"A"15

FOUNDED IN I912 BY HARRIET MONROE

VOLUME CVIII NUMBER 6

SEPTEMBER 1966

LOUIS ZUKOFSKY

"Ars

An

hinny

by

stallion

out of

she-ass

He neigh ha lie low h'who y'he gall mood

So roar cruel hire

Lo to achieve an eye leer rot off

Mass th'lo low o loam echo

How deal me many coeval yammer

Naked on face of white rock-sea.

Then I said: Liveforever my nest

Is arable hymn

Shore she root to water

Dew anew to branch.

Wind: Yahweh at Iyyob

Mien His roar 'Why yammer

Measly make short hates oh

By milling bleat doubt?

Eye sore gnaw key heaver haul its core

Weigh as I lug where hide any?

If you-had you towed beside the roots?

How goad Him-you'd do it by now-

My sum My made day a key to daw?

O Me not there allheal-a cave.

All mouth deny hot bough?

O Me you're raw-Heaven pinned Dawn stars

Brine I heard choir and weigh by care-

Why your ear would call by now Elohim:

Where was soak-bid lot tie in hum-

How would you have known to hum

How would you all oats rose snow lay

Assäy how'd a rock light rollick ore

Had the rush in you curb, ah bay,

Bay the shophar yammer heigh horse'

Wind: Yahweh at Iyyob 'Why yammer,'

Wind: Iyyob at Yahweh, 'Why yammer

How cold the mouth achieved echo.'

Wind: Yahweh at Iyyob 'Why yammer

Ha neigh now behémoth and share I see see your make

Giddy pair-stones-whose rages go

Weigh raw all gay where how spill lay who'

Wind: Iyyob

'Rain without sun hated? hurt no one

In two we shadow, how hide any.'

The traffic below,

sound of it a wind

eleven stories

below: The Parkway

no parking there ever:

the deaths as

after it might be said

"ordered," the one

the two old

songsters would not

live to see-

the death of

the young man,

who had possibly

alleviated

the death of

the oldest

vagrantly back he

might have thought

from vying culturally

with the Russian

Puritan Bear-

to vagary of

Bear hug and King

Charles losing his head-

and the other

a decade younger

never international

emissary

at least not

for his President,

aged in a suburb

dying maundering

the language-

American-impatient now

sometimes extreme clarity-

to hurry

his compost

to the hill

his grave-

(distance

a gastank)

he would

miss

living thru the

assassination

were it forecast to him

the dying face

would look quizzical?

'In another week,

another month

another-

I shall be driven,

how shall

I look

at this sign

then-

how shall

I read

those letters

then-

that's a thing

to remember-

I should

like to remember

this-

how shall

I look

at it,

then'

Like, after all:

and as I know

failing eyes

imagine,

as shortly after

his mother died,

walking with me

to my class

thru the swinging

red leather doors

of the Institute

he remarked on

a small square pane

of glass in each of them,

there to prevent

if students looked

those going out

and those going in

from swinging the doors

into so to speak

mutual faces,

when I pleaded blindness

Tve walked thru

some years now

and never till you

said saw these panes'

he consoled with

'mere chance

that I looked'

But the death-

years later

of the young man-

he did not live thru

(no Drum Taps

no Memories

as for Walt)

that the teacher

overhearing

a student

thought a stupid jest-

the class

shocked into a "holiday"

Flown back from Love Field, Dallas

love-so-divided-

the kittenish face

the paragon of fashion

widowed

with blood soaked stocking

beneath the wounded head

she held in her lap-

Até

crazier than ever

infatuation of history

steps on men's heads-

flown back from Love Field, Dallas

as in Kings 'dalas'

the poorest,

we had all,

the "English" teaching drudge

with a holiday on his hands

from "papers"

a time for

to atone for your souls

the nation

a world

mourned

three days in

dark and in

daylight

glued to

TV

grieved as a family

the Kennedy's were a family-

Castro "We should comprehend it

who repudiate assassination

a man is small

and relative in society

his death no joy'

not the joy of the Irish

a few weeks back

greeting their Parliament,

its actual house

the old Fitzgerald seat,

when the Boston Irish American President

on tour recalled

on his mother's side

his ancestral prototype who had left it

to write his own mother

from Paris

'that the seat of the Fitzgeralds

was not

conducive to serious thinking.'

Potentates (nominally)

dignitaries

cardinals

the military

mounted

and the horses

led the

tone

in politics

who's honest

true

to

death?

the off the cuff

opponent (Guildencrantz)

who'd stopped husking

for the nomination

until after the funeral

and after the funeral

forgot any day before

while conserving Freedom

nevermind Liberty-

honest-

the young dead's

great slip-

(pricing steel)

the twenty-third of April

only seven months laid (a

garland

for Shakespeare's birthday)

'My father always

told me

all business men

were sons-of-bitches.

I never

believed it

till now'

or Vietnam's witch

despising

Buddhists'

human wicks

with sympathies

for Western

First Lady

widow to widow

(Queen Margaret and dying Edward's queen)

And see another as I see thee now

could mourning soften

Eloquence

words of

a senator's eulogy

da capo five times:

'In a moment it was no more.

And so she took a ring

from her finger and placed it

in his hands'

And he added the fifth time:

'and kissed him and closed

the lid of the coffin.'

"Bethink you

if Bach's feet deserved such bounty

what gift must the Prince have offered

to reward his hands'

Capella, alpha in Auriga, little first goat

early evening early autumn

driven before them-west-

fall stars of evening

or Vesper there

Vesper Olympus dig air

court orchestra of uniformed Haiduks

habit Bach himself wore

"concertmaster" of four string players

his income not generous

'Friedmann, shall we go

over to Dresden to hear pretty tunes'

Italy's arias Handel's successes

one hundred four pages

of Frescobaldi's Musical Flowers

to copy, paper the fringe benefit from the Duke,

or pupil Ziegler to remember

in playing a hymn

melody is not alone

speaking the words thru it

a rare banquet in cypress

orange almond and myrtle

fragrance to turn a winter's evening to summer

or the court company of comedians

whose dispersal synchronized with Bach's arrival

not 'useful to accept a post

poorer than the one he abandons'

finger exercises traceries little pieces of himself

played over, saying "That's how it ought to go'

no searching over the keyboard better silent

if there's nothing, until parts

speak to their fellows, true counterpoint

variety free thru consistency

later Orpheuses, Arions

Weimar not a street perpetuates his name

where Lucas Cranach lived and some say

Bach in Herder's house

mote certain he was arrested

for urging his own departure-

They perpetuate the young dead's name with place

statesman stumping The Tabernacle, Salt Lake City

quick with his story of the first step

of a journey of a thousand years

in behalf

of the Test Ban Treaty, all journeys must

begin with a first step

(not counting on 42 days

to the unexpected grave)

'not to our size, but to our spirit'

And 'because' alive 'he knew the midnight

as well as the high noon'

the travellers stood chilling

to a parade of the first step

of might be that Chinese sage a thousand

years out of counting

a little more than a hal£ moon, dusk

a burial

poet old enough

to write it old enough history

like the horse who took part in it

shying from it, balking

despite himself

The fetlocks ankles of a ballerina

'Black Jack' Sardar with black-

hilted sword black dangled in silver scabbard from

the saddle riderless rider

his life looked back

into silver stirrups and the

reversed boots in them.

Finally a valentine

before his death

had he asked for it

I should have inscribed to him,

After reading, a song

for his death

after I had read at Adams House

John to John-John to Johnson

so the nation grieved

each as for someone in his or her family

we want Kennedy-

and the stock market fell and rose

on the fourth day

holy holy tetraktys

of the Pythagorean eternal flowing creation

and again without the senses TV

went back to its commercials

boots reversed flapping backward

and in another month

brought back the Indian's summer

'I was dreaming a high hole in rock

from which flowed the Seine

because that was how it looked

and was showing my father

of whom I rarely dream back to

its source when the doorbell

rang (the letter carrier, shocked sleep)

but your sheepsilver was here

a chunk of a summer's

Muscovy glass from the new film

The Glass Mountain'

almost Xmas-

and in less than another year

after 2000 years (a few less)

the dead's church

remembered not a moment too soon

to absolve the Jews of Yéshiia's (ah Jesu's)

cross-except for salvation

LOUIS ZUKORSKY

a smiling Gibbon's ground bass of a footnote

'spare them the pains of thinking'-

under the aspic of eternity

with the udder hand milking

the great Cow of Heaven-

Birjand, October five thousand nine hundred eleven

(an anagram)

'hawking with the Amir (like old Briton)

a covey of see-sce, the little partridge rose

with a whistle disappeared round a bend

the falconer leading held on gloved hand

by thong to a leg-ring the bright hawk

not hooded straining for release

which came shortly-rose

and brought the see-see to earth

the hawk poised on the quarry

claws gripped its neck

plucking the feathers: the falconer came up

took the neck of the living see-see

with the left hand and its legs in his right

and with one pull dismembered it

and gave the legs to the waiting hawk.'

He could not think another

thing that evening

simply a life

had stepped in in place of theory. Then love, young Isaac

burning for Rebecca, a comfort

not all and scorned in Augustine.

Eros agh nick hot hay mock on Eros us inked massy

pipped eyes

now on th'heyday caught as thus mown

Dunk for the teeth that have rotted

(bread) soaked crust bare gums

glad car and cur bore the brunt of it

woe woman woo woman

the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron

forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and

subdueth all things

'perpetual violation of justice

. . maintained by . . political virtues

of prudence and courage . .

the rise of a city . . swelled into . . empire . .

may deserve . . reflection of. . philosophic mind

. decline of Rome . . the

effect of immoderate greatness.

Prosperity ripened . . decay;

the causes of destruction multiplied with

the extent of conquest,

and as soon as time or accident had removed

the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric

yielded to the pressure of its own weight . .

instead of inquiring

why the Roman empire was destroyed . .

should rather be surprised

. . it had subsisted so long.

The victorious legions, who, in distant wars,

acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries,

first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and

afterwards violated . . the purple . .

emperors, anxious for . . personal safety

and . . public peace . . reduced to the

expedient of corrupting the discipline

. and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a

deluge of barbarians . .

vain emulation of luxury, not of merit . .

Extreme distress, which unites the virtue

of a free people, embitters . . factions . .

As the happiness of a future life

is the great object of religion

we may hear without surprise

or scandal

that . . at least the abuse of Christianity

had some influence on the decline

and fall of the Roman empire.

The clergy successfully

preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity;

the active virtues of society were discouraged;

and the last remains of military

spirit were buried in the cloister:

a large portion of public and

private wealth . . consecrated . . charity and devotion;

and . . soldiers' pay . . lavished on useless

multitudes of both sexes who could only plead

the merits of abstinence and chastity . .

diverted from camps to synods . .

and the persecuted sects became

the secret enemies of their country . .

sacred indolence of monks was

devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age . .

Religious precepts are easily obeyed

which indulge and sanctify

the natural inclinations of their votaries . .

but the pure . . influence of Christianity

may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect,

effects on the barbarian proselytes. .

This awful revolution may be

usefully applied to the instruction of the present

age . . The savage nations of the globe are the

common enemies of civilised society; and

we may inquire . . whether Europe is still

threatened with a repetition

of those calamities which formerly oppressed

the arms and institutions of Rome.

. . poor, voracious, and turbulent;

bold in arms and impatient

to ravish the fruits of industry . . The barbarian world

was agitated by the rapid impulse of war . .

the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken

by the distant revolutions of China. . .

Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue

fortify the strength and courage of barbarians.

In every age . . oppressed

China, India and Persia,

who neglected, and still neglect

to counterbalance these natural powers

by the resources of military art...

to command air and fire.

Mathematics, chemistry, mechanics,

architecture have been applied to the service of war;

and the adverse parties oppose to each other

the most elaborate modes of attack and defence.

Historians may indignantly observe

that the preparations of a siege

would found and maintain a flourishing colony;

yet we cannot be displeased that the

subversion of a city

should be a work of cost and difficulty;

or that an industrious people

should be protected by those arts

which survive and supply the decay of military virtue . .

Europe is secure from any future irruption

of barbarians; since before they can conquer,

they must cease to be barbarous. . .

Should these speculations be found doubtful

or fallacious, there still remains a more

humble source of comfort and hope. . .

no people, unless the face of nature

is changed, will relapse into their original barbarism.

The improvements of society

may be viewed under a threefold aspect.

1. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age and

country by the efforts of a single mind;

but these superior powers of reason or fancy

are rare and spontaneous productions;

and the genius of Homer . . or Newton

would excite less admiration

if they could be created

by the will of. . a preceptor.

2. The benefits of law and policy of trade

and manufactures, of arts and sciences

are more solid and permanent;

and many individuals may be qualified,

by education and discipline,

to promote, in their respective stations,

the interest of the community.

But this general order is the effect of skill and labour;

and the complex machinery may be decayed by time,

or injured by violence.

3. Fortunately for mankind,

the more useful, or at least more necessary arts,

can be performed without superior talents

or national subordination;

without the powers of one

or the union of the many.

Private genius and public industry may be extirpated . .

But the scythe, the invention

or emblem of Saturn,

still continued annually to mow

the harvest of Italy;

and the human feasts of the Laestrigons

have never been renewed

on the coast of Campania."

No lady Rich is very poor

No, laid o rich is very poor

kneecheewoe-

marriageable

the first lady astronaut

returning to earth

bruised her nose.

The wives of the poets

flew higher.

And to show for it-

on the hill near town the little cemetery

that would be seen from the Erie?

-No eulogies, Louis,

no.

Perhaps to see where his friend's song

not too clear while one led his own

would button into the

rest Of it

the life of the fugue of it

not come to talk

at the funeral.

The dog as the old friend lay dead

would not cross his threshold

he was not there anymore

his room not his room

what was there not

for the day to go into-

the estuary up the river-

later thruout the house he ruled

while the others were interring him

the friend left at home in it

hearing the other voice as then

'you have never

asked anyone anything'

LOUIS ZUKORSKY

and Nestor, 'Odysseus-where

did you get those horses

I have never set eyes on

horses like these'

and he who with his wife

deceived even pride as she suffered

'it is easy for a god

to bestow even better horses

than these'

. . bathed

and sat down to dine

ate thought

..o poor... away from all baths . .

Hecuba with bare breast

she once fed him

wailing,

and for still another-

Thetis

and the nymphs

Glauké and Thaleia and Kumodoké

Nesaié and Speio, Thoé, Halié

Kumothoé and Actaié and Limnoreia

Melité, Iaira, Amphitoé and Agauë

Doto and Proto, Pherousa and Dunamené

Dexamené and Amphinomé and Kallianeira

Doris and Panopé, Galateia

Nemertes and Apseudes and Kallianassa

Klumené and Ianeira and Ianassa

Maira and Oreithuya and Amatheia

of the deepest bath

negritude no nearer or further

than the African violet

not deferred to

or if white, Job

white pods of honesty

satinflower