Song ov Elmallah, VI, Tranzmigrents Lamment

Continuing to edit The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Part VI, I came across this poem.
Part VI takes place during the Holocaust. The main character, Rivkah is fleeing overland towards Palestine. When she began her flight, a Torah was forced upon her to save. Now, months later...

Tranzmigrents Lamment
...oh, oh, well I want to know
will you come with me?
   “Uncle John’s Band”, Grateful Dead

Thoze owwerz and thoze lievz
I thot I livd; thaer relleksOn a tabel, now overternd;
Like so mennee objekts, tinsel and goeld,
Skatterd, krusht, or kikt asside.
Wut did I see in them? Wut did thay hoeld?

Now tell me wut it meenz tu be a hewman,
And tell me wut it meenz tu liv a day.
And tell me wut it meenz tu be the chozen,
And tell me wut it meenz wen we ar pray.

I held wun life;
1000 plezherz filld me.
I held wun life;
1000 terrerz gript me.
I held wun life;
1000 luvz wer in my hand,
And now the wind haz bloen them
Like a seengel graen ov sand.

And like 1000 leevz, wisselleeng, russelleeng
I thot I koud heer sumtheeng in the wind.
Leevz tumbelleeng and sand hisseeng...
And then it got kleerer, and then it got neerer:
Plaenz grumbelleeng and bomz thundereeng.
But that was not it. Thay past awway.

And then it got purer, and then it got shorer:
Not a sownd at awl, nor a feeleeng, nor a thot,
But a rezzaddew ov eenk that had rubd off on my skin,
Now dizzolvd intu my blud, that aenshent proffessee
Askeeng or demandeeng az evver it had dun:
“Erthah, Rivkah, wut I wont tu kno,
“Iz, wen will yu rize and wok with me?”

Song of Elmallah, Part VI, introduction

I keep putting off completing the last book of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming. It just needs revisions to some of its poems, so I went to look at it tonight, and behold, I found another reason to put off working on it! I read the introduction and thought it was so good, I decided to post it here. (I suppose if I didn't like my own writing, I wouldn't write.)

Gottverdamnerung: In the End ov Time
You Will Soon Be Leaving Me, Too

How suddenly I feel thrust out of Heloise’s arms, with whom I’ve lain these many years, trying to complete my Knowen of her. How cruel and sudden death is. We know it’s coming; we expect it; there are moments of dread. And then death divides us! Our bodies are irrevocably separated; our hearts cloven with an unimaginable wound. Our tears fill but a cup. It overflows.
A semi-transparent filter has darkened the world. Everything is the same, but the tone is more somber. How many layers of these filters are lain upon our Souls until all light is filtered away? I love Heloise, and she is no more.
I have thrown rock and soil upon her, and walked, broken, away. I call out to my God, “Where is Your Moment of Bliss?” There is no answer. Again I must remember I am here, down here, in the world, in Ertha. Here I am, and like a child who cries out to a parent and receives no response, I cry louder. I sob. My Parent stands ready in the next room, but this I must do, without help. We both grieve at my sorrow.
They say a ladder was extended from heaven, and angels descended and ascended. This was a dream. In reality, angels may descend, but once we have touched Ertha, once we have kissed her or cursed her, a filter darkens our eyes, our hearts, our Souls. No more can we find the ladder. If it is there, we cannot see it. If we reach out to it, we cannot hold it. Its rungs will not support our heaviness of heart.
So, what is there to do? I must build a ladder! Some say the ladder is there, and I must merely climb it. They call it Torah. Others say climbing is merely a matter of faith. With faith, all will be accomplished, they say. They refer to new books extolling a man. What is the difference between faith and illusion? Those that talk so boldly are full of illusion. And it grieves me, for Ertha is full mostly of illusion and very little faith. Our Sacred Books are not a ladder. They are but incomplete instructions. Each of us must build. And each must improvise.
But wait! A wonderful realization has just now struck me. This is not only the work of angels. Everyone is building! Some are still searching for the first tool. Others have amassed materials but can fashion nothing. This work is hard. Having too much creates an impossible burden. With too little, nothing holds together.
Heloise, you have helped me fashion a rung in my ladder. For this you are inscribed in my Soul, and you are made holy. Who now will hold me in her arms? Will her kisses be so sensuous and eager? Will her body tremble with a pleasure that reaches to the Moment of Bliss? Shkheenah, will You love me so sweetly again?
And you, my dear reader, my leader who has followed me so far! You too, will be leaving me soon. But I will not leave you!
~Elmallah

Venus, Ishtar, Inanna,2

The Innonna image featured in my previous post is now nearly completed. Here are a few images, focusing in on details...

The complete image:

Focusing in on her corona:

Focusing in on her genetically woven garments:

Venus, Ishtar, Inanna

I am working on my next, and probably the last image for my upcoming ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 3. Here it is emerging from the unconscious...

Venus/Innonna (Inanna), walking around her home, the Louvre:

I conjure you, Innonna, to come alive...

The image is not complete, altho the portraiture is done. Now the energy waves must be revealed.

Innonna, divine mother, divine whore

I am closing in on completing another image for my ebook edition of the poem The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 3. This image shows Innonna (Inanna/Ishtar), modified from the carved relief from Sumeria, now in the British Museum, and known as The Queen of the Night.

The image accompanies the following lines in my poem:

We loukt up tu Innonna,
     We hu wer lost,
     Hu wer livving in a waest,
Tu her hu iz Wilfull
     Az the liyon
     Az the ass;
Huze miend pennatraets
     Like the wind
     Like the flud;
We saw how unlike she wuz tu us
And koud not take owr eyz frum her boddee.

We saw how unlike she wuz tu us
And we ternd owr harts tu konker.

Here are 5 versions of the image. Do you prefer one above the others? Your general or critical feedback on the images is welcome and desired.

Elmallah, Bouk 3, image 6

I have been working for many months preparing the illustrations for an edition of Bouk 3 of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming. Last night I completed the 6th image. It shows Dumuzee, the Sumerian shepherd king. Captured by Areyan invaders, his spirit has escaped into the sky. It is based on an Assyrian bas relief in the British Museum.

Here are the lines that accompany the illustration:

Awl hiz serven herd the kruel lamment.
Thay herd the dry north wind
Wining thru the fouthillz.
Thay herd the kish-kish russelling
Ov leevz along the foutpathz.
Thay saw the hunter-king
Fawl owt ov the nite-time sky.

Thay saw the ram assend
Tu skip along the star-kragz.

    "Dumuzee haz eskaept!"
Hiz serven awl howl.
Now the bitter lamment iz thaerz.  Thay say:
    "He haz gon free
    "Wile owr chieldz ar made slaevz by hiz kurs."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here are 4 variations of the completed image. Click on an image to expand it, and you should be able to scroll thru the images. That's the only way you'll be able to differentiate them. Your comments and preferences, as always, are much valued.

 

 

 

Elmallah, Bouk 3, Image 5

About 2 weeks ago, on Nov. 29, I posted some preliminary images I was creating for the fifth image in my latest ebook now in production: The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 3. The image illustrates Dumuzee's servant betraying him to jackel-headed invaders. The two stanzas describing the scene can be found here:
http://shivvetee.blogspot.com/2014/11/more-images-for-song-ov-elmallah.html

At the time that I created the images in the previous post, working from Assyrian bas reliefs, I assumed I'd use the following image (in one form or another) for Dumuzee. It is a Sumerian bas relief of the god Enki. I had already begun working on it, as is obvious:

However, I then came across a remarkable wall carving from the Assyrian obelisk of Shalmaneser, showing King Jehu of Israel bowing to Shalmaneser. I decided to take some liberties with the Elmallah text (in the poem the servant is not described as bowing to the invaders), and use this detail from the obelisk for my servant. Here he is:

Merging the dogs into this image wasn't so easy, as the colors and backgrounds were not originally compatible. Hammer and chisel; chisel and hammer. I then chiseled in some cuneiform text (sure wish the soft clay hadn't hardened into limestone...), put on a little border of semi-precious stones, and here's how it turned out. Actually the original image is a png about 5mb and 2000x1200 pixels, but to post it here, I had to reduce it to a jpeg, 800x250, which still doesn't fit on this page. Click the image to view it:

More images for Song ov Elmallah

For the next image in Bouk 3 Dumuzee, the shepherd/king, has fled from invaders who want to plunder his treasure. They begin bartering with his chief servant. These are the verses for which the image is being created:

Then up thay roze tu hiz hows and tu hiz serven
And with the cheef ov hiz men thay barterd in sienz:
    “We wil giv yu a wel in its wotter....”
    He ternd awway.
    “We wil giv yu a kow in its burden....”
    He ternd awway.
    “And we wil giv yu a feeld in its grane....”

Then the cheef serven, he pointed with hiz hand.
With the rite hand, the hand with 5 ringz,
He pointed tu the eest.
With the left hand, the hand ov 4 ringz,
He pointed tu the west.
With wun, he pointed tu the ruwenz,
    The abandond sittee.
With the uther he pointed tu the dwelling
    Ware the serven huddeld.
Fienlee he pointed tu the gulleez
    In the fouthilz north.
Then the jakkel hedded wunz
Tor him appart and devowerd him.
~~~~~~~~~
 
In the image, we see the chief servant (a Sumerian carving of Enki) pointing, while he is surrounded by dogs (taken from a Nineven wall carving). Here are 2 sets of the dogs, 2 versions of each:

Image for Song ov Elmallah, complete

The follow-up to my post of Nov, 25, 2014, http://shivvetee.blogspot.com/2014/11/image-for-song-ov-elmallahz-kumming.html .
Well, of course, I don't think of any of my work as ever really complete or finished, but here's the state of the art during my current state of mind:

Giv us Dumuzee!

Image for Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 3

I'm creating the images for the third ebook in the Song ov Elmallah series. The 2 alternative (but still incomplete) images below are meant to accompany the following verses:

Then Dumuzee fled tu the dichez ov Arrollee
Tu the baren kuntree ware the winter fludz gowj,
Az the liyon-hedded areyanz dessended on thaer rafts.
Frum the rivver thay roze tu hiz hows and hiz wife,
Tu hiz sister-wife hu waz hottee and prowd.
In thaer jawz thay touk her [Innonna]
And tosst thaer hedz,
Then dragd her thru the street
And roerd:
     “Giv us Dumuzee!”
     “Giv us the wun hu haz 1 lofe,
     “Hu haz 2 loevz, giv us him!”

These 2 images differ only in the shading of Innonna's face. I'm wondering which you prefer. Email me, or use the comment function at the bottom of this post. Thanx.

Outtakes from my latest ebook

Here are a few of my favorite outtakes, images I created while preparing my latest ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 2. They are mostly transformed panels from Assyrian bas reliefs.

1. From Ashur, an eagle headed being, possibly a protecting spirit:

2. Ashurbanipal, hunting:

3. Another eagle headed winged mangod from Ashur:

4.  Assyrian winged lion, depicting the battle between Marduk and Tiamat:

5.  Ancient Assyrian warriors and horses; I extracted the horses, and then doubled the number of them:

6. Assyrian slingers, attacking Lachish:

4 versions of an image

I am requesting your help in deciding which of these 4 images is most appealing. I have numbered them, so please refer to the number you like the most, when responding. Thanx.

#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

4 images for Elmallah, Bouk 2

I am now preparing the manuscript (e-script? since little is being done by manu, hand, beyond keyboarding) for The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 2. All the audio is done - readings of the stanzas - so the reader can also listen to the text.

I am now preparing the images, most of which are based on cave paintings and ancient bas reliefs, in keeping with the setting of the poem, which takes place on the edge of prehistory, just before the emergence of powerful city-states and their conflicts with hunter-gatherer societies. We see Ertha being inspired by Elmallah.

Below are the first completed images. Your feedback, as ever, is of great value to me.

To accompany the introductory text, "Concerning Bouk 2: for Ertha it is set in a prehistoric moment, a timeless period from which she is emerging as she experiences a glorious expansion of her consciousness," this image:

 
The poem begins. With these lines from stanza 2:
   Befor I had seen the endz ov my luv
   And the fewcher chaenjez that I wuz impregnen,
   I left Erthaz prezzens
   Tu pray tu owr Lor
   And wen I reternd she wuz gon.

this image:

With these lines from stanza 7,
   Wen I reecht owt tu her
   With so much wizdem and no expeer
this image:

And finally, to accompany these lines from stanza 8,
   She ran awway like a woonded liyon
   And dissappeerd in a kovert.
this image:

I'll keep you posted as the project proceeds. Please keep me posted with your thoughts and impressions.

Introduction to Elmallah 2

Here's the introduction that opens Bouk 2 of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming. I call it a "belated" introduction because it stands at the beginning of Bouk 2 rather than Bouk 1.

A Belated Introduction:

This poem originated in a series of 9 poems I wrote in 1976 to a woman who was to become my wife. At that time I assumed, unrealistically, that the underlying mythic and psychologic levels in those poems would be known and understood by the reader. I was unrealistic not only because those 9 short poems implied and made reference to far more than what was stated, but because the mythic and spiritual levels I was referring to were hardly even thought about by most 20th century poetry readers.

Coming to realize this, I have expanded that short series into this narrative in six books. It attempts to lay out some of the mythic foundations of our consciousness. Many of the images briefly glossed in this book will be transposed and transisted into other scenes in other parts of the poem. At the same time, images of what is yet to come will echo in these opening scenes. In the Prophetic Conscience, past, present, and future are intertwined.

Concerning Bouk 2: for Ertha it is set in a prehistoric moment, a timeless period from which she is emerging, as she experiences a glorious expansion of her consciousness. Elmallah, diffracted into that history, and giving its evolution direction, tries to reach to her and still hold on to the Divine Moment. Tho confined in her time, his mind is not so confined. Living beyond the photon boundary that shapes space in a closed sphere, dwelling in the axis of infinite time where all things exist in infinite multiplicity and all paths are parallel and non coherent, from that awareness he communicates with Ertha. Thought flows between them, visible to Elmallah, palpable to all his senses. His infinite bodies intersect her infinite bodies. He touches her. His infinitely repeating hand reaches between her infinitely mirrored legs, there where his eyes were originally drawn, to that dark moist center in her being. His arid Conscience is interleaved in a hyper-globe of pleasure, and then desire for pleasure, and then dependence on pleasure, and then despondence over his dependence.

Elmallah is astonished by their sexual crescendo. He feels it like a vast surf washing up on the sand. It is Ertha's Conscience washed by his Knowledge, followed by her perpetual forgetting. It is his energy penetrating her levels and withdrawing. It rushes - surf - he tells her of the Lor; withdraws - surf - she hears and recreates it in her Conscience. It rushes - surf - he sees how she has distorted his Knowledge; withdraws - surf - into his despair; rushes - surf - he touches her differently and new awarenesses emerge; ebb and flow while making love. The scene ends. For a moment Ertha glimpses a vision of the Lor - surf - is thunderstruck - surf - sees now the pantheon of Babylon standing above - surf - forgets that too - surf - remembers only that she has seen something awesome that she can't hold, can't comprehend.

Ertha's history with Elmallah is not a continuous series of events, but layered states, stratified in Their Conscience.

2 poetry titles now live and for sale!

After many months of work, I have completed all the audio, image, and video production for my latest ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1. If you've visited this site in the last 6 months, no doubt you've seen some of the work as it evolved.

Now, after a 2 day crush of work, I put it all together into an ebook, and the book is now live and for sale at my publisher's site, The Vook Store. As a sort of bonus, a book I published earlier thru Vook, but which got caught in a glitch and remained stuck in the pipeline until today, The Atternen Jewz Talen, Era 1, is also now live and available at The Vook Store.

Here are the links, and after that, brief book descriptions. The books are $4.99 each, the price of, what, a latte? So buy them and enjoy them for many hours and years! Maybe they'll even change your life (and for the sake of full disclosure, that's my intention).

The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1:
http://store.vook.com/storefronts/book/the-song-ov-elmallahz-kumming-bouk-1.html#.Ubt8kZxaY8A


The Atternen Jewz Talen, Era 1:
http://store.vook.com/storefronts/book/the-atternen-jewz-talen-era-1.html#.UbtynZxaY8A

All of Vook's poetry titles:
http://store.vook.com/storefronts/book/?bisac_subject=Poetry

A brief description of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1:
The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming is a long narrative poem in 6 books. In this, the first book, Elmallah, a divine messenger, is sent to Ertha to awaken her. Although she dwells as a shadow in a shadowy wilderness, Elmallah is instructed to liberate her latent beauty, power, and desire. In the process, attracted by her beauty, Elmallah loses his way in her world.
The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming is the epic story of the man of God whose heart is captured by the one he is sent to redeem.
The ebook is illustrated by me, and enhanced with audio of the poem being read, and 3 short videos of text and image. Earlier in my career I produced illuminated manuscripts. Now I am trying to bring that kind of graphic skill and elegance to my electronic books.

A brief description of The Atternen Jewz Talen, Era 1:
This book contains the opening pages of the diaries of the Eternal Jew (aka the Wandering Jew). In the opening scene he describes Jerusalem in his youth, as it was in 30 CE. He then recounts his meeting with a revolutionary named Jesus. Realizing he has left out some critical information, he turns back to the origins of humanity, telling what he knows about those early days.
This is not the Eternal Jew you might have heard about from unreliable or hate-mongering sources. He is a wise and engaging fellow, proudly Jewish, with a biting wit, and a wry but mystical view of worldly events and his place in them.
The story is told in two versions. The original text is an altered English where words and ideas morph, one into another, using a strictly phonetic spelling. To help the reader, however, a translation into standard English follows each stanza. As a further help, each stanza is followed by an embedded reading, so one can listen to the story, and read along at the same time.
The story is further enriched by beautiful graphics, and selected scans taken directly from the author’s notebooks. The final chapter of the book is a collection of useful source material and links for further study and exploration.

Alkemmek Man and Chaenjing Fasez

I've just finished the last two big pieces that will accompany the poetic text for my soon-to-be published ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1.
Here is a 30 second extended moment of Elmallah, the messenger of the Lor, experiencing the existential crisis of human thought and emotion, as he descends from his heavens into Ertha. It is entitled, Alkemmek Man, Storm ov Ertha:

And this silent, 12 second video, shows two of the multiple, superposing identities of Ertha, as they morph states. It is entitled Chaenjing Fasez:

Her Divvine Apparritten

As I close in on completing the audio (done), images (almost done), and videos (I *think* I'm done) for the ebook version of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1, I completed this image last night, Her Divvine Apparritten. If you have been following these posts, you'll recognize the 3 portraits that I have used to convey Ertha's emerging personality. They have appeared in a number of images. The intention is to build narrative continuity in the imagery, and to help visualize and build boundaries for the panoramic sweep of the poetry. This particular image accompanies these lines:

I saw theez events, in meerriyadz, flicker
Like sellz that form the hewman boddee,
Lievz and moments in korrona ov Ertha
Forming her Divvine Apparritten.

Her Alkemmek Boddee, 2

After completing the image posted on May 6, entitled Her Alkemmek Boddee, I began to experiment, trying to elevate the image so that it would convey a more out-of-body, or spiritual body experience. Here are 8 versions. The first 5 are fairly similar. If you like any of them I'd love to hear which one(s). I've numbered them for your convenience.

1. 

 2.

 3.

 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.