Friday, September 15, 1967 The Mac Weekly Page 5" SPANner Examines

The : A Travelogue-Collage by Ayn Davar "In the valley of the blind the one-eyed man is King."— Moshe Dayan

L Mats magic carpet cool soothe roughwom feet. by Jim Jannetta Dome covers Rock (Rock breaks sword, sword cots Dome), great slab of mother earth — Gea-Tellus. Last spring I was asked by this 1. White ball of frozen come, Muhammad's ascension throne. year's Weekly editor to write a But fiery feet, too torrid for this world, branded rocky remnant. series of articles on my summer Freshscrubbed youth, dawnrisen, marchstep thrn : Footprint in the sands of time. mens sana In sano corpore. abroad. I was a SPANner to Israel, Khaki troopers, Zion's firstborn sabrafruit. 4. that quiet little country in the Mid- Kadima cry rings air resounding. All Palestine gushes, pours forth youth. dle East. Little did we both know Front flies flapping banner, blueonwhite mogen davld: Jewry flowing swallowed up by 's jaws. what that would turn into (me—a Awave on pole shot up from leader's loins. Souls diverse in seeking stream toward lone relic of Brass ball sunradiant gleams; breath of roah, heavens hover. Judah's ancient greatness. The Wailing Wall, war correspondent!). Anyway, I Feetsound all inside; Herod's penetrated Square. second temple remnant, stands reminder. spent the summer in Jerusalem, "Shalom Eliechem" throats gusty gusty vibrate. But weeping and gnashing of teeth no more — Youth cresting circumcised rising swell. now rejoicing home of YHWH, tribal tetragrammaton. met many , and explored the (Old men tine walls, look on, jaundiced eyes gleaming; Romans no stone on stone proved liar — false oracle. Old City, formerly Jerusalem, Jor- spittle arches, falls, congeals dirt. Allah's will.) A landless nation nevermore shall be. Column oblique march down alley street; All stand awed alike, forces strangely gripping. dan. crowd parts, flows round. Easy access. These experiences suggested Lightyears of crustacean traffic. The Hundred Gates pours forth its creatures; Flag high flaunt-taunts. Hitler's ghetto remnant Hasidim, drawn by magnets. something other than a journalis- Corner rounded, troop disappearing echoes. Sidecurl-redbeard-beaverhat-blackwoolenfrock strides alien land. tic approach, and the result is the Vacuum closes, sucks. A corner to stake out. Wailing Wall Willie. accompanying work. All incidents Rockthrower in prayershawl shroud embraced, are based on observation, and/or 2. he touches, kisses stone. KASS participation, but do not purport to Dust flows all around. Morning sun catches creamgleam — mosque towers thrust upward. be factual. Many strands are inter- Towers of Babel. woven—Catholicism, hasidism, cur- Minaret msthinged doors no longer open; automated muzzchi. 5. rent events, etc., and it is the Greymetal speakers bloomsprout from pointed peaks. Needle erect finds record groove. Waterpipes filled, charcoal lighted. purpose of the acknowledgements to Voice lifts lilting Arab call: raga rock. Sweet hash, Ottoman pride, borne tenderly. help unravel them. Special indebt- "There is no God, and Mubammed is his prophet." (From Anatolia thru Syria, Amman, Ramallah It pierces Sulieman's Wall.) Volume blast splits air, crackling dirt dust groove protests. Coals ablaze, sticks smoulder, smoke bubbles up, lungs fill. edness is owed to James Joyce (Strange mystery — Abbasids breathe.) Sweetsick smoky smell engulfs the room. and T.S. Eliot, insofar as the Five times daily prayercall goes unanswered; Brain loosegrip timeandspace melted mildly swimming flow. Sand's Meccan East no longer sought; No hippies these; flowers withered long ago and died. product may be classified as litera- Islam, diied of nnmen, surrenders, too. The sun outside, the crowd, the soldiers, wives, children, lovers all ture. Other gods — a noise in the street; Nobodaddy. fall away. Needle scratches, skips, repeats, runs its course, rejects. Hadji Baba rules crosslcgged. Again silent, again the shadow. Foggy ruins of time mind in smoke ringdisappearing . ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A gentle calm, soul's torment long forgotten. (in order of appearance) 3. The incense offering ascends, seeks night thru windowcracks. Into the street the messenger of Lotus. H .G. Wells, Time, Fidel Shanak, Soldier polishboots rest. Jean Genet, Martin Buber, Ronald Angular body yawning stretches skyward. m. Firm kosherflcsh muscles ripple tanhair skin; Youngblood, The Boy Scout Manual, browneye glances dart keen, hawknose nostrils flare. i. The Fugs, Aristotle, JED&P, Syd- Rabin's skilltrained legionnaire. Black strapslung barrel pointing aims at sun; ney Nettleton Fisher, The Byrds, clean greaseshine glint of (not ) steel. The Oriental Restaurant beckons; hungry traveller. Koran, Rudolf Otto, James Joyce, Fldus Achates, haiitrigger clipready for seminal volley. Ascend the stairs, large prop stirs sultry air. Whiteflag shops lay tempting rape, flcshpots of Egypt. Walls thickhung plush saffron tapestry, William Blake, T. S. Eliot, The Peaceful coexistence soldier teases veiled native girls — divans, Damascus trays, garden lanterns from Japan — American Rifleman, Vergil, Alfred White man's burden. psychedelic guru's meditation room. Salle d'artente. Lord Tennyson, Moses, Nikita Blackbowtie Arab waiter hovers buzzing. 4. Menu culls exotic dishes forth: Khrushchev, Rudyard Kipling, Dr. manshaf, hoomoos, shashilk, musakhan. Benjamin Spock, The Dodge Re- Morning streetcrowd/'grows, swells. (But Goldstar wash, the nesher Hebrew mead.) bellion, Mark Twain, Gamal Abdel (Flyeyed babies weep behind walls — trachoma future.) Lapped in eastern luxury, lulled by music playing: Beggars chorus mother word of Arabic — baksheesh. Arab wails, Beatles, vintage Johnny Cash all juxtaposed — Nasser, Dale Carnegie, Count Folke Sleek young arab streetrats flash quickly dodge dart thru crowd. Oriental teeniebop. Bernadotte, Mad, Scientific Ameri- Whirlwind dervishes, batblind sonar explains. Cool nightbreeze freshens appetite and spirit. Young Dale Carnegie untouched salesmen in ragged castoff UNRWA clothes, But turgid waters murk the mystic cavern. can, Constantine Loizou, Adolph flies open, proclaim their wares: Hitler, Sophocles, Mao Tse-Tung, bubble gum, cigarettes, worrybeads, sunglasses, bagels, sab ras , Pepsi, Marco Polo, Ogden Nash, Thomas switchblades — Aquinas, Stokely Carmichal, Alan and pens — Shaeffer, Cross, Parker, Waterman, Bic all carry Arab agents. St. Stephen's Gate machinegun bullets echo. Mightier than the sword, this tattered band. Night lives with memories bouyant, but not displaced. Watts, St. Joseph's Missal, Mama- Hussein's hungry hundreds. St. Anne's carcass, lonely ghost, walls crumbling, looms: lujo, Ignatius of Loyola, Fried- Schooled in streets, watch destiny close before them: mortartorn wounds gape wide in stony flesh. airy dreams crushed on cobblestones. Rock crumbling plasterfallen; tabernacle host wormeaten. rich Waismann, Edgar Arlington Cool mausoleum damp floor duscovered paste. Robinson, John Foster Dulles, The 5. Brownyellow sulphrous spirits pour forth from fissures. (Byzantine inscription glares: PA.2 Jerusalem Post, Deuterolsaiah, Augustine, Friedrich Nietzsche, Shop gates yawn open. flatulent epithet.) Shining iron eyelids, new from Esnkol, bullctholcs gone, rise. Beside old church carrion older still lies bared in cistern holes. Sheherezade, Henry Wadsworth Christian Quarter, Greek Patriarch Street shrugstretches greeting day. Moonlight's honor fouled in stagnant pools. Longfellow, Flavius Josephus, An- Signs bid welcome, Greekarmcniancyrillichebrewlatinarab hello; Path downward slippery smooth Vaseline channel. owners set whitegold smiles. Passage echoes Crusader's heels. thony Azzo (S. J.), Eleph Milim, Seekers filter in, circulate, explore labyrinth with balls of string, A single Davidnebble ejaculated describes perfect parabolic path Theodor Herzl, The Baal Shem liragorot fresh jingling. (Descartes? Pascal? Newton? Euclid?) plummets swiftly (Egged Tonrs, LTD., flock firmly shepherded, 2 Tov, Marcus Aurelius, Issac Bashe- . .avoids the welcome: made In Israel uber alles.) (32 ft/sec ) out of sight, down the walled abyss, then detonates Araby products gleam: concentric circled pool: vis Singer, The Seer of Dublin, brassglass nubblybubbly, mother-of-pearl Omar, Damascus plate, filigree, Plop. Donovan, Dr. Timothy Leary, Rumi, Mao's urns. (Stock dwindling: Polo's traderoute closed.) 3. Homer, Plato, Bob Dylan (born Zim- Hagglers hang air heavy with many tongues. merman), John Fowles, The Gold- "In barter cunning Semites meet: Another tomb, still living, beckons lonely: together they could rule Wall Street." Queen Helen's church, sepulchre and the cross. star Brewing Co., Sonny & Cher, Extended lines of relation meet; booty hauled away. Inside timber arches vault in support — Archimedes, Franz Kafka, Section walls flabby by innumerable penetrations to be refurbished. Arab stonemasons' tinmetal shack outside deserted; 7, Carl Backlund, Jean Paul Sartre, no mastcrbuilder now, but silent namen. Henrik Ibsen, Don Peretz, The Bal- Five sects — a pope, some patriarchs, Egyptian Copts — timore Catechism, Ovid, Altizer & 1. seek custody of holy ground, Christ's death and burial. Eternal warriors; temple veil rented daily. Cox, Leon Uris, Albert Camus, A good war hallows and cause. Candy, Edward Albee, Arthur Black-on-black Abbysinian priest sweeps down Via Doiorosa, Descend the sacred tomb, both bed and springboard. Christ's black agonizing path. Flaming angel still awaits with news, Koestler, Bodhidharma, and the Introibo ad altare Del. metamorphosed to blackwaxcandlerobed Orthodox monk. Great Auk, . Highboned jungle whiteyes flash; Watts echoes glimmer. Dankdamp ceiling lamphung, walls ikoncd, but no tears flowing. Ebony robe cincturetied tight, dustsandles, patience beads. Crusader's (In a corner near the alter an Israeli soldier and bis girl entwine, cross. writhe, climax, sunder, sigh. Jungle drums and papal bull. Holy rollercoaster. Iconoclastic rite when god Is dead.) ("And taking his organ in his hand, he caressed It, stroked It, and SWAP waved It to his disciples, saying: Take and eat!' ". Staff Continued from Page Two of life.) 4. Priest meeting smilcgrcets Orthodox priest — Kyrlc clclson. It wasn't a challenge to live; it Together file past Roman numerals; The street again; choked with homeward exodus flow. was a delicious invitation. My flat- Veronica's cloth, Simon of Cyrcne, Magdelcne the whore, first fall. Boys vanish, ghosts of night, to sleep on rags and scratch at lice. mate and I were fond of repeating Pieces of Helen's true cross hawked, simony crls echo. Veils vanish, only harlots left — weaker vessels. Ecce Homo Arch looms — Pilate's question systematic ambiguity now. Old men sft cafestyle with pipes and coffee. a Samuel Johnson quote we had Black and white together lapped in Church's womb — Eyes grow wary — street perils after dark. come across, "When a man is tired virgin birth. They shall never come. At the sanitation crew begins its eternal recurrence task — Sisyphus, the old man counting peas. of London he is tired of life; for Snakchose uncoils and slithers; there is in London all that life can furpie broom, worn stubble, trundles out. afford." And now I am back at Bulldozeryellow D-9 cats prowl over earth. the tap turns (from Round wood reservoir In County Wlcklow) Rubble treaded, ruminated, excreted. a sickly flow of water seeks its level. Mac, trying to get into the familiar Nonstop trucks, Hashemite gifts, deliver stone unto Gehenna's fires. Stones brushed dampsmooth slimyshine in streetlight. rut of classes and studies. But my Aeonsold abodes fall prey to snarling jaws: The mucky deposit of pimps, priests, and pilgrims heart isn't in it, for I left my heart dominos in wartime. floats thru cracks to feet unsatcd sewcrats, gasbcllies bloated. 800 Arab households, doors bluepainted superstition, tumble. Lavabo, and walk round thy altar. with London. (Camps rising m Amman swell.) The body graveflesh white enbalmeu, awaiting shroud. Unite the city! — Kollcck's decree and battle cry. In looking back over it all, I Old temple remnant wall must breathe; 5. realize that there are flaws in the house foundations overgrown with park of green. Dust now the sceptre rules, triumphs in blinding whirlwind. SWAP program that should be cor- Dust thou art, to dust return — Now Xmaslit German Luther's tower proclaims the witching hour — rected. The .orientation sessions thus spake Zarathustra. Walpurglsnncht. were too repetitive, and not enough Now only dust stands home and park apart. Streets are wrapped in curfew proclamation. A lonely flatfoot strides bold the conquered lanes unchallenged. emphasis was placed on individual All shopfront eyelids closed. .<>; 3. Tombrock rolls in place — countries. Several sessions were Thud. more or less useless and could be Ancient Holy of Holies, ark and tablets, (To rise again at morning?) eliminated. We were treated just a gold Dome swells up: omphalos. The City, history's chronic insomniac, lies silent. Martellqlike it stands — round belly, taut vellum — Rest it seeks, the sweet salve of unlicked wounds. bit too much like children, instead fit now in sunlight as a naval base. Images swirl the day's nightmarish inventory. of the responsible students we sup- Arab marble finewrought facade glows — _ Then dormlr, but no shanrih. Koran's eternal beauty, unmarred by graven images. Jerusalem—Bethlehem—Bin GedX—Sodom—Beersheba—Gaza— posedly were, in order to be ac- Bathe dusty feet In Omar's basin, doff shoes at entrance. Ashkelon—Tel Aviv—Nctanya—Kfar Vitkin—Caesarea—Ein Hod cepted for the program in the first 3aifa—Acre—Sasa—Safed—Tiberias—Nazareth—Jina—Nablus—Ramallah- Cool hazy translucent light pours thru windows. . Jerusalem, 1967. place. , ..

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