AFTER the FACT Scripts & Postscripts
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After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 1 AFTER THE FACT Scripts & Postscripts After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 2 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 3 AFTER THE FACT Scripts & Postscripts a Marvin Bell and Christopher Merrill White Pine Press / Buffalo, New York After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 4 White Pine Press P.O. Box 236 Buffalo, New York 14201 www.whitepine.org Copyright © 2016 by Marvin Bell and Christopher Merrill All rights reserved. This work, or portions thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by grants from the Amazon Literary Partnership; the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and with the support of the Office of the Vice President of Research at The Uni - versity of Iowa. Acknowledgments: #1-10 Denver Quarterly #11-20 Conversations Across Borders #21-30 The Georgia Review #31-36 Ecotone #37-42 The Iowa Review #43-52 Prairie Schooner #53-58 Fiddlehead #59-60 december #61-70 The Georgia Review #71-80 december #81-90 The Georgia Review Cover image: “Against Perfection” by Sam Roderick Roxas-Chua, used by permission of the artist. ISBN: 978-1-935210-88-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015959242 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 5 Table of Contents Preface / 9 Scripts #1 Reunion / 13 #2 Joe / 14 #3 The Red Balloon / 15 #4 Burke / 16 #5 Aztec Two-Step / 17 #6 Code / 18 #7 The Score / 19 #8 Frankie / 20 #9 Prayer Rope / 21 #10 Kenny / 22 #11 Stories / 23 #12 Sylvester / 24 #13 SOS / 25 #14 Nat / 26 #15 Greystone / 27 #16 Mr. Pople / 28 #17 The Lake / 29 #18 Staircase / 30 #19 Breach / 31 #20 The Dock / 32 #21 Combs Hollow / 33 #22 9/11/01 / 34 #23 9/11/11 / 35 #24 Aesthetic Wobble #1 / 36 #25 The Unwritten / 37 #26 Skippy / 38 #27 Fodder / 39 #28 Celebrity / 40 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 6 #29 Yasnaya Polyana / 41 #30 Afterward / 42 #31 The Fountain House / 43 #32 At the Point of Death / 44 #33 The Bridge / 45 #34 Carlyle / 46 #35 Conference / 47 #36 Aesthetic Wobble #2 / 48 #37 Fairy Tale / 49 #38 The Evangelicals / 50 #39 After the Workshop / 51 #40 Luxury of Circumstance / 52 #41 From the Vineyard to the Sea / 53 #42 Forensics / 54 #43 Afghanistan / 55 #44 The Scope / 56 #45 Tactics / 57 #46 Aesthetic Wobble #3 / 58 #47 Proverbs / 59 #48 Aesthetic Wobble #4 / 60 #49 A Note on Aesthetics / 61 #50 On Time / 62 #51 Holding Action / 63 #52 The Revolution Needs a Song / 64 #53 Tamara Khanum ( 1906-1991 ) / 65 #54 Jack / 66 #55 The List / 67 #56 Aesthetic Wobble #5 / 68 #57 Angkor / 69 #58 Thermal / 70 #59 Utopia / 71 #60 Bled / 72 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 7 Postscripts #61 Meteor / 75 #62 Brown vs. Board of Education / 76 #63 Relativity / 77 #64 Radioactivity / 78 #65 Clive Wearing, March, 1985 / 79 #66 Hiatus / 80 #67 V / 81 #68 Haze / 82 #69 Kitty Hawk / 83 #70 Petty / 84 #71 Nu descendant un escalier n° 2 , 1912 / 85 #72 The Names / 86 #73 Brain / 88 #74 The Hat / 89 #75 The Performance / 90 #76 Critical Point / 91 #77 White Lines / 92 #78 Heat Lightning / 93 #79 The Act / 94 #80 Feverish / 95 #81 Soldier Aristotle / 96 #82 The Headless Horseman / 97 #83 Dolly / 98 #84 Effluent / 99 #85 Russell / 100 #86 The Dolly Zoom / 102 #87 Guff and Jive / 103 #88 Medicine / 104 #89 Happiness / 105 #90 The Ladder / 106 About the Authors / 107 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 8 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 9 Preface After the Fact: Scripts & Postscripts began as a sequence of sixty para - graphs written back-and-forth with Christopher Merrill over a pe - riod of fifteen months in 2011-12 . Having written sixty, we decided to go on to a second section. Hence, the subtitle, Scripts & Postscripts. Chris and I first met in 1978 . It was Chris, aware of the back-and- forth poems I had written with William Stafford—a series published in 1983 as Segues: A Correspondence in Poetry— who suggested we try something like it. It was to be thought of as poetry, but we decided on paragraphs which, it seemed, might better embody a wide range of experience and imagination. Chris has undertaken cultural diplomacy missions for the State De - partment to more than fifty countries. Hence, while I sent my para - graphs from Iowa City, Iowa; Port Townsend, Washington; and Sag Harbor, New York, Chris sent his from Uruguay, Chile, Russia, the Congo, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Viet - nam, Cambodia . Given the nature of Chris’s experiences and my predilections, as the sequence pushed ahead it took up matters philosophical, sociopo - litical and aesthetic. The title After the Fact, as well as the original work - ing title, Everything at Once, now seem apt characterizations of an international, postmodernist, digital age. — M. B. 9 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 10 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 11 1 Scripts a After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 12 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:31 PM Page 13 CM: Reunion You know the story: how the child disrupted the banquet, parading around the tables during the welcome address, knocking over water glasses before the toast to the former director, curtseying under the lectern until the keynote speaker decided to cut short his remarks on the meaning of success. Quite a performance , the hostess said as he left the stage. She smiled at the delegates, some of whom had trav - eled great distances to celebrate their good fortune—the fact that in their youth they had chosen to dedicate their lives to a cause which in the fullness of time proved to be more fruitful than they had ever imagined possible. The child was standing on her head. We must do it again , the hostess said to close the evening—and that was when the fun began. 13 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:32 PM Page 14 MB: Joe We were gathered in a student apartment in New Orleans for the Mardi Gras, an enticement to lure us to a writing festival of old pals afterward. I took a couch and went to sleep early. I wanted to locate the Zulu parade the next morning. That night, I dreamt of my old schoolmate, Joe Elephant. He lifted me in his arms in a bear hug. I liked Joe Elephant, a big person but not, as many were, a bully. I had not thought of him in years. Such a good memory suddenly from small town schooldays. All day at the parades, I remembered Joe Elephant. How a memory may surface without a visible prompt is a mystery for scholars of neurons, relays and the illusion of time, but habitual for poets. How happiness is its own reward, yet must be located. My own happiness continued for several hours until I realized I had never known anyone named Joe Elephant. By such mental shenanigans have I held the string of a balloon, and by such indirection have I been lifted, as one might be by nothing but syntax, where inner and outer worlds intersect. Of course, my Joe was the person I had known as Arnold DiCarlo, but I digress. 14 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:32 PM Page 15 CM: The Red Balloon The soloist broke a string in the last measure of the cadenza, and in the silence that fell over the lawn outside the amphitheater a child, letting go of her red balloon, shrieked in despair. Of the families picnicking in the shadows cast by the setting sun there was one unhappy couple folding paper plates into a garbage bag, each blaming the other for their disappointment in the festival program - ming, the selection of guest artists, the conductor’s banter with the crowd, and now they stopped to watch the balloon sail toward Dol - lar Mountain, which this summer they had climbed too many times to count, never pausing long enough at the top to take in the view—the tall peaks surrounding them, the valley stretching south - ward to the horizon . The orchestra waited as the violinist tight - ened then tuned a new string. The child ran to her father, demanding to be lifted onto his shoulders before the balloon dis - appeared from sight. What did the couple feel? Relief? Some things are better left unsaid. Another music filled the gathering darkness. 15 After the fact proof 1-19-16.qxp_Layout 1 7/13/16 3:32 PM Page 16 MB: Burke James Burke, the one-armed cornet virtuoso in the Edwin Franko Goldman Band, performs his nightly solo in Central Park, then makes a token move to return to his seat but turns and walks back out front to add an encore.