The i dea i s: Give n a n initial sta te of matter in the sun and the second l aw and 2 c e rta in n unber of favora ble chance occurences not too unlike l y to happen ac corcing to probability: and we will arrive where we are~

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List of readings:

Felix M3inx, Founda tions of Biology (Int e rn ~ Encycl . of Unified Science) The Physics and Chemistry of Life" Scientific Ame rican Book. Part IIo G.G.Simpson, C.S . Pittendrigh, L.F cTiffany, Life . An Introduction to Biology . L. von Bertalanffy and J . Ho Woodger, Modern Theories of Development C.H. Waddington, Principles of Embryology, Pa rt Two. Pascual Jordan, The Phys ik und das Geheimnis des Lebens. Adolf Fortma nn , Biologie und Ge ist . Morton Be ckner, The Biologica l Way of Thought. J.T.Bonner, Morphogenesis. E.S.Russe lli The Directiveness of Organic Activities. Rhythmic and Synthetic Processes in Growth. Ed g Dorothea Rudnick. Part II. Wolfgang Wi eser, Organisme n, Strukturen, Maschinen. Harold F . Blum, Time's Arrow and Evolution. Jean Piaget, Introdution a l i ~pisternologie Genetique . La Pensee Biologique5

.. . 0 .!.. :. .! r ...

...... THE PAMPHLETS

Michael H. Elias

. -·.. -. ••o Hey Ab i e! Abieeeee! Hey wait up Abie! The high shrill voice echoed down the quiet Brooklyn street • : ' / bouncing o£f the t all, silent, symmetrica l oaks and th~ drab wooden it~ ' •. ! houses which lined Abie turned around and saw Marvin running towards him . ••• Hey Abie, Jesus, why didn't you stop when you heard me call you? •• '.j ••oI did stopo ••oYou did note I ran halfway down the tlock before you stopped . ••• Well I didn't hear you . ••• O.K. Listen, do you wanna make some money? It's real easy • .•• I don't know Marv - I'm supposed to stay home tonight on account of wh~t happened in school today • ••• Not tonight stupid. Toda y - right now. Look, here's a ll we h a ve to do. You s ee these papers I got. Mrs. Le vy gave them to me and said if we hand them out in the apartment houses on Avenue M we get a half a dollaro It's easy. Jeez, with the two of us working we could do it in, say half an hour. Ab i e looked down at the l arge bundle of pa pers that Marvin had under his a r m. They were a lmost a s big as comic books but not as thicko He took one from Marvin and opened it up.

!!VOTE SOCIALISTn

VINCE ARTHUR. . . MAYOR "HANKn PORTER. • • CITY COUNCIL FRED MINTZ ... BUROUGH PRESIDENT

OUST THE CORRUPT PARTY PUPPETS AND HAVE A CLEAN CITY!!

On the cover there was a picture of e a ch candidate and a short paragraph about him. Abie looked a t it for a minute and then placed it ba ck under Ma rvin's arm on the top of the r est of the copies • ••• Did she s a y fifty cents a piece or fifty cents for the bo th of us? ••• She said fifty c e nts api e ce . e •• O.Ko Let's go. The apartment house was n e ither new nor was it so run down that it gave the impression that it wa s a slum dwelling. The halls were painted a drab yellow and the floor was a dirty white tiled surface. The elevator was plastered with v aried testimonia ls, declarations of love and numerous epithets a imed a t the building superintendent and various tea cherso - 7 -

Marvin pushed the button a nd they spe d upwa rd to the top story. According to pla n, Ma rvin held the e l e v a tor door open while Abie ran out a nd dropped a pa per in front of each door; then he returned to the eleva tor a nd they desc e nded one flight. At the next ·.,,. ' stop Abie held the door for Ma rvin and the process continued. Thus .l'- they distributed the pa mp hl e ts to the inh a bit ~ nts of the first apartment hous e on Av e nue Ma Within an hour they had covered the other three houses. As the y wa lke d out of the last house, Abie

l ., ... turned t o Ma rvin: • •• Hey Marv, what are we gonna do with these extra papers?

-· -.'' ••• Ahh we'll throw them in some wastebasket. \ ·-.) . ~ :_·,· ' .. . ••• Yeah, but what if Mrs. Levy should see them? She'd know '."i it was us who did it • ••• O.K. We'll just return them to her • ••• But wh a t if she gets mad a t us for not giving them all away? ••• I don't know. So what are we going to do with the darn things? ' 1··· . . . ' ••• I don't know either. There was a l ong silence as each of the m sta red at the papers. Finally Marvin said : ••. What's a socia list? ••• That's like b eing a d emocrat • •.• My father's a democrat. "'! . . - " \ . ••• So is mine, but wh a t a re we going to do with the papers? • • • I don't know ~ ••• I got it! •.• Got what? , •. I know wh a t we 'll do with the pa perso We'll hand them out to people on the street. Tha t way we'll get rid of them and more people will get t o see them. O~K? Huh? ••• I guess it would be O.K o ••• You go first Ma r vin • ••• Oh no, not me . It was your idea, you go first . ••• Wh a tsa ma tter, you chicken? , •• No. It was your idea , tha t's ~ 11 . •.. Tha t doesn't ma ke a ny differencee I c a lled last so you have to go first ~ ••• O.K~ I'll l e t th2 b 3by have his bottle. I'll go first so the ba by won't cry. He gave the first p a per t o a n old m3n who wa s coming out of the b a kery. He took the p a p e r a nd gave Marvin a loud "dnnk you." . ··\ " Then Abie took the papers a n~ walked ove r t o a group of men who were standing in front of the a venue poo l r o om~ •.• Wh a tcha g ot k id? •• • Here 's s ome p a p e rs for you mister,

· ~ ·~ - : . The man wh o ha d s poken wa s a n amputee. His left pa nts leg was ne a tly pinned to his kneea He t ook a b Gtch of pa pers from Abie and pa ssed the m out to the me n who were standing around him. Afte r gla ncing thro ugh the pa pers one of the men s a id: .•.• What is it J oe? - 8 -

The amputee chewed his ciga r slowly : ••• Looks like Commie p a pers to me. The rest of the group nodded their heads in a g~eement. Abie and Marvin smiled a t each othe r a nd nodded their heads too • ••• Wh e re did you get this stuff kid? ••• From Mrs. Levy. She's going to give us each a half a dollar • ••• Who's Mrs. Levy? ••• She's Charlie Levy's mother. On 21st Street • ••• Any o f you guys know this dame? Y'know I'm getting pretty sick and tired of s eein this Commi e lite r a ture around here . It ain't right. And the worst thing is that they get these kids to pass it o ut for them. Ain't that right? The others nodde d the ir he a ds. He wa lked over to Abie and sna tched the r e st of the papers fr om him. He c a rried them over to the curb and dropped them on the sewer tra p. With the end of his crutch he stuffed them into the gra ted openings. Marvin was che wing his lip and ~ bie was trying to put his hands d eeper into the pockets of his jea ns. When all the papers were gone Joe returned where the "" ·. · ·. ; boys were standing. They moved closer t ogether. ••• See boys I done you a f a vor. Now you don't have to hand out the rest of those Commie papers • ••• What are we gonna tell Mrs. Levy? ••• Tell her to shove 'em. The men around him l a ughed along with Joe. When they stopped, Joe limped closer to the boys and leaned forward on his crutches: ••• I don't ever want to see you boys handing out those papers again. Understand? Beca use if you do I'll t ear your little asses ! . . . ' ~ apart. ••• Let's go Marv • • • • 0 .K • ••• Wait a second. You understa nd what I just said? Hey come back here. The boys were already half-way down the block • .. _:: . ·· _;_ ~ -~; •• .:.::~iey!~ ::;J _· ~-~ ci::. :i--~ ~· ~rc!. Yu u..i littl ,.; _ _ [, :I'ds!· 0; '~'c: b:tck here!! _) :.__· C:L .b l 8 Ck • . ;I_: t-J~ '-S -~r:in :J ·.:: >- r t".) _:er.,- -· -;:: hi · • ·:. : h :. r:. bi ::: • • • :·-__ 1 :) C c ~ - · C t l: 2 .: :::· i :: , l - • .:..· u~-: ~· - ~ y .c :::J. f unny _c.:· : L funny .-. · ~'1 o ..- l .; .: :Jl:l:..:· l ___; ii. L .1 . \ ·' .. ~ I :-;c · st'rir::_; ; ~ l ed i1 ·. .rJ.cr -_rd hC-'1 .' '.::.t.J c·u.r -=; i n __ ; ..: < . ..:;. wun:_; alon.; th .~ . ::.;' .i ... :.) . .siG.2 :;2.l~~~ . ·I' hen his crutch hit Cl s :Ja ll ~) ool r) f ~ 1 2 t er and it slid out fro .:i under his a r ·I1pi t. In a _;1omcnt h2 1ms lyinc on the cc•nent. Abie a nd >L1rvin took o ne l a st look at hi :· i anl ti.Len diset. ~)IJ C3..r ed around th8 cornor.

· .L

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A SEQUENT TOIL OF SONNETS

C. G. Bell

Even the muse seems to have an eye for gain. So at St. John's '• l. :. the writing of sonnets enjoys a spring vogue. I thought in this _ I'•. connection I would exhibit some of my earliest efforts. They may seem more relevant here than what I am writing today. For at Oxford twenty-two years ago, I was just beginning to versify. True, I was twenty years old; but until a year before I had thought of myself as a physicist. Now I was reading English Literature, and among other things I had memorized most of the sonnets of Shakespeare and Donne. When cash was offered by our college magazine for poems, I did a sonnet in haste and submitted it with the following note:

I hope you will not hold it against me that love of money causes me to display what discretion would otherwise have kept hid. I have seen foolish verse in your magazine, but none so foolish as this.

He took it with more praise than it deserved.

At that time I was naturally involved in a couple of crossed love affairs, affording subject matter of the usual kind. One night I remember beating my head against the wall; but not getting much satisfaction from that, I took up a block of wood that served as a door stop and hacked it with my pocket knife into the face of a devil, my hands devilish raw. The next night, no wood offering, I wrote off a sequence of four more sonnets, to be exp~nded the next I ! day into six, and later, with the first one, to ten. The form, as I progressed, gravitated from Shakespearian balance tow~rd the stress of Donne. The poems, however, as gathered up here do not quite reveal the order of composition:--

c ·i . : A SEQUENT TOIL OF SONNETS (March, 1938)

·'·2 .• When we first met, if I had only known One careless mom e nt would beget in me This brood of longings -- sweet, I would have flown Beyond the limits of the polar sea, And in that climate tenanted alone, Before surrendering up my liberty. I did not long for love; I made no moan Upon the night air. It has come to be Without my a sking. Should I now condone The passion I have o.a:I..ed infirmity? I blame myself. I lay me down and groan. Yet all my groanings cannot set me free. Then do not add your censure to my own; But let me come, and reap, though I've not sown.

3. Why must you meet with scorn what I propose And turn to poison my expected bliss, All things bestowing that augment my woes, Yet stubbornly opposing me in this? Your presence? 'Welcome, take it if you please.' I know. My wit relieves your empty mind, And my a ttention brings you that sweet ease Which left alone your dulness could not find. Your h and, your look, your kiss, you grant them well; And when you've granted these, you think me blest. But I mus~ tell you, I consume in hell, Because, sweet love, you fear to grant the rest. 0 leaYe your fear, submit to my control; A part has pleased you, why not in the whole?

:4•• It is not thus you love me, you reply. A ' stupid love, tha t f a ils t o recognize Its parent and its child! I know your eye Feeds on my form with gladness. I surmise By your fast breathing that this kiss has power. Why will you flee the game you followed long; Why close your eyes on love's most lovely flower? If, as you say, you love me, do not wrong Yourself, your pleasure, love, my love, and me. We stand now on the summit of the world, rind time itself inclines t o our decree. In one bright garden lilies are unfurled. 0 hear me, love, and come as I r equire; The love we have is only love's desire. - 11 -

How can the wat0ry flame of your faint love Wrap me about in such hard-bellowed fire? Or how the sperml ess l ooks you proffer of Beget in me such sturdy-boned desire? You never spoke me fairer than your face, Nor is your face more lovely than your form, Your form's below your mind, your mind's a place Where dullest notions live in dark and swarm. You never can be loved, and yet my want, Which is hard lust -- h~rd, for the deed of kind You scorn, and t ake it for a thing too gaunt To lie beside your fulness. And so blind, So mad am I, that still for you I call, Despite your fJulness, coldness, dulness, all.

Then let us part. I can no more cJntend With eLlptiness the sight of joy must breed. If you refuse me love, why call me friend? Your friendship only plants forbidden seed. Why do you smile on me when you are sure Your smiling must revive the love you kill? Why tempt me newly with a proffered lure That wakes a hunger it will never fill? The blessing of your presence is a curse So long as presence adds to my desire, . , · And by a partial bl essing renders worse The torture c f unconsu~mated fire. It will be better for my peace of mind To seek no more the love I cannot find • . f .

If there are torments for me, let them rage; If a ll the spiteful forces of the world: War, weakness, famine, penury and age, Can work me anguish, l et them a ll be hurled Upon my quivering flesh, till I cry out In unrelfecting agony of soul. Let sickness plague. Let persecution shout Around my serpent-serried form; and roll My resurrected corpse in roaring hell Ten years encompassed in a night of pain, .J. With never fading fires. Do! Do! Yet quell The fiercer fires that riot in my brain. All earth's affliction I would r~ther bear ;- .·,· Than living, searching, thinking, in despair. - 1 2 -

Take me away on some deep shrouded night When I am s itting in remembrance bowed, And bear me from the world of wished delight, Cradled in the dark f olds of a cloud. Then set me down in silence where the loon Alone gives a n s we r, and the long night long I shall n ot look to see the phthisic moon, Or hear the nightingale's c on s umptive song. Le t my companions be the barred screech owl, The gra y mo t h and the bat; let no star stare, But mist blow past me , while the l ow winds howl . Le t h eav e n be dark and the wh ol e earth be bare, And n ot one t empting form tha t night appea r: Bea uty and h ope -- these are the p owers I f ea r~

Well, we have bickered, severed, gone our wa ys, 4 n d found more t or ment in our life apart ~h an all the burning o f the lusty blaze Of passion stirred t o madness could impa rt. Our da ys together were a n age o f pain - Abortive twisting for d e nied content; Our nights apart were shadows o f disdain Whose slee pless tongues rehearsed t he days' dissent. Ea ch &ay o ut-damned the day that damn ed before, Each night gave night a ~e ·ase of s a dder power; And day t o day and night to night wronged more; I thought "-poo.r h·e ...ll: had squandered its dark dower. Then a bsehce c ame with worse -- a nd I return Begging for l ove: in hell, l ove , l e t me burn!

Thro ugh your neglect such torment I have known As you must answer for a n Judgment Day; And through my c rue lty you have undergone Such griefs as, aft e r life , I must repay. Since all the sorr ows that we bear alive But tie our souls from j oy, i s it done well, By damning disagreement thus t o strive With pains on eart h t o purchase pains in hell? No. I will r athe r here be k ind to you , h nd you shall grant me a ll for which I y earn ; Divided joy shall so receive its due And mutual blessing me rit just return. Thus I bestow on you a nd you on me, Thro u gh pr;es.eht joy:, tjoys id.·ei1et·'"n"i. t.y;,:/ :, ·(.. ·.J· . • - 13 -

Well 1 all is done . My love was nothing more Than passionate necessity of flesh ; And, absolution granted , I deplore The bait that lured me to this fowler's me sh . My appetite, though tokened love, was pain, And tort ured me with lavas of desire, Until my mounting passion could obtain The satisfa ction of expended fire. Of this abortive love I had no joy, But only wish to have and then regret, That having had should recklessly destroy The longing that importuned me to get . And still I know that other wants impend, Which I c a ll love; yet propheay their end .

Ten months later I had given up Elizabethan decorative construction. I began. t o . see the sonne t as a form of stripped utterance , so condensed as to be almost cryptic n The influence of Donne had been supplemented by that of Hopkins . Run-ons, half- and internal-rhymes, with all devices of sprung stress and t ensile syntax were used to heighten explicit meaning, which, as it seemed important to me, I paraphrase thus:

The life o f a late civilization is a voluptuous trespass leading to world-we ariness and spiritual hunger. Pardon, with new faith, a new c y cle , is granted only in the penance of a Dark Age, which is thus spiritually desired as it is materially feared. For this reason Ro ~e fell, initiating the angular Byzantine, and Crete ( or bett er My cenae) fell , introducing the Geometric style of the Greek Dark Ages. In the paradox of possession and non possession ~ we should recognize the penitential fall before us as life and blessing in disguise 9

This was the poem: ON THE GEOMETRIC STYLE (February , 1939)

Penance is, to pay for trespass, only The path to pardon, and pardon's fulness not Built but on hunger, wherefore Rome fell And Cretan softness~ Mournful stood many, As when t he whip strikes, self-wielded. Well May the l a s h be longed for and lame nted. What Sage can affix our blessing, of pain or gladness? Who gives his life finds it ; paradox, such :. ! Is our wisdom, and ends with grasping, lifeless . ~ . In conquest , as who runs and drops dead. Touch '.. ,, . ··· , · .. No strin g of sorrow, the sweet sound rots To the cor e . What is lost? Death. And ahead penitence, Pai n , crudeness, desert earth or worse , bare plots Of stone , now known or last dependence. ... ~ :

·.'.··· MENO REVISITED: A SEMI-SOCRATIC DIALOGUE

·. ·..... Ray Davis . ') ..·· • : .• t . ~ Characters of the dialogue: Socrates, and a certain former slave boy

...... '. of Meno's

Here I am: Meno's slave boy. Don't you recognize me, Socrates?

Meno of Thessaly, you me an? That Meno , who is the only Meno I know, h as many slaves, and I b e lieve I have no reason to remember any of them. Furthermore, it has been severa l years since Meno has come to Athens. Apparently he is more a t ease in Thessaly in the company of Gorgias and his band of n on-existe ntialists than with us in Athens who, having few a nswers for him, offer only questions. Has he, at last, , ,:1 ·.. : ,. ·. 1.. ~ J • grown tired of a life full of answers and returned to us? Or do Meno's . .. slave boys go traveling without him?

.1 ·; .·.\ . \.- ~~ .: . . , Meno remains where yo u imagi ne him to be, Socrates, and indeed :·.· ·. . . ~ his onetime slave boy has gone running off without him.

-:· ~ ...· I cannot believe Meno to be guilty of such an oversight: indifference to his belongings was not one of his shortcomingso You might, I suppose, . ;_ ;.. have slipped away from him by ste2lth, thinking in this way to slip away from your slavery .

..- ~ ..

It is true, Socrates 1 Meno did not see what I was up to, but I .- ·. ~... have left him behind in a much mo r e final way than fleeing where he could not follow. I have gotte n my fre e dom from Menoo ...· .·:. Though I still h a ven't recallea your place in my memory, I rejoice with you, if indeed you are free and not just gijdy from being away from · your master for the first timeo However, there does seem to be something present in you tha t would be out of pl a c e in a slave: your bearing has · a touch of pride, and your manner is somewhat more direct than one would • •• "1••• •• expect to see, even in a freedma n of a few months, Tell me, are you the creation of one of the comic p oets, escaped into rea lity and come to torment me, or a more we ll-behaved crea ture whose story c an be heard by all without embarrassment, and wh o might even sp~ak instructively? Please tell us who you a r e and what you a re up to"

Strange that you should not remember me, Socrates. Apparently :, ~ .l . : I was even more benea th regard a s a slave than I could have known. For , ,: . · 1 we have met before, in, though it seems to have been for you an ordinary

~ .. .. · day, what was for me the most memorable of occasions. Meno, acc ompanied by many slaves, had come to Athens, and was t a lking with you. At one point you gave up t alking to him a s an equal and began to demonstrate

'. · , :. '.'" .: _;_. - ~ :._. a proof of your argument, much in the manner of a geometer or sophist ~ ... · .. '. . ~ lecturing his pupilso Your proof was to reveal how knowledge could come · into a head that did not know, through a use of question and answer. In tha t instance the knowledge was a geometry theorem and the head that - 15 -

did not know was mine. I had not listened too closel y to your previous conversation: Meno I c ould not tol erate and you I coul d not understand; but, during your proof, as I mechanically nodded my head, answering yes (any of Meno's slaves would have done t he same) -- a surprising thing happened. I began to wonder what it was I was undergoing. When, upon reaching the end you pointed out to Meno tha t now I knew something I could not have been taught before , and had somehow brought it up out of my own mind, you l e f t me confused and dumbfoundeda For did I know? I c ould not have r e c alled a s i ngle q uestion to which I 1 d answered yes, let a lone sum up what we'd done. The sketch of the square was t here on the ground, completely unintelligible to me. What had passed between you and me was all in a whirl in my head. Two thi ngs stuck in my memory from that d a y though : one was Meno's r emark 11 I feel somehow that I like what you're saying", the other your remark that 11 we shall be better, braver, and less 11 helpless i f we think that we ought to inquire • The two remarks wer e

like st ones along the beach 1 or flowers th,J. t one finds a nd takes along and trea sures, never fully knowing why.

Ah slave boy , I do recall the incident and yo ur place in it. The point of the demonstrati on was a imed at Meno's head, and not a t yours, yet it seems to have lodged in tha t one least expected. How little the gods a llow us t o see of what we are doi ng in life.

When Meno l ater .spoke of your demonstration as a hoax and grumble d ab out : .. :\· your tactics in argument, which employed slaves who would only answer yEs, I continued to nod my head in agreement but: marvel of marvels, it was becoming clea rer to me why I disagreed with him a t heart. For before we had returned to Thessa ly, I had attempt d to clarify that geometry t heorem, a nd failed, a ttempted and fail ed, and tota lly miserable unless I could reca ll it, a ttempted , and with the help of an old s l ave in the h ousehold, continued until I 1 d mas t ered it. To carry that theorem intact and inviola te in my mind was like holding a god inside oneo It wasn't long before I was wheedling geometry proofs from a ny of the slaves who t a ught in the _ household, and eavesdropping avidly on Meno and h is fr ~E~dso After a time, I knew from what I heard from Meno that my grasp on geometry was surer, more understanding, a nd as extensive ~s his, and further; seeing tha t he ·

was, in character ~ vain, obdurate 1 and given to arguments that were fashion able rather t han defensible or brave, I thought it outrageous that he sou~d be fr ee a nd I s l aveu But I hadn't money to buy my freedom .

So you b egnn as a geometry proof, and have become a geometer. It's not strange then , that having begun as a slave, you should wish to become the ma ster "

The master chanced on me, the geometer , working out a proof in

. . .1 : the sand, a nd knew me at once for the accomplice in your proof, though ... ·. ~ · nearly four years had lapsed , a nd he knew a lso that he had not seen me a t this before. Thinking I was only playi ng and dreaming of the day of

our combined t r iumph over him 1 h e began to joke with me and wagered I could not r ecall t hat theorem " I returned his jokes curtly, surprising him, and continued them in a manner so as to i ncense him. Suddenly the wager became serious and my manumission was at stake. The proof was easily shown, and he, without hedging, carried out the terms of the wager. And · 11

16 -

this must h a ve b e en t o his mind t he only ungue nt f or his injured v a nity, for he s eemed not unha ppy to s e e me on my way . It wa s a high moment for me, and I felt much like Odysseus, whom Hom e r describes a fter ba thing upon his arriva l in Phaecia a s nra dia nt with come liness a nd gra ce". And my arriva l in Athens finds my fe e lings still s oa ring.

Then you are not dishonest or demented a s I first suspe cted; you are free from Meno and full of h opes. And you ha ve come to Athens, I suppose, to find a ne w and b e tter ma ster?

You must indee d t hink me de mented, Socra tes, to suggest I should want a new master, or dishonest in t e lling you tha t my freedom through learning ha s r a ise d my spirits a nd ma de me f eel inspired. I wouldn't be likely to flee from one prison to another. My r e ason in coming to Athens is to b e come your pupil.

I have h eard it s aid, sla v e boy, tha t once one achieves what might be called a n insight , t h a t i s, wh en he truly s e es some thing to be so f or

' i : . the first time, he the r e upon b e comes his own t eache r. This a ppea rs to ha ve happened to you, a nd f a r fr om my demonstra t i on with you being a hoax, it is evident that your lea rning wa s a r e sult of c e rt3 in questions lodging in your mind, compelling y our s earch for the ir a nswer s. So you see, I, thus, became your tea cher a nd you my pupil without a rr ~ ngement. But if we are now to become pupil and Leac her by a rra ngement you must understa nd me better. You know, for e xample , tha t I am a l way s a sking a nd answering questions?

Yes.

A good me rcha nt would n ot dispense his g oods without exhibiting them. Therefore , l e t me e xhibit mine to you. Would you s a y you are free now?

Certa inly, Socra t e s.

And y e t you were e nsla v e d?

Tha t's true, Socra t e s .

Ca n you be ensla v e d to nothing? Or must you be ensla v e d to something?

To something, of course .

And n ow t hat you a r e free you a re fr e e from wha t you were ensla ved to , or a re you fre e from s ome thing e lse ?

From wh a t I wa s e n s l av e d to, Socra t eso

And wh a t we re you ensla ved t o?

To Me no . - 17 -

Were you ensl a ved to Meno or to those actions on your pa rt that were called forth be cause you were h i s s l a ve a nd he was your ma s ter?

Socrat es, I don't understa nd.

It i s natura l tha t you shoul d be confused. You won your freedom from Meno, and therefore you thi nk it was he wh o de termined wheth e r you would be free or enslaved. The pr oof tha t there i s something e lse at wo r k is tha t, e v en before you ha d means to achieve it, you considered yourself

· :1 · '· _; . ... a free man. Think of it this wa y: wa s it the presence o f Meno himself or r a the r the things tha t you did f or fl eno tha t cha r a cterized your sla very? ·

Clea rly, Socra t es, the things I did f or him.

Then you we r e e nsla v ed to t he things you did for him?

Ye s.

And wha t would you s a y those things to h a ve been, patient boy?

Simple enough, Socra tes. I followed him when he asked it, did a s he directed, and whe n qu esti oned a nswere d bri efly and cautiously.

An a pt description, but I'm sure nothing ha s appear e d that was new t o your mind. Now you must have noti ced my questions we r e quite common place, neithe r marvelous nor extraordina ry. For a me r cha nt displaying his wa res, I have been l ooking r other like a dealer in old clothes and second-hand s a ndals, a nd I a m certa in I ha ve l ong l os t my one prospective customer.

You c a nnot discoura g e me s a eas ily , Socra tes. I shall continue to loiter i n your shop, a n d b e a t ha nd when this wily s h opkeep er brings his tre a sures out from under the r a gs. You ha ve not ch ~ nged my mind.

Rash soul! Do you know wha t you a re s a y ing? Do you me an to stay a s my pupil?

Yes , tha t i s wh a t I mean.

And you will f ollow me a b out, uninvited, c a tching at my e very word?

Your crue l est irony coul d not drive me away .

And you would read Home r , or study music, geome try , astronomy, or di a lectic, should I cha nce t o rec omme nd it?

Without a mcment's h~sitation.

But you will c e rt2 i nly p a use b e f or e submitti ng t o my quest i ons a g ain! - 18 -

Socrates, at the v 2ry first one you pose I shall a nswer as r a pidly and wisely as I can.

Then, poor boy, you are blinder than Oedipus t o your own misfortunes . You thought you had esca ped a sla very when y o u l e ft Meno, yet you ha ve given yourself ove r to one much harsher; for you will follow me even when I do not wish it, do whatever I direct, a nd a nswer a ll my questions. Though I c a nnot even g ive you, a s Meno did, food a nd shelter. You h ave delivered yours elf to a n ew maste r, without eve n enquiring whether he will be better or worse tha n t he one you've left.

;. · . But Socrates, I a m not ha nding myself over t o you as to some headstrong tyrant to do with me a s you wish. Is no t a nswering a lso one of your t eaching devices? I shall certa inly be critica l if you only ma k e dema nds. '.· And if we have a difference, to whom sha ll we turn to settle it ?

To any fairminded bystander, I suppose.

And if they differ with us, what then?

Yes, and it might go on and on. To whom shall we turn, Socrates?

Will we not turn to philosophy whose a rgument will compel us all to follow, no.matter on whose tongue she appears? She it is who will be your new master. And will you do those ma ny sla vish things for her, this relentless and many-guised goddess?

You torment me, Socr a tes, because you think I do not understand what I am doing. But let me show you the cont rary is true: you would ad~it that there are certain things which being neither good nor bad in the m selves, are determined by the ends which they serve?

I understa nd the difference, in b a ttle, between running towards and running from the enemy.

Then , a re not the a ctions we described, a s chnra cteristic of a slave, of this sort? Bad wh e n used for no othe r reason thnn to please a master, but good when followed in order to a ttain understa nding? And of the certa in value of the l atter I've ha d 2vidence in the r esults of my first experience with you: from that c :::i.me my knowledge of geometry a nd from that my freedom. It contra sts remarkably with my experience o f the former; the prospect o f that mechanica l, life less sta te wa s of one tha t would never end. And herein I distinguish my new master from my old. Meno would wish to keep me forever; philosophy enslaves me in order t o set me free.

Very good, my friend, not only I ha ve recognized you now but philosophy a s well, a more valuable friend to ha ve. But I have a question:

; i~ - 19 -

would you s a y th~t a thing which is good is lmpA irod 0r jnc r c~scd by jts continuo. tion?

If a thing is truly good, Socr3tes, one wo uld wish it to endure. . . ' .~ .

. .:. 'I.. . ·: ; ' ~. . .. And you h a ve acknowl e dged philosophy to be a g o od ?

Yes.

And, furth ermore , those a ctivities which philosophy d emands of its initiates a re a good?

Without a do ubt .

. i . . .. And the continua tion of philosophy will b e a good?

..; Yes •

. "~ : . ~ .. Then,_ clea rly __so will those. a ctivities- which a r e its r ites?

You are trying t o teach me ~at~~nce~ _ Bocr a t es.

Much more, slave boy, f or I . cannot help feeling tha t you a r e still in-flight, a nd will n o t be con tent with us long if o ur business begins to wear the aspec t of the a i ml .essness o f life und_er 1'1eno , and t o l ose the bra ve, strong char .~ cter of the slave maki ng his first s tride.s away ~ ro m r : bis ma ster. You must not be disco uraged when you dis cover tha t you h a ve many master&, even as a fre edman, a nd you must be on y o ur guard when you encounter the most formida ble o f your e nsla vers, ign or a nce. He c annot be hoodwinked a s Meno wa s • . .. t Some men, c hild, -compa re t h e condi tion.s life i mp oses t o the possible experience o f a wakening from sleep t o find on e.self in a c age , a nd t h ey question whethe r one would then ponder his situ3.tion thoughtfully or b e gin vigorously t o somehow force his W3 Y o ut. We h onor t he annl ogy but not its suggestion of a solution, for, a nd y o u will a ttes t I' m sure, intellectua l experience a lone c a n justify itse lf as s urmounting the traps life h a s erected about uso

The a n a logy, in anothe r r e spe ct, is weak be c ause it b a lks at sta ting c onditions a s h a rsh a s they a re: it is n ot one cage but, a s we experience them, a n e ndless succession of cages. Suggested to our minds is the structure o f a v a st prison hous e filled .with cells, some a s base as s o litary confinement where neither light n o r huma n compan~onship a r e found, others,less unpleasant. And i t is a considera ble puzzle t o us, for though the re is n o way we can see out of the prison house its~lf, we d o experience passing from our c e ll t o a mo re pleasant onen We desire a g uide to lea d us through the cells s o we do n o t stumble into worse .o nes tbu. n 1,.. rhere we began, and in order t o avoid the horrors of s olita ry c onfinement. The only guide we can conceive of a s p ossibly c a p a b le of this a nd perha ps o f . solving the riddle of the prison h o us e itself is the intelle ct. She a l on e might show us the way from our s l ave ry. ,·.

OVERTURE Theodore S tinchecum

Licentious halls might weep where we have a l so wept at judgments; yet hair falls against angels ' faces like harp strings disturbing marble in helplessly delicate laughing tones.

Halls echo resonance upon resonance, weeping and giggling beating in dissonanceo It is only sound. Children weeping in wonder ask: is it laughter that frightens us so?

Why for instance must the mask be white, so that even if we betray its bland f a ce, the arranged countenance remains and the barrier still screams with white values, while giggling judges a ccuse the l aughing?

Still the hall weeps and giggles too. And a bird is somehow important.

from Masque in Vout, a Play, 1950

.i:_

.. -.:

. ~ JOHANNA AND THE ELDERS

(Fragment for Glockenspiel)

Theodore Stinchec um

Johanna , it must be understood, mad e her own distinctions in a world which was for her a l most wholly continuous. This world was without a horizon; and even t he alternations of light and dark which signify for o t he rs the passage of time and the visual properties of objects, in her seven yea r old cosmology might go unnoticed if not some how attached to the much more s i mp le and vastly more i mmedia te system of cla ssifica tion with which she me t the outside.

The outside, for Johanna , was roughly divided into the terrible and t he not terribleo The t e rrible was , a t a ll cost, to be avoided; the not t errible was sought aft er with an incredible directness . Uncle Luther was , f or exampl e , terrible since he was deaf a nd dumb and a t e lint; the Methodist minister was t errible since he shouted a nd s aid the word HELLo Aunt Moth was not wholly t errible, or rather, she was at times not t e rrible since she heard angels singing. Ange ls were wholly not t errible a s was c andy.

* * * *

It was within this wo rld of extremes t hat Johanna embarked on tha t fragile cha in of events, that improbable concatenation, which l e d to her final s a nctification in the Baptist tent, to her argume nt with a n electric guitar. But we a r e here concerned only .l: · _' : with the first of that i nexorable s equence, the remarkable moment when, for the first time , the wholly terrible a n d the wholly not terrible were for Joha nna ama lgamated. Johanna ha d her first experience of concavity a t t he Sr.apses.

The Snapses were thems e lve s improbabl e people wh o lived in the most improbabl e house in Browni ngsville . Th e house ha d bee n built (for unknown r easons) on the hi ghest hill in the town and had b een (for e v en l ess known r easons and no d isce rnible pra ctica l purpose) built on what everyone c 2ll ed stilts. It was a dry wooden house with few rooms on rotten sticks; and, like t heir house , the Snapses were a lso dry, somewhat stiffj h ad few thoughts, we r e ( a ll three of them) quite t a ll a nd p ast the t i me o f their dy ing.

The trio of straw never l eft its home a nd had it not been for wh a t was in the beginning good will and was not an old habit, the Snapses would h ave died of hunger, or cold, or disease, or time.

But Browningsville kept them a live, fed them1 warmed the m a nd preserved them in time . The Snapses we r e, a ft e r a ll, a n a na chronism; a nd Browningsville, on this eve of the First of the Great Wa rs, ha d its own s e nse of being i tself an anac hronism a nd protected a nd prolonged its kindo - 22 -

Johanna WGs, of course, terrified at the prospect of spending an hour a we ek with the Snapses. She had cried a nd protest ed violentiy a gainst this t e rrible thing but without success; and when, a t Saturda y singing, even Aunt Moth had, from her pla ce a t the organ , looke d a t her disapprovingly, she knew tha t every hope had f a iled her and she was swa llowed up into her we ekly duty of threading needles for the Misses Snapses~

Thus, each Thursda y a ft e rnoon Johanna , trembling in all her thirty-six inches , c limbed the drea ded stairs, and held her brea th in terror as countless threads traversed countle ss apertures. She was invariably offe r ed tea, though her mother never had let her drink it; and she was inva ria bly nauseated, though whether at the we a k non-sugared brew or the thought of spilling fluid or breaking the cup caused this it were impossible to discern. Johanna h ad only one plea sure in all this d ry torture: beca use her eyes were tea red more often than not, e ither out of self pity or the strain of pushing the endless threa d through the whole hour, light was refracted plea santly through their water. In the l a te aft e rnoon the sun would be caught up in the three pairs of spectacles on the white , inscrutable faces of the Snapses.

Ordinarily Joha nna avoided a nything more than the most furtive glances a t the old oneso Certainly they looked not a t her, so much so tha t, a t times, she wondered if perhaps she had disappeared. But the sun c a ught in the spectacles was not wholly terrible a nd on one momentous a ft~rnoon Johanna became quite lost in frankly sta ring. The n eedles a nd the threads dropped unnoticed from her lap as she stood to get a better v~ ew of the orange in old Mr. Snaps' transformed metal frames. Into this preoccupied silence the hitherto unheard voice of old Mr. Snnps broke like the hissing of a n enormous snake. The words were indiscernible, mere ly t e rrible . Johanna heard only three: See for yourself. At this moment the a nima ted straw stood before her and quickly put on her the fragile optical mechanism; and the world, for Johanna , fell with a screaming un-noise into a pit, tha t concavity into which her feet were now stuck f a r from her e yes. And at this moment , too, a part of Johanna quietly slipped out of time into a we. THE SECTION OF AN INTERPRETATION OF THE CARTESIAN LEVELS OF PERFECTION

Eyvind Ronq ui.s t

The lean wa tchdogs do not travel Inte llect Because their hungry nerves regrind Constantly the food of night in sil ence. They wait for noise to meet their rage.

But in the c a stl e the bony- princess Ima gination Watches her finger and pra ctice s chess. Placed surrounded in the spire, Tries to see to the moat and the river

Where peasa nts make a festival The Body Wh ile unexpected conc 8aled bl ~ sts Shake the tent pole, and a lost child Wipes its nnsty fac e on a m2ssy d oll •

. : i.i " Pa st corne rs houses empty b l ocks Space A person would n tt0mpt to run to hold His abs e nt greyhound's b ody, cold And mis s ing from the thought of t o uch.

Awake in b a nging drums cla p ping Atoms Crowds grab him back, a ngry acroba tso Rocking specta tors sna p a p -'- 1l a use Ha ving taken dre ams for wh a t the y cra ve. ON SENTENCES

Eyv ind Ronquist

As h e was f ixing cof f e e i t occurred. A thought i mme dia t e ly found its shape, Suggesting consequences . 'Sta ring agape Into t he disma l p it where smoke had blurred The earthen f a ces, mumb ling tympaoic words.' He pra i sed the soul tha t if one wa its ' They a l ways come, a nd poured to s eparate The coffee grounds; he would write it later.

Increasingly a s he considered it He became r estless that the r e truly was Such hidden meaning a s his image told ( Which wo rds , tho ugh, you and I will n e ver me e t). Until on P. night the dista nt thunder rolled, And lightning scri bbl ed unknown messagesm TIME I N THE WEST I S AN ARR OW; TIME I N THE EAST IS A POOL.

No~l Meriam

How they have s lipped away: d e cades, years, mon ths, and weeks, seconds, minutes, hours, and days. Drying bones creak. Speak and the word flies a i ml essly, a colored leaf from crooked boughs~ nami ng only things that d i e, praising onl y now. SESTINA

Noel Meriam

When we bega n, our separate worlds we r e one, For as we me rged , so did our visions blend. We walked our days toge the r, dawn to dark, Each seeing what the othe r s awa Th e way

Things were wa s beautiful 1 and in your face, This conjunction s eemed more than a dream.

We moved through nights almost beyond a dream , And as the hours s lid away one by one, In secr et places, B2auty ba red her face, Showing a pool where night a nd love did blend Stars, wa ter, smooth skin, and the swe2t way Our fingers turned to l a ughter in the dark.

The morning when you v a nished in the dark Opened a chasm, shattered the single dream; Our worl ds diverged once more. I ask what wa y, And why did we lack the courage to clasp the one S olution for us ? Wh a t lost c a uses blend To build a fear th ~ t bea uty c a n' t efface?

I h a ve dre amt the beauty tha t you f ace Now on the i s l and. I can f e e l the dark Vegetable lushness pressing your back to blend Gr e en, parrot- screaming , chatter-jungle-dream And the blue, blue sea toge ther, making one Gigantic Gaughi n" I imagine it that way,

But missing some esse nti a l p a rt, the same way Some crucia l t hing in the bea uty that I face Is gone~ Consider tha t bea uty has more tha n one Aspecto This wi nte r-riven bay , wine-dark Below my fro ste d town in its wind-wr apped dream, Has of beauty its own p e culi a r blend.

But s ome thing subj e ctive is missi ng from my blend Of ima ges, miss ing in such a way That ev0ry f a ir thing dis appea rs, my dreams Ca use sudden anxious wa kings; Beauty's f ace Trembl es , flick e rs a nd v artishes in the dark. The solut ion exists, as you and I are one.

Come love let us da r e to drea m a s one; Blending our worlds once more, we yet may f a ce The bea uty we c a st away into the dark.