Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, seen 6

As I mentioned in my post of 10/22, this is the opening scene of Bouk 6, Gottverdammerung, of The Song of Elmallahz Kumming.

Fragmenz ov the Rivka Sikel
     Ertha by the Side ov the Rode

Az if the twilite had not yet begun.
Thare on a hill ware the fool moon hung
Liefless and koeld in a parcht blak awlder,
She lay kerld up, her owtlienz obskure.
                    Az if the sunrize had not yet begun... -- Levvel 1:1

Like wisps ov smoke frum a smoeldering fiyer,
Gray and loopee in kaerless koyelz
Thay rize thru the charkoel awlder branchez,
Wile kriez faentlee tumbel down thru the hillz.

Az if it wer eevning and the faent kry ov loonz,
Made faenter by distant thunderz that shrowd
The marshland and peers the aer with terrerz;
So her kryz wer vage, misteereyus, raw.

     Az if a chield emerjen frum a hows
     In flaemz, moenz ov the dying behiend her,
     A straenjer laez a babee in her armz,
     And sez tu her, “Take this and run for help.”

Az if just annuther bereevd wouman
Beside a kart-path weeping allone;
But in that deseptivlee mundane snapshot
     A werl ov unnerthlee impressenz swerld,
     Driven this apparentlee hoemless wouman
     Beyond the borderz ov her feer.
                    Her mind holds an unrevealed focus
                    in spite of her great anxiety.
                    But what has she to fear?
                    – Comment

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, seen 1

This post presents the first scene of Bouk 1 of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming. This is work from over 15 years ago. You can find the whole poem, properly typeset, in the Reading Room of my website at http://www.shivvetee.com/. However, as I complete Bouk 6, Gottverdammerung, of The Song, (a work long overdue, I confess), I wanted to compare this opening scene to that of Bouk 6, which I will post in a day or so. I hope you will find it an interesting comparison.

So, Bouk 1, Seen 1:

In which Elmallah is overwhelmed by his first impressions of Ertha. He is not yet aware that it is his Presence that has amplified Ertha’s Life with so much more power, beauty, and desire than ever she possessed before. Who is this Elmallah? They are a Being -- compared to you and me -- whose orbit is much wider, whose horizons are far more distant, whose temperature is higher, whose velocity is faster, whose knowledge is not passed down from old time but is direct comprehension.
                    When our Lor comes down,
                    they make us change;
                    They make us greater.

Az if the sunrize
Had not yet begun
And thare on a hill,
Ware the ful moon hung
Entangeld in parcht akkasiyaz,
She muevd, her owtlienz obskure.
                    Elmallah, as he approaches Ertha,
                    is struck by her obscurity and illusoriness.
                    – Comment

Az if thay wer smoke,
Frum a smoldering fiyer
Koiling in kazhewal ternz
Like tendrilz abowt the akkasiya branchez,
Her thots drifted in that wilderness.

Az if erlee don
And the faent kry ov loonz
Made faenter by vaperz
That shrowd the salt marshez,
So her vois wuz vage, misteereyus.

Az if a wouman
Meerlee puling a brush thru her hare,
But in that deseptivlee simpel moshun
A meerreyad illuzhenz surrownded her prezzens,
Exerting thair powwer like a werlpull
Agenst my feer ov her inkoherens.
                    Her image has begun to sharpen
                    as he draws near, but fear stops him.
                    What has he to fear?
                    – Comment

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Forbidden Fruit

Written on Shabbat Lekh Lekha, in which Abram hears the call, 'Go Forth! Go Into Yourself!'

For Bidden and For Givven Frute

Az Addom and Khuvva* truj owt ov Eden
                              * “Khuvva”: the actual Hebrew for “Eve”
In all thaer shok an bitter sorro,
Khuvva she say, iyz down uppon her ertha,
          “I havven no regret for that wun taesten,
          “An woud du enneetheeng tu hav annuther.”
Then ternz he, Addom, an grunten laff.
          “We will fienden that tree, serten heer,
          “And du ar evvolueshenz* beneeth it.”
                              * Others say, “ablueshenz”

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Son Reunited tu Hiz Fater


About 30 years ago I did a painting entitled The Son Reunited tu Hiz Fater. I gave it to my parents, and it hung in their house all those years until my dad died a year ago. It's now in my son Josh's house. It never occurred to me to photograph it until this morning. Josh just emailed me the image.

The painting doesn't hold together as a whole, but it has some interesting details. Here's one. It's a field of gold leaf work with a spiral etched into it, and a portrait in the center, done in acrylics. From the lower right issues an energy field in gold leaf and acrylic. From the middle right the first letters of the painting's title, in reverse gold leaf calligraphy, can be made out.

This whole detail is about 3 inches square in the original painting.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Strolling the Appalachian Trail






We took a 2 day trip to Shenandoah National Park, staying in a log cabin west of Luray, across the Shenandoah River. Here are some images of our stroll along the Appalachian Trail, Oct. 10, 2010.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Zeno's Paradox

I have been fascinated by Zeno's Paradox for at least 4 decades, and there must be many dozens of musings scattered through my notebooks on the topic, including not a few solutions to the paradox. This is my latest musing.

5/15/2010, Shabbat Bemidbar, plane to DC
Reading Bohm, Implicate Order, pp. 199 to a third of the way down 201.

Zeno’s paradox, although appearing to pertain to motion, really is about consciousness and the perception of time. In consciousness, time is overlapping, like a series of semi-transparent images arrayed and overlapping each other. The term I have used is “superimposition” and in some cases “embedded,” while Bohm uses “enfolded.” As our sense of time is superimposed (a fundamental property of consciousness), so events are embedded in each other, and “now” includes some indeterminate component of “past” and “future.” The more expanded and expansive (expansen) our consciousness, the more the past and future is “embedden” in our “now.” Indeed, we must not think of time as a single thread, and in the same way, we must not think of consciousness as a single thread, or even as just a few threads. Our math, Aristotelian, Euclidean, as it is, distorts and misrepresents reality. We mathematically represent motion as a vector, but it is really multiple vectors, which in the calculus of consciousness are synthesized and unified, a simplification useful for most applications, but inaccurate as we begin to unpack the actual “workings” (in quotes because the term implies a mechanistic representation, and consciousness is not mechanistic) of consciousness and our awareness of minute periods of time and motion. When we try to stop-frame time, we realize it can’t be done. Just as a geometric point is a fiction, so is an instant in time. However, an instant in consciousness is not only an indeterminately short moment, it is a series or compilation of time frames, long and short, extending back, potentially thousands of years, or more, and forward in ways and “distances” we cannot calculate or comprehend.

Hercules overtakes the turtle because the geometric model that would restrain him with its infinite regression is fundamentally flawed. It posits time as a single line made up of an infinite number of tangent points. But time is not a single line, it is not even linear, and there are no such things as instants.

At my horizon, and hazy still:

1. Time is a complex superimposition of multiple frame-periods, individually discontinuous (?), and variable in their endurance/extension, (reified, integrated synthesized) by consciousness.

2. Human will/intentionality is the (necessity)(?) that generates this uni-dimensional synthesis, this illusion of a single thread of time, of moments, of motion, and of divisibility. I say will is what drives us to create the Euclidean illusions of time because will is what motivates us build, make tools, hunt, plan, and calculate, and all these functions require that time be simplified into one dimension in a series of causally connected moments.

3. Concepts and perceptions of predictability and control derive from archaic portions of consciousness that incline us to strip reality of its complexities.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Year number 5771

This is a meditation on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. This holiday, unlike the secular new year, is not about public celebration and inebriation, but rather, personal meditation and a desire for greater clarity. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of a period called the Days of Awe, which is a 10 day period of atonement and renewal.

New to DC, I had no community among whom I wanted to spend these days, so instead I composed this poem. This is Part 1 of a 3 part poem.

BTW, this is year number 5771 according to the Jewish calendar. That number, based on calculations derived from the Bible and its genealogies, is the number of years since the world, and Adam, was created. While having no scientific-cosmological significance, it does have the virtue of being an attempt to be inclusive of all histories, nationalities, and ethnicities.

Rush HaShunnem 5771

I.
Hoemless, shuelless, lostful. In time tu kum
Wut will Hem Jujjen rekord on me?
Knowen, az we du, this iz the time tu kum,
That we ar thare an it iz now.

The five thowzanth, sevven hundreth,
And sevventee ferst ov now
Akkorden tu them kownterz a yeer an jennerratenz
Ov the Bouk a Kreyatenz, Braysheet*
                    * Rabbinic name for Genesis
Wen the ferst toklee Speren* dessenden frum Uddoniy.
                    * Targum Oenkelos
                    a targum being a translation of the Bible.

This the yeer, in all iz pasts an fewcherz,
And I allone in this garden
Not ware moest ar kongraggaten
Tu intoenz mellodeyus ov theze ten day.
I insted, a sakraffise led asside.

Theze five thowzen sevven hunnert
Sevventee wun faddemless moment
Ov Divvine Invadenz by ar Uddoniy,
Hem enterree intu an Addomful werdz.

Fathemfil werlz ov Hem kreyaten.
Intu the rivverree Now Hem por
Iz milk an hunnee, bownteeful longenz.
All ov us laden with sweet beleevenz,
Sharplee for battelz, this Divvine invaze.

Sum ov us kleegen tu ar lanlock goedz,
     Say Baal an Baldor,
     Say annammel tokkenz.
An sum at the hed ov Uddoniyz charge
Say thay ar wonten tu slotter them foek.

The Preesthoud strenthen thaer armz a Torra.
Not all bludee, not all Dethee,
Not by forsen, not in feersen
Will Uddoniy konkers be fownd.

Studdee the werden and studdee the werlen
And the lanlock goeden will submit themsel,
Groenen ov weeng, anjellek minyenz
Rizzen frum the nativ soyellen.

Yes, annuther yeeren in Divvine evazen
And I allone in this nativ gard,
My vois but a silent kord in the nusakh*,
                    * Melody and tonality of prayers,
                    particular to each Jewish holiday
Lone sakrafise that I am intoenz
Ov theze Awfild Dayz a Nu Yeer.