CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE THIS MELTING HOUR A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in English By Anne L. Yale May2010 The thesis of Anne L. Yale is approved: Professor Dorothy M.Jr.1(' Pamela Bourbois, . Date Leilani R. Hall, Ph.D., Chair California State University, Northridge 11 Preface The love vision, one of the most popular literary genres of the Medieval period, narrates a tale in verse that inculcates the complex, but highly fixed value system of "courtly" love. By Chaucer's time, the generic conventions of the form had become strict and unyielding, as well. In the traditional fmmulaic ritual of the love vision, the narrator, awake and lucid, describes a paradisiacal setting, such as an orchard, the Garden of Love, or a park, often just coming into bloom in the early Spring. The speaker/narrator nods off in this pleasant setting, but does not remember falling asleep. Aware of the dreamscape, the speaker narrates the "dream vision" as it happens, so that the audience proceeds through the dream along with the speaker. The speaker/narrator wakes up, aware of his presence in the garden again, and in recalling the dream vision, realizes that the entire story was all in the mind. The paradisiacal setting that opens and closes the dream sequence(s) frame the dream vision narrative. The narrative of the dream conveys a "vision quest" in which the speaker plumbs the mysterious depths of the nature and meaning of love. In seeking Truth, this exploration frees the speaker/dreamer from the limitations of the corporeal body, also freeing the narrator from the conventional restrictions of daily life. In the dreamscape, the impossible becomes possible; surrealistic elements, including the rich use of symbolism that is often ambiguous, may be introduced; and the logic of the rational, or conscious mind becomes subverted by the logic of the "irrational," or sub-conscious mind. In this highly symbolized landscape, buried truths emerge from the normally idle sub-conscious, (with the aid of a dream-world guide) in the form of imagery, unrestricted by the interference of dogged interpretation by waking consciousness. The dream narrative functions as a medium through which prophetic insights, inspirational sources of comfort, and divine or extraordinary metaphysical experiences can be addressed beyond the oversight of the reigning social, political, or religious milieu - forces that thwart the open disclosure and discussion of controversial topics directly. Borrowing the genre's basic framework from his continental predecessors, Chaucer's innovations (besides writing in the vernacular of "modem" English) include using the love vision as a device for questioning the status quo of his time, subverting the conventional social order, and providing his audience with a wittily satirical poke at both the dying ritualistic forms of the genre, and the accepted feudal social order. Chaucer's use of the figure of the dream guide progresses over the span of the four love visions he wrote. Initially a guide to revelation, Chaucer utilizes the guide's characterization to deliver his own creative vision, revealing an allegorical debate on the true nature of love, one that is exacted through an inner (or psychological) struggle: the anima/animus within the poet's own sub-conscious. The poet's elusive guide is actually located in the argument on Love's nature, itself: a struggle that is present within us all. Thus, taking up where Chaucer's unfinished work left off, This Melting Hour enters the conversation and presents a love vision that capitalizes on the genre's formal conventions, while it simultaneously subverts ritualistic expression, to deliver a metaphysical vision, or revelation on the True nature of Love. 111 Dedication with all my love, for Paul, whose tender and nurturing hand harvests- IV Acknowledgments The stars that constellate my cosmos are far too innumerable to name individually in such limited space. That being said, I am deeply indebted to those who have directly inspired and/or aided me in preparing this manuscript, and for reading my drafts and providing thoughtful commentary and productive suggestions: Pamela Bourgeois for providing the initial impetus for its design: her encouragement engenders fruition. Dorothy Barresi for attention to detail: her timbre interpenetrates form, fusing the conceptual to material expression. Leilani Hall for singing lessons: her patient instruction elicits gales from the flutter of hummingbird wings. I am grateful to the members of my "tribe" for contributing insightful responses to this venture: Deborah Averill-Blakely, Lesley Blake, Liz Caffey, Nancy Carroll, Clint Campbell, Marnie Eldridge, Mike Edwards, Tiff Holm, Rachael Jordan, Leon Khachooni, Rick Kilpatrick, Kara Lawton, Billie Jo Mason, Ramsey Mathews, Loretta McCormick, Melissa Morehouse, Ashlyn Morse, Sophia Petkovic, Laura Salwet, Carly Tibbetts, and Omer Zalmanowitz - their welcoming espouses a convivial community that dances, in love, with the word. I am thankful for the blending of families that composes my "clan," and extends to all steadfast friends: classmates, musicians, colleagues, poets, mentors, students, writers, teachers, and readers. To you, I send a "shout out," in homage to an endless conversation which provides sanity and sustenance, D. C. al Fine I I tender thanksgiving to Evelyn Jones, for her courageous heart and generosity of spirit, which generates a well-spring from the Source of all healing. I owe Tony Columbo at the City of Palmdale Maintenance Department my sincere gratitude for his cheerful assistance with plant identification. I am obliged to Kristy Anderson for her exquisite scholarship on Zora Neale Hurston. Finally, I extend my deepest gratitude to Ted Jones for its commencement, and for graciously extending his permission to utilize his unpublished poem, You and I, and present it in conversation with my own work, in recognition of the nature of relationship - the inquiry that carries all things to completion. His match-flare lights streetlamps all along the way. v Table of Contents Signature page 11 Preface 111 Dedication IV Acknowledgments v Table of Contents Vl Abstract vm Introduction: This Melting Hour 1 The Prologue - in paradisum 2 First Episode - Looking Out 4 Desires Armored Sheen 4 Rebbekah 5 Cold Snap 6 Broken Open 7 Empty House 11 Before the Fall 13 Non-native Species 14 Profession of Faith 15 Parked Outside Arlington Metro Station 17 Highway 1 18 Three Churches in Paris 19 Second Episode - The Turn 20 Shepherding God's Gift 20 Steerage 21 The Web 22 Scintilla 23 Swell 25 Moonflower (Datura wrightii) 26 Office of Lauds 27 Rapture 28 Third Episode - Looking In 29 The Prequel - Prayer at Dawning 29 Jonesin' 31 Showy Evening Primrose ( Oenothera speciosa) 32 Sheer Illusion 33 Incubus Tango 34 Parking Structure 35 Liturgy of Small Feathers 36 The Gift 39 Vl Tangled 40 First Communion 42 Praxis 44 Credo of Three Days 49 Astronomical Phenomena- 6:39 Antemeridian 54 Fourth Episode -The Unified Field 55 Apotheosis 55 Mimesis 57 Eye of the Beholder 58 Apocalypse 59 The Sequel - Office of Readings 60 The Epilogue - L'ahlam almin. Ameyn. 61 Notes 62 Vll ABSTRACT THIS MELTING HOUR A CREATIVE WRITING THESIS By Anne L. Yale Master of Arts in English We all wander the space-time continuum, plumbing the nature of being and the relationship between the two worlds we experience: one inner (the life of the mind) and one outer (the life observed through our senses). Mankind's ongoing, unmet metaphysical thirst simultaneously gives rise to art, religion, and science. While science does little to address metaphysical thirst, and religion does little to assuage it, art not only represents it, but often endeavors to respond, providing a means of slaking this thirst. Poetry, as indeed all art, is fashioned by the artist's conscious dressmaking from the fabric of the unconscious. A poem is the product of the interior life of the mind, brought to consciousness and expressed through the medium of language, in order to connect to a reader, a way of sharing thoughts. Working within the conceptual framework of Western philosophy and Derrida's metaphysics, this dialogue considers and utilizes several binary pairs: inside outside being not-being conscious unconsc10us Graphically organized this way, with the privileged term on the left, and the subordinate term on the right, reading down each column establishes a correspondence of inside/being/conscious and outside/not-being/unconscious. Bearing the vertical correspondence in mind, I propose the following metaphysical conceit: What if the external world observed by the senses, the outside/not-being/unconscious, is, in fact, as the correspondence suggests, an illusion, a dream? It would logically follow, then, that the internal world (the life of the mind) represented by the inside/being/conscious is, as the vertical alignment suggests, actually what comprises "reality." Vlll This Melting Hour There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. - Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road 1 The Prologue- in paradisum One resides: in the eye, profound stillness looks on vast reaches of immeasurable light extending in every direction - in unity of vision, the glory of morning stars sounds together, a song of infinite praise, a breath taking flight - the prism of the eye refracts rays, spelling in all directions distracting mind's attentive focus for a second composing a note, the Beloved daydreams aloud, What would it sound like, ifl wrote alone coming back to oneself concludes, "That's absurd!" (but the insignificant idea had been spoken. Once uttered, it seemed to take on life) the infinitesimal division in time, a possibility oftwo-ness the Beloved excises the thought, discards it entirely in revision, sends words slumping toward ground- paraphrasing the once-upon-a-time, those words scamper offlike petulant 2 children, slamming a door on their way out to play, shaking the Heavens.