“air and variations” (08/02/1983)

The title in music also means theme and variations. The epigraph is from Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. The “subtle” body of line 2 is neither the gross material body nor a separate “spirit.” Line 8 is anatomically correct: greater air pressure outside the lungs powers inhalation.

“air and variations/heretic psalm” MP3 audio | WAV audio

The second half was written approximately seven years later, and the epigraph comes from The Wisdom of Solomon. I did not put these two poems together until after I attended an Asian American writers conference in New York City at Hunter College. The theme in this part is the female side of the Creator.

“breaths” (08/02/1983)

Like “air and variations,” this work evolved out of my understanding of Taoist meditation practices.

“air and sampan and child” (09/05/1983) WAV audio

This poem also derives from Taoist alchemy and writings. Locust shells are symbols of the body as a gross or dead husk instead of a vital living being.

“air and sampan and child/the first step” WAV audio

The second half was written approximately seven years later, and “the first step” was a sonnet.

“skyfall/earthrise”

This poem used to have an epigraph is from Stevens’ Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction, “It Must Change” IV, 1-4. But I was unable to obtain permission to use the epigraph.

“The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night”

This was originally entitled “a sidewalk cafe at night,” and it describes a Van Gogh painting that can be viewed online if one searches for its full title, above.

The Sylf

The epigraph to the second half of the book here can be found in the New English Bible Oxford Study Edition.

“The Healing Rhythm of Blood”

The acronym embedded in the title was a sort of a joke (THROB). This is a meditation intended to heal as well as evoke the seasons. The chainé steps are from ballet.

“The Sylf”

This poem was actually the first successful dialogic lyric that I created (05/01/1984). There was also a musical composition that I wrote around the same time which was also extremely contrapuntal. It featured piano, harpsichord, harmonica and flute. From a technical point of view, both the poem and the music were inspired by, among other things, J. S. Bach’s 5^th and 6^th Brandenburg Concertos. In a more personal way, the poem was inspired by some years of study of dance and painting. (Heartfelt thanks are due to my teachers, C. Kemmerer, Bill DeRaymond—and I should also thank Bill’s teacher, the great visionary painter, Antonio Salemme.) I was living in a cold, almost totally empty third floor garret with bullet holes in the windows, no paint on the walls, sleeping on the floor etc. and living on a few dollars a day at the time; therefore, the euphoria evident in the composition could be due in part to the kind of meditative ecstatic vision that presents itself to one when there are no material or even popular/commercial cultural distractions at all.

“A Dance with Hope / She Remembers What She Was”

The “Dance with Hope” lyric was actually more than twice as long all by itself originally. The uncut version was never published anywhere; the dancer Hope Clark was for a short while associated with Group Motion Studio in Philadelphia.

“Breath”

The epigraph is from Crane’s “Praise for an Urn / In Memoriam: Ernest Nelson.”