Nite, completed

What follows is a completed version of the poem Nite, the first part of which I published on this blog on 3/24/08. The poem is part of a series entitled Lanskaeps in Aengziyettee (see 12/30/07) which is itself embedded in a book-length work in progress entitled The Pardaes Dokkumen.

The idea around which the poem is built is described briefly in my posting on 3/24. To follow up on that explanation, each line in Nite is refrained with an echoing line that was composed based on similarity of sound. So for example, the poem begins, “Yu will see Messiya kum.” This line is echoed in the following, refraining line, “Yu see, deziyer kumz.” The whole poem is structured that way (with the exception of the voice of Rabbi Akiva just before the end). So, you can see that there are really two poems here, conjoined not by theme, or image, or even style, but by a common “ur-sound.” It is as if I sat with my ear to a wall trying to hear a conversation in the adjoining room. Following the poem are some further notes on the process of its composition, and how it reflects my understanding of the nature of consciousness.

Nite, in 2 Howzez
(3rd layering, completed 4/15/08 // 9 Nisan 5768)

Yu will see Messiya kum
                    Yu see, deziyer kumz
An hiz armee, chieldlike,
                    All disarmen, all mieldlike
Tu be slotter on the plaenz
                    Plotting withowt planz
But all thaer hope iz still undeferd.
                    And all yur hoeps so still, inferd.

Nite iz kum with its kaerz all brooden.
                    Wut mite kum frum such a kaerless moodenz?
The perpel figz ar skatterz on the pathez
                    Perpel fewgz, skawlding, empathek
Over-ripe. The waggen weelz krush them
                    Over-rot with aggonee and blushez.
And he hu iz keeper the orcherd
                    The seekerz ov luv torcherd
Iz looz pride and proffet allike:
                    With lawz and liez and powetree, allike.
Taengellen branchen in wont ov hevvee pruningz.
                    Taengeld embrasez with a hevvenlee prommis.

Moist wallz ov shale so lustrus az kwortz,
                    Immerst, waren shawlz in selesteyel korts,
Theze long an eregguler hallz ov Pardaes.
                    The long enrapcherren kallz ov Pardaes.
Beyond the sferen ov moon and sun;
                    Bownd tu the serf, its moodee song;
Beyond this ribben ov mezher an set;
                    Bownd by a ribbeld an mezmarek kwest;
Beyond the sensen ov konshents and thot.
                    Bownd in the tenshen ov kawshes and swov.
Limmitless nuthinglee shaepless nite.
                    Subliminnel utterlee eskaepless life.

          Akeva taeks hart. "This iz the forres
          "Ware the trael tu messiya muss be fownd.
          "I will not sees till I breeng Hem tu don,
          "And leed the pepel tu a Pardaes beyon."

Messiya weeps at the length ov nite.
                    Deziyer streekt with the angst ov life.


To compose a poem like this is particularly slow going. It is like solving a set of simultaneous equations without calculus. One must substitute one value after another for each variable until an approximate and acceptable solution is found. In this case the variables are the "ur-sounds" and the values are words. You can therefore read the poem two ways. You can read the left-justified lines as a single entity, and then read the indented, refraining lines as a second, distinct poem. Or you can read a line and its refrain, with the purpose of capturing the phonetic interconnections between them.

In my comments before the poem I said, "It is as if I sat with my ear to a wall..." With this image I am simply expressing the commonly held view that language emerges from a deeper, universal knowing. Indeed, this is precisely what our consciousness does: dimly hears and translates a transcendental Voice. When I say "transcendental," what I mean is, "of a higher dimensionality," or in 19th century language, "eternal and infinite." And if this is the essence of consciousness, as I believe it is, our being is purely an echo of that Being.

In sum, the poem attempts to express two things. Most obviously, it tells two concurrent narratives that are phonetically intertwined. However, it also emulates the process by which our consciousness emerges from the liminal threshold of the Divine.