To make asem
Carefully purify lead with pitch and bitumen, or tin as well; mix cadmia and litharge in equal parts with the lead. Stir till the mixture becomes solid. It can be used like natural asem.
[Reduction in the furnace must here also be assumed. The soft white alloy so obtained must have been a cheap and poor substitute for electrum or silver.]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
the theatre of terrestrial astronomy
I will speak first of the inventors and restorers of the Art;
secondly, of the mutual conversion of elements, and how through the predominance of one element the substance of metals is generated;
thirdly, I will shew the affinity and homogeneity of metals, procreated in the bowels of the earth, their sympathies and antipathies, according to the purity and impurity of their Sulphur and Mercury; and that as metals consist of Sulphur and Mercury, they can furnish us with the first matter of the Elixir;
4thly, the preparation of Mercurial water;
5thly, the conversion of prepared Mercury into Mercurial earth;
6thly, the exaltation of Mercurial water;
7thly, the solution of gold by Mercurial water;
8thly, the preparation of the water or Moon of the Sages;
9thly, the conjunction of sun and moon;
10thly, the blackness, or Raven's Head, by means of which the solution and copulation of Sun and Moon do both take place;
11thly, the peacock's tail;
12thly, the white Tincture;
13thly, the perfect red Elixir.
secondly, of the mutual conversion of elements, and how through the predominance of one element the substance of metals is generated;
thirdly, I will shew the affinity and homogeneity of metals, procreated in the bowels of the earth, their sympathies and antipathies, according to the purity and impurity of their Sulphur and Mercury; and that as metals consist of Sulphur and Mercury, they can furnish us with the first matter of the Elixir;
4thly, the preparation of Mercurial water;
5thly, the conversion of prepared Mercury into Mercurial earth;
6thly, the exaltation of Mercurial water;
7thly, the solution of gold by Mercurial water;
8thly, the preparation of the water or Moon of the Sages;
9thly, the conjunction of sun and moon;
10thly, the blackness, or Raven's Head, by means of which the solution and copulation of Sun and Moon do both take place;
11thly, the peacock's tail;
12thly, the white Tincture;
13thly, the perfect red Elixir.
colours to be observed in the operation of the great work
This is contained in Aurifontina Chymica: or, a collection of fourteen small treatises concerning the first matter of philosophers, for the discovery of their (hitherto so much concealed) Mercury. Which many have studiously endeavoured to hide, but these to make manifest, for the benefit of Mankind in general. London, 1680.
YOU must expect to have it exceeding Black, within 40 days after you have put your Composition into the Glass over the Fire; if it be not black, proceed no further, for it is unrecoverable: it must be as black as the Ravens Head, and must continue a long time, and not utterly to lose it during five months.
If it be Orange colour, or half Red, within some small time after you have begun your Work, without doubt your Fire is too hot; for these are tokens that you have burnt the Radical humour and vivacity of the Stone.
Know ye not, that you may have Black or anything mixed or compounded together with moisture: But you must have Black which must come and proceed of Perfect Metalline Bodies, by a real Putrefaction, and to continue a long time.
As for the colours of Blew and Yellow, they signifie that the Solution and Putrefaction is not yet perfectly finished, and that the colours of our Mercury are not yet well mingled with the rest.
The Black aforesaid is an evident sign, that in the beginning the Matter and Composition doth begin to purge it self, and to dissolve into small Powder, less than the Motes in the Sun; or a glutinous Water, which feeling the heat, will ascend and descend in the Glass: at length it will thicken and congeal, and become like Pitch, exceeding Black; in the end it will become a Body, and Earth, which some call Terra foetida; for then by reason of the perfect Putrefaction, it will have a scent or stink like unto Graves newly opened, wherein the Bodies are not thorowly consumed. Hermes doth call it Terra foliis, but the proper name is Leton, which must be blanched and made white.
This blackness doth manifest a Conjunction of the Male and Female, or rather of the four Elements.
Orange colour then doth shew that the Body hath not yet had sufficient digestion, and that the humidity (whereof the colours of Black, Blew, and Azure do come) is but half overcome by the dryness.
When dryness doth predominate, then all will be white Powder: It first beginneth to whiten round about the outward sides of the Glass; the Ludus Philosophorum doth say, that the first sign of perfect whiteness, is the appearing of a little hoary circle passing upon the Head, shewing it self round about the Matter on the outward sides of the Glass, in a kind of Citrine colour.
(from alchemywebsite.com)
YOU must expect to have it exceeding Black, within 40 days after you have put your Composition into the Glass over the Fire; if it be not black, proceed no further, for it is unrecoverable: it must be as black as the Ravens Head, and must continue a long time, and not utterly to lose it during five months.
If it be Orange colour, or half Red, within some small time after you have begun your Work, without doubt your Fire is too hot; for these are tokens that you have burnt the Radical humour and vivacity of the Stone.
Know ye not, that you may have Black or anything mixed or compounded together with moisture: But you must have Black which must come and proceed of Perfect Metalline Bodies, by a real Putrefaction, and to continue a long time.
As for the colours of Blew and Yellow, they signifie that the Solution and Putrefaction is not yet perfectly finished, and that the colours of our Mercury are not yet well mingled with the rest.
The Black aforesaid is an evident sign, that in the beginning the Matter and Composition doth begin to purge it self, and to dissolve into small Powder, less than the Motes in the Sun; or a glutinous Water, which feeling the heat, will ascend and descend in the Glass: at length it will thicken and congeal, and become like Pitch, exceeding Black; in the end it will become a Body, and Earth, which some call Terra foetida; for then by reason of the perfect Putrefaction, it will have a scent or stink like unto Graves newly opened, wherein the Bodies are not thorowly consumed. Hermes doth call it Terra foliis, but the proper name is Leton, which must be blanched and made white.
This blackness doth manifest a Conjunction of the Male and Female, or rather of the four Elements.
Orange colour then doth shew that the Body hath not yet had sufficient digestion, and that the humidity (whereof the colours of Black, Blew, and Azure do come) is but half overcome by the dryness.
When dryness doth predominate, then all will be white Powder: It first beginneth to whiten round about the outward sides of the Glass; the Ludus Philosophorum doth say, that the first sign of perfect whiteness, is the appearing of a little hoary circle passing upon the Head, shewing it self round about the Matter on the outward sides of the Glass, in a kind of Citrine colour.
(from alchemywebsite.com)
alchemical processes
Calcination
Dissolution
Separation
Conjunction
Fermentation
Distillation
Coagulation
Dissolution
Separation
Conjunction
Fermentation
Distillation
Coagulation
I asked Philosophy how I should,
Have of her the thing I would,
She answered me, when I was able,
To make the Water malleable,
Or else the way, if I could find,
To measure out a yard of wind:
Then shall you have your own desire,
When you can weigh an ounce of Fire,
Unless you can do these three,
Content yourself, you will not get me.
Have of her the thing I would,
She answered me, when I was able,
To make the Water malleable,
Or else the way, if I could find,
To measure out a yard of wind:
Then shall you have your own desire,
When you can weigh an ounce of Fire,
Unless you can do these three,
Content yourself, you will not get me.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
rock salt
Rock salt,
polished-bronze.
Your colors are black and silver, gold and mica-schist.
You are very old,
and description of you must be succinct.
You have become too sharp
in my heart (black-lit).
When I breathe in
you entangle my thoughts.
When I exhale, you lodge yourself
like sharp pebbles in the soft parts of my heart.
I am sad like a storm
brooding over trees,
fuming soft like clouds,
(releasing rain over fields).
You have covered your mouth onto mine,
like a death-lid,
faint taste of blood-metal in the rain.
I asked to be struck,
Thorough-core,
Lit-match
(now I am filled with sparks).
I remember only through shininess and dark—
through opals, and grey glittering gems,
Glance-lit.
You are Shapeshifter:
Dark smoke--
Written-on--
Polished stone.
I am embers ground,
Shavings curled in the fire:
Black sand then glass--
rock-peeled--
stone-schist--
(black alchemist).
(elg 2010)
polished-bronze.
Your colors are black and silver, gold and mica-schist.
You are very old,
and description of you must be succinct.
You have become too sharp
in my heart (black-lit).
When I breathe in
you entangle my thoughts.
When I exhale, you lodge yourself
like sharp pebbles in the soft parts of my heart.
I am sad like a storm
brooding over trees,
fuming soft like clouds,
(releasing rain over fields).
You have covered your mouth onto mine,
like a death-lid,
faint taste of blood-metal in the rain.
I asked to be struck,
Thorough-core,
Lit-match
(now I am filled with sparks).
I remember only through shininess and dark—
through opals, and grey glittering gems,
Glance-lit.
You are Shapeshifter:
Dark smoke--
Written-on--
Polished stone.
I am embers ground,
Shavings curled in the fire:
Black sand then glass--
rock-peeled--
stone-schist--
(black alchemist).
(elg 2010)
prostrate by steps
prostrate by steps
(mount meru measured by your body)
we are on the same journey
(etching over of an older one)
that is slowly coming into focus, like ink spreading,
like black blood smoke feathered into water
pooled.
I hear your quietness,
my love,
but instead of
such folded reticence as you seem to give,
(dark reverance)
lies the very shape of surrender.
the loudest sounds
are your heartbeats,
(each-time, quietest-close, in-breath)
like scudded black fruits
on wet ground, apples fallen under their tree,
contraction and retraction of breath,
crabapples rotting in the rain,
(coldest air of before-morning),
under-breathing.
there is a spider-system of deep wells
and hidden passageways just under your house, (set so lightly on the earth):
black channels spread like webs,
wet reservoir unseen,
waiting for you to fall through.
(elg 2010)
(mount meru measured by your body)
we are on the same journey
(etching over of an older one)
that is slowly coming into focus, like ink spreading,
like black blood smoke feathered into water
pooled.
I hear your quietness,
my love,
but instead of
such folded reticence as you seem to give,
(dark reverance)
lies the very shape of surrender.
the loudest sounds
are your heartbeats,
(each-time, quietest-close, in-breath)
like scudded black fruits
on wet ground, apples fallen under their tree,
contraction and retraction of breath,
crabapples rotting in the rain,
(coldest air of before-morning),
under-breathing.
there is a spider-system of deep wells
and hidden passageways just under your house, (set so lightly on the earth):
black channels spread like webs,
wet reservoir unseen,
waiting for you to fall through.
(elg 2010)
the simurgh by Farid ud-Din Attar
Ah, the Simurgh, who is this wondrous being
Who, one fated night, when time stood still,
Flew over China, not a single soul seeing?
A feather fell from this King, his beauty and his will,
And all hearts touched by it were in tumult thrown.
Everyone who could, traced from it a liminal form;
All who saw the still glowing lines were blown
By longing like trees on a shore bent by storm.
The feather is lodged in China's sacred places,
Hence the Prophet's exhortation for knowledge to seek
Even unto China where the feather's shadow graces
All who shelter under it -- to know of this is not to speak.
But unless the feather's image is felt and seen
None knows the heart's obscure, shifting states
That replace the fat of inaction with decision's lean.
His grace enters the world and molds our fates
Though without the limit of form or definite shape,
For all definitions are frozen contradictions not fit
For knowing; therefore, if you wish to travel on the Way,
Set out on it now to find the Simurgh, don't prattle and sit
On your haunches till into stiffening death you stray.
All the birds who were by this agitation shook,
Aspired to a meeting place to prepare for the Shah,
To release in themselves the revelations of the Book;
They yearned so deeply for Him who is both near and far,
They were drawn to this sun and burned to an ember;
But the road was long and perilous that was open to offer.
Hooked by terror, though each was asked to remember
The truth, each an excuse to stay behind was keen to proffer.
Who, one fated night, when time stood still,
Flew over China, not a single soul seeing?
A feather fell from this King, his beauty and his will,
And all hearts touched by it were in tumult thrown.
Everyone who could, traced from it a liminal form;
All who saw the still glowing lines were blown
By longing like trees on a shore bent by storm.
The feather is lodged in China's sacred places,
Hence the Prophet's exhortation for knowledge to seek
Even unto China where the feather's shadow graces
All who shelter under it -- to know of this is not to speak.
But unless the feather's image is felt and seen
None knows the heart's obscure, shifting states
That replace the fat of inaction with decision's lean.
His grace enters the world and molds our fates
Though without the limit of form or definite shape,
For all definitions are frozen contradictions not fit
For knowing; therefore, if you wish to travel on the Way,
Set out on it now to find the Simurgh, don't prattle and sit
On your haunches till into stiffening death you stray.
All the birds who were by this agitation shook,
Aspired to a meeting place to prepare for the Shah,
To release in themselves the revelations of the Book;
They yearned so deeply for Him who is both near and far,
They were drawn to this sun and burned to an ember;
But the road was long and perilous that was open to offer.
Hooked by terror, though each was asked to remember
The truth, each an excuse to stay behind was keen to proffer.
the morning watch by henry vaughan
O joys! Infinite sweetness! with what flowers
And shoots of glory, my soul breaks and buds!
All the long hours
Of night and rest,
Through the still shrouds
Of sleep, and clouds,
This dew fell on my breast ;
O how it bloods,
And spirits all my earth! hark! in what rings,
And hymning circulations the quick world
Awakes, and sings!
The rising winds,
And falling springs,
Birds, beasts, all things
Adore Him in their kinds.
Thus all is hurl'd
In sacred hymns and order ; the great chime
And symphony of Nature. Prayer is
The world in tune,
A spirit-voice,
And vocal joys,
Whose echo is heaven's bliss.
O let me climb
When I lie down! The pious soul by night
Is like a clouded star, whose beams, though said
To shed their light
Under some cloud,
Yet are above,
And shine and move
Beyond that misty shroud.
So in my bed,
That curtain'd grave, though sleep, like ashes, hide
My lamp and life, both shall in Thee abide.
And shoots of glory, my soul breaks and buds!
All the long hours
Of night and rest,
Through the still shrouds
Of sleep, and clouds,
This dew fell on my breast ;
O how it bloods,
And spirits all my earth! hark! in what rings,
And hymning circulations the quick world
Awakes, and sings!
The rising winds,
And falling springs,
Birds, beasts, all things
Adore Him in their kinds.
Thus all is hurl'd
In sacred hymns and order ; the great chime
And symphony of Nature. Prayer is
The world in tune,
A spirit-voice,
And vocal joys,
Whose echo is heaven's bliss.
O let me climb
When I lie down! The pious soul by night
Is like a clouded star, whose beams, though said
To shed their light
Under some cloud,
Yet are above,
And shine and move
Beyond that misty shroud.
So in my bed,
That curtain'd grave, though sleep, like ashes, hide
My lamp and life, both shall in Thee abide.
from Grove of Academe (6)
.......
"no, these are camomile-daisies
that I crush as I reach out;
Arabian-gum fragrance?
no, that was the amber-beads
on the cherry-bark,
and the sticky pine-bark,
and sassafras-bark that we bit on,
and some dusty butter-and-eggs
(wild snap-dragon)
in a hot lane;"..............
(from 'Hermetic Definition' by H.D.)
"no, these are camomile-daisies
that I crush as I reach out;
Arabian-gum fragrance?
no, that was the amber-beads
on the cherry-bark,
and the sticky pine-bark,
and sassafras-bark that we bit on,
and some dusty butter-and-eggs
(wild snap-dragon)
in a hot lane;"..............
(from 'Hermetic Definition' by H.D.)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
beann
in Gaelic means (SPEAR): horn, spine
It can also mean: antler, wing, mountain peak, crest, branch,
peak-pate, stag-head
It can also mean: antler, wing, mountain peak, crest, branch,
peak-pate, stag-head
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
alchemical terms
bittern: solution of magnesium salts
black ash: impure sodium carbonate
black lead: graphite, an allotrope of carbon
brimstone: sulfur (S)
chalk: calcium carbonate (CaCO3, carbonate of lime, mild calcareous earth). Acid of chalk is carbon dioxide (CO2, carbonic acid, fixed air)
charcoal: either a charred carbonaceous material or its primary constituent, namely carbon. Lavoisier coined the term carbone (carbon) to distinguish the element from impure charred material; however, the distinction was not universally adopted right away.
cobalt. Named by the copper miners of the Hartz Mountains after the evil spirits the 'kobolds' which gave a false copper ore; despised because of its uselessness and unhealthiness (it was often found mixed with arsenic), and because it resembled silver but wasn't.
copper-nickel, named for another devil, because it looked like copper but wasn't-- our nickel.
cuprite. Red cuprous oxide ore.
fulminating gold. Made by adding ammonia to the auric hydroxide formed by precipitation by potash from metallic gold dissolved in aqua regis. Highly explosive when dry.
King's Yellow. A mixture of orpiment with white arsenic.
black ash: impure sodium carbonate
black lead: graphite, an allotrope of carbon
brimstone: sulfur (S)
chalk: calcium carbonate (CaCO3, carbonate of lime, mild calcareous earth). Acid of chalk is carbon dioxide (CO2, carbonic acid, fixed air)
charcoal: either a charred carbonaceous material or its primary constituent, namely carbon. Lavoisier coined the term carbone (carbon) to distinguish the element from impure charred material; however, the distinction was not universally adopted right away.
cobalt. Named by the copper miners of the Hartz Mountains after the evil spirits the 'kobolds' which gave a false copper ore; despised because of its uselessness and unhealthiness (it was often found mixed with arsenic), and because it resembled silver but wasn't.
copper-nickel, named for another devil, because it looked like copper but wasn't-- our nickel.
cuprite. Red cuprous oxide ore.
fulminating gold. Made by adding ammonia to the auric hydroxide formed by precipitation by potash from metallic gold dissolved in aqua regis. Highly explosive when dry.
King's Yellow. A mixture of orpiment with white arsenic.
Monday, April 5, 2010
you are graphite dust
You are graphite dust,
blown.
You are gold without knowing it,
Smoke from a slow fire,
wet.
You are leaves in a pile at dusk,
You are webbed like a spider’s nest underground, you are seen,
sheen,
opalescent.
You can smolder
like coal fires underground,
But leave only soft chalk on my arms as you hold them under you.
You are earthly,
and sharp,
and bright,
like hot cut black stones.
(I tried to show you myself in places,
tried to exchange a running picture-show for words,
tried to surround you with a moving screen of myself,
projected).
I should quiet down,
still myself
watch as bruises on white skin appearing,
charcoal on scrim,
silhouette on sugar backdrop.
You are a cameo, love,
black shape cut poised on pearl,
black smoke curling around me in the night.
blown.
You are gold without knowing it,
Smoke from a slow fire,
wet.
You are leaves in a pile at dusk,
You are webbed like a spider’s nest underground, you are seen,
sheen,
opalescent.
You can smolder
like coal fires underground,
But leave only soft chalk on my arms as you hold them under you.
You are earthly,
and sharp,
and bright,
like hot cut black stones.
(I tried to show you myself in places,
tried to exchange a running picture-show for words,
tried to surround you with a moving screen of myself,
projected).
I should quiet down,
still myself
watch as bruises on white skin appearing,
charcoal on scrim,
silhouette on sugar backdrop.
You are a cameo, love,
black shape cut poised on pearl,
black smoke curling around me in the night.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
collected terms and titles from the Natural History Museum
hornblende
alluvial soil
glacial till
stratified sands and clays
quartz
feldspar
calcite
gneiss
three-toothed cinqufoil
rock-tripe
limestone
shale
calcerous bog
glatiation
the water cycle
marl sedge (composed chiefly of shells)
the shale rocks of the Hudson River Series often develop a slaty cleavage… and fertility of the derived soils is variable, though decidedly on the poor side.
quartzite
wintergreen
checkerberry
teaberry
mountaintea
the mountain laurel is a frequent companion
Relation of Plants to Geology and Soil
barley oats timothy rye wheat alfalfa
Friends and Enemies of the Orchard
Fertilization of the Apple
Life in the Soil
Cycles of Nutrition and Decay
Structure of a Bean Plant
From Field to Lake
Life in Early June
Scavengers
Food Substances Removed from the Water
Microscopic Animals
Christmas Fern
Ground Pine
Black Birch
Redstart on Beech Tree
Wild Cherry
Striped Maple
Oven Bird
Heart-Leaved Aster
Flowers again appear in the woodland, mostly asters and goldenrods. These have formed their flower buds during the summer, and do not ordinarily carry them through the winter.
Winter buds of Dogwood
Plant Succession on Limestone
Progressive Changes after Fire, cattle grazing, and forest cutting
Indigo bird and nest
Fireweed
Fire Cherry
Aspen
Field Sparrow and Nest
Smooth Sumac
Blueberry
Plant Succession on Shale
alluvial soil
glacial till
stratified sands and clays
quartz
feldspar
calcite
gneiss
three-toothed cinqufoil
rock-tripe
limestone
shale
calcerous bog
glatiation
the water cycle
marl sedge (composed chiefly of shells)
the shale rocks of the Hudson River Series often develop a slaty cleavage… and fertility of the derived soils is variable, though decidedly on the poor side.
quartzite
wintergreen
checkerberry
teaberry
mountaintea
the mountain laurel is a frequent companion
Relation of Plants to Geology and Soil
barley oats timothy rye wheat alfalfa
Friends and Enemies of the Orchard
Fertilization of the Apple
Life in the Soil
Cycles of Nutrition and Decay
Structure of a Bean Plant
From Field to Lake
Life in Early June
Scavengers
Food Substances Removed from the Water
Microscopic Animals
Christmas Fern
Ground Pine
Black Birch
Redstart on Beech Tree
Wild Cherry
Striped Maple
Oven Bird
Heart-Leaved Aster
Flowers again appear in the woodland, mostly asters and goldenrods. These have formed their flower buds during the summer, and do not ordinarily carry them through the winter.
Winter buds of Dogwood
Plant Succession on Limestone
Progressive Changes after Fire, cattle grazing, and forest cutting
Indigo bird and nest
Fireweed
Fire Cherry
Aspen
Field Sparrow and Nest
Smooth Sumac
Blueberry
Plant Succession on Shale
dictionary of alchemy
Absorbent Earth: chlk, marble, and clays. no specific formulas. generally carbonates, silicates, and sulphates.
Acesunt: any substance which is slightly acid, or turning sour.
Acid of Ants: Formic acid
Acid of Amber: Succine acid
Acid of Apples: Malic acid
Alembic: a type of distillation apparatus
Bezoar: a counter-poison or antidote, especially a stony calculus from an animal’s stomach
Bismuth corne
Bittern: Liquor remaining after salt-boiling; a solution containing Magnesium salts and bromides from the preparation of salt from sea-water by evaporation
Bitter Earth: Magnesium oxide or carbonate
Bitter Salt: Magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts)
Bitter Spar: “Dolomite”—Calcium and Magnesium Carbonate
Bitumens: an amorphous grouping of resinous and petroleum products: crude oil, amber, asphaltum, coal
Cucubit: the lower part of an alembic. shorter, more squat and ovoid than a matrass.
Damps: any dangerous vapors in caves, mines, etc.
Acesunt: any substance which is slightly acid, or turning sour.
Acid of Ants: Formic acid
Acid of Amber: Succine acid
Acid of Apples: Malic acid
Alembic: a type of distillation apparatus
Bezoar: a counter-poison or antidote, especially a stony calculus from an animal’s stomach
Bismuth corne
Bittern: Liquor remaining after salt-boiling; a solution containing Magnesium salts and bromides from the preparation of salt from sea-water by evaporation
Bitter Earth: Magnesium oxide or carbonate
Bitter Salt: Magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts)
Bitter Spar: “Dolomite”—Calcium and Magnesium Carbonate
Bitumens: an amorphous grouping of resinous and petroleum products: crude oil, amber, asphaltum, coal
Cucubit: the lower part of an alembic. shorter, more squat and ovoid than a matrass.
Damps: any dangerous vapors in caves, mines, etc.
from 'The Poetry of Seamus Heaney: All the Realms of Whisper' by Elmer Andrews; Lecturer in Extra-Mural Department, University of Ulster
draws on the battering vitality of the Anglo-Saxon alliterative tradition to give utterance to an imagination informed by the austerity of cold, plastering rains and sharp-toothed winds. It is a landscape which the Anglo-Saxon Wanderer or Seafarer would recognize. 152
clamor and clogging 159
tribulation is purifying. In hard times it is necessary to become hard too-- even traitorous. 160
sacral, archetypal and mythic resonances of experience. Heaney submits all to the dark. 160
morning field smells
read poems as prayers
'a marvelous lightship that will surface from muddied waters'
elver-gleams in the dark
hide-bound boundary tree 173
"S's only consort now, are the birds of the air...."
The First Flight
gannet's strike
camaraderie of rookeries
discovering his new zone of being through the various birds he encounters.
oisin and st. patrick vs. holly tree (ink)
lobe and larynx of the mossy places
the old dry glut
living like a rook in the air 180
unroofed tower....
rest balm wingflap
unpainted spaces
An Artists' sensuous delight in his wife is complicated by his awareness that he has chosen to reject her. He imagines his wife's eyelids/glister and burgeon
the fleshed hyacinth
what it is like to gather holly in the rain
'gleamed like bottle glass'
'a black-letter bush, a glittering shield-wall, cutting as holly and ice'
clamor and clogging 159
tribulation is purifying. In hard times it is necessary to become hard too-- even traitorous. 160
sacral, archetypal and mythic resonances of experience. Heaney submits all to the dark. 160
morning field smells
read poems as prayers
'a marvelous lightship that will surface from muddied waters'
elver-gleams in the dark
hide-bound boundary tree 173
"S's only consort now, are the birds of the air...."
The First Flight
gannet's strike
camaraderie of rookeries
discovering his new zone of being through the various birds he encounters.
oisin and st. patrick vs. holly tree (ink)
lobe and larynx of the mossy places
the old dry glut
living like a rook in the air 180
unroofed tower....
rest balm wingflap
unpainted spaces
An Artists' sensuous delight in his wife is complicated by his awareness that he has chosen to reject her. He imagines his wife's eyelids/glister and burgeon
the fleshed hyacinth
what it is like to gather holly in the rain
'gleamed like bottle glass'
'a black-letter bush, a glittering shield-wall, cutting as holly and ice'
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