D A Levy - A Biography

D A Levy - A Biography by Ed Sanders 

JAB10 -- feature articles on Levy  

Charles Olson - "Polis is This"

Charles Olson - "Polis is This" (documentary)

Ed Sanders - "Investigative Poetry"

Ed Sanders - "Investigative Poetry" (pdf) 

 

There is no end

to Gnosis :

The hunger 

for DATA

Paul Blackburn -- "Statement"

Paul Blackburn - A brief statement on poetics, &al.

" . . .

Personally, I affirm two things:
                                                           the possibility of warmth & contact
                                                                       in the human relationship :
as juxtaposed against the materialistic pig of a technological world,
where relationships are only   ‘useful’   i.e., exploited, either
         psychologically or materially.

                                                                 2⁰, the possibility of   s  o  n  g
within that world: which is like saying ‘yes’ to sunlight.

   On the matter of song:   I believe there must be a return toward the
musical structure of poetry, just as there must be, for certain people at
least, a return to warmth within a relationship.

However impractical that may seem in a society controlled in some of its
most intimate aspects by monstrous, which are totally irresponsible,
corporations, organized for the greatest gain of the most profit: and whose
natural growth, like that of any organism, is toward monopoly,
                     self-support, self-completion, self-
                                                                                           perpetuation,
                     and eventually self-competition and self-destruction.

       In a world that is so quickly losing its individuals, it can only be the
individuals who persist, who can work any change of direction, i.e. control
the machines, or destroy them.

                                                  . . . )

Hugh Seidman -- interview (2006)

Hugh Seidman, in epistolary conversation with Molly Nason, 2006

" . . .  I suppose that if you subscribe to the “masterpiece theatre” view of art, then it is a sin against nature to publish the “inferior” or “unfinished” work of a dead poet (or of anyone). On the other hand if you believe that art is an ongoing and ever-evolving process of engagement with the universe at large, then certainly there will be highs and lows in that process, and one polarity is not necessarily to be favored over the other. Or, perhaps one falls somewhere in between these two views? And didn’t Valery say that a poem is never done but only abandoned? . . . "

Robert Duncan -- "Occult"

"Compose a poetry with the meaning entirely
OCCULT -- that is
With the meaning contained not as a jewel contained in a box, but
As the inside of a box
Is contained in the box ."

from The HD Book

"By here & now I"

By here & now I
here by
here swear aloud

Where ever ,  when
if ever I am allowed
what the gods will allow me

I vow myself to allow
this space to speak
these words I sing


My verses shall be finely chiseld
my verbs struck from stone
and my nouns stripped from bone
and the meat of my meaning
laid bare

In poetry
in prose

The heat
of each word of each verse
tossing and turning
spinning me back and forth

Verb       versus       verb

like thorns       in side me
weaving       a rose

Rene Daumal - "One cannot stay on the summit forever"

One cannot stay on the summit forever -
One has to come down again.
So why bother in the first place? Just this.
What is above knows what is below -
But what is below does not know what is above

One climb, one sees-
One descends and sees no longer
But one has seen!

There is an art of conducting one's self in
The lower regions by the memory of
What one saw higher up.

When one can no longer see,
One does at least still know.

--Rene Daumal

Infinite loop

In finite loop
-ing lemniscate
twisted mobius-strip

having no beginning no end
torus memory shell
We listen for Ocean in

All weaves together in
One fabric
the pattern

the design does not begin
in any certain place but where
the eye sees itself see in

Thro a glass darkly

Urthe is a reflection of Haven
and as in all reflections
things are reversed
.
Bliss appears as suffering
to enlightend consciousness
Pain feels like ecstasy
.
The saint does not liberate himself from pain

He liberates pain itself
.
The saint does not liberate himself from the world

He liberates himself from illusions about the world
.
Thus he is able to experience the world
more completely       more fully
more integrally
than most other men
.
We must suffer not only earth
and hateful mothers fathers
but the hole damned
cycle of samsara
.
All time and all space

Crowns of light and darkness
.
All glistening things
jewels gems stones metals
are glittering reflections

Post Script

Poet
Son of the father

seer of visions
visionary child
.
Guided by angles of Light
sees the light
out of the center of every thing
shining
.
each grain of sand is alive
in his eye, luminous
.
And he suffers for this
 . . .

He is called to suffering
that he may learn joy
.

"We are put here on Urth a little space
To learn to bear the beams
Of love "
                -Wm Blake

Genesis 1.1

בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ

Head-housed bore the Forces

all circumstances

the Waters-There circum-

-standing the Light-Tree



ב ר
all bodied-beings distinguishing between inside-self & outside-other
housed in whole dome-head universe's Reach

ש א
is Origin
shining  (dark & bright)  w/ One Light


בראש
BYT  RYSh  ALP  ShYN
House Head Origin Glow
Bait Raysh Aleph Sheen
Body-Reach-All-of-Shine

(. . . )

*(Isa Upanisad 1: "Whatever is in the universe, in all its changing forms, dwells the Unchanging" )

*(John 14.2: "In the Ancestor's House (Body) there are many mansions" )

&c.


when Light of No-Thing be
came Yin to Yang
the Bang to bring

to birth the berth
of all things

to emanate the images
to create the creatures

names , appellations
signs , times
echoes , reverberations of

the Primal Fiat
that bangd in the
beginning was

*(Talmud Eser Sephirot 1.1 )

"Destroying what we have imagined"

destroying what we have imagined
brings us closer to what

we cannot imagine

an absence

we cannot survive

at least it is
diminishd a little

because we are still alive




( is not ended

what has come to pass )


&c.

"What are poets for?"

(in conversation with M Heidegger)

1
The gods
who were once there
return
only at the right time

when there has been a turn
among men
at the right time
in the right way


Timing is every thing

&c.

2
The business of poetry
is the salvation of the soul

transformation of
mud to pure gold

from "Hermetic Definitions"

MaTTeR >
                   < mothering matrix

matter is
what matters

in forms
the substance

shape that
shapes us



GRaViTy >
                   < vortical valence
                   or helical adhesion

a knot tied in each whirling
atom-node of space

yoking each adam tied back
hooking loop in place

in the spiral weaving flux
fabric of time's pace



EGO

one cannot get
rid of the ego

by removing me
from I



SPiRiT

Frequency to which we attune
re-tunes us

Metatron

Consciousness extends beyond the physical body
transmitted by biophotons

partaking of a "Mind-Field"
of communal consciousness surrounding the planet and

extending into spacetime
thro the magnetosphere

resonating in patterns contourd
by ripples of past, present and future


this "Mind-Field" is the collective
experience of the whole human race


well-spring from which our waters are sprung
emptiness in to which we empty

Isaiah 41.7

smithing pummelling
molten-fusing

smoothing hammering
striking anvil saying

the soldering
"It Is Good"

nailing up He Who Stands
not wobbling

Initiation

Initiation
bite of healing elixir, contagious

L I G H T
s p r e a d i n g

viruslike to root out the virus
at the root of my Darkness

"Anew Consensus is when"

Anew Consensus is when
a new cultyr begins
when a truly new universal imagining
catches FIRE from torch to torch
& gives new shapes to new feelings

A new world of common
experience & shared meaning
A confluence of humanities
communicated
interpreted
translated
in to one
center-all common fold

Inhabiting the whole earth
reaching for the stars

Dying feels like a good cry

Then all the hurt faded away

disappeared
as if it had never been

My blood slowed

Through all the noise of shouting
I could hear

birds singing in palace gardens

A breeze tossed
the lilies

laughing

Down I lay

my life, that I may

take it up again someday

I sleep with open eyes

I dream with my hands

the dream of a river seeking its course

backwards beyond the source

beyond infancy

beyond the beginning

climbing thro millions of roots

reborn, breaking forth

in many colored leaves

 

George Quasha - "Morphic Resonance"

Form
sounds
name
like
sound
forms
shape
things

Klipa & Nogah

each letter
each word
each utterance

is TWOFOLD
both
Shell & Spark


the Shell both hides and leads in
to the Spark
conceals & reveals


Hard-end shells
harbor
hid-in sparks

One cannot reach the pit
of the fruit except thro
the shell


uncover the cover
reveal the revelation

from "Kol haTor workbook"

“The thrice-woven cord

of Signs, Designated-Times, and Appointed-Agents

appear simultaneously


"The Agents react to the Signs

& thus can help accelerate

arrival of the Designated-Times



*The Hebrew term for "Signs" – Yi’udim (singl= yi’ud) --  is usually translated as “missions, appointments, designations or assignments."       In context of "Kol haTor," the implication of Yi’udim is that of “Signs,” actions or events (people, places, things) which alert the Agents to translate those Signs into "as-Sign-meant(s). "      It is not specified whether Yi’udim are manifested from external Forces or from the Agents themselves.       Ambiguity appears intentional because tt does not matter how and why the Signs of the new respective “as-Sign-meant(s)” are revealed.       Regardless, Agents must know how to interpret them and respond to them in order to stimulate the Designated Times.       Yi’udim are the “Signs of the Times” (Zeitgeist) which the Agents recognize as their “as-Sign-meant(s)” to help trigger  & accelerate the “Time of the Sign.”

*Jack Spicer: "The Poet is an Agent (like a mother is) ."

Letter from Horselover Fat, received in a dream

"For you there is no way out
except to go forward .

Don’t turn back the way you came .
No use rediscovering

the place where you began .
No .  Hurry on now

hurry on to where you’ve always been heading
your whole life long ."

Claude Gauvreau - "Desire"

“The only path to follow is the one shown us by DESIRE.
The fact that any child
can make an authentic masterpiece
makes me think that desire can be born
in anybody. But as long as this desire is not permitted,
as long as it does not frantically claw at the surface,
in total honesty and with total risk,
nothing can point to a new road.”
--Claude Gauvreau

from "Infinite in All Directions"

Matter is not matter
it slowly fades as it passes
from cell to molecule to atom

to the electron, where
matter ceases to be
matter, and manifests it self as

mind
spirit
force

and not blindly , no , but as
an all-seeing eye sees itself
burningly alive in every beam

of light curving
straight on forever
infinite in all directions of sight

XS

Both access and excess exist
round every twist
of the Axis
that X is

Poesis

(epigraph atop an unfinished "Mantic Manifesto")

I do the Work

I make it
work for me

& the Work
in turn makes
Me who I am


1.
GATHER
together widely scattered material
and draw it in
to the central       axis
access       of the current
flow


Gatherd sparks
a gathering of shards

fractal fragments re
-membering

a Book of Memory
with spiral-coiled spine

twisting blend of broken prose
and fractured poetry


Pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are
every where       what is
the bigger picture

"Fear not / little children"

(from "Letterbombs")

Fear not
little children

tho the orthodox Sunday School
batten the windows of the soul against the senses' sunlight

the comic book & the Saturday morning cartoon
are busily at work in the dark , generating Xrays

and laserbeams of merciful liberating metalogic
that shine thro the sheen that clouds even

our densest draperies
of superstition

from "MythoLogos"

1)
The discoveries we make
are given shape by
our looking .
Things we see
are given meaning by
our seeing .

To accept our physical state of being
as ancient and formative
and yet fail to grant our psychic state of being
the same standing
splits our world in two .


2)
Imaginations
"Thot-Forms"
Phylogenetic Memories
Primordial Scenes

Inherited from the Deep Past
suggest that Man is much more than
simply another animal .

Only when we realize the full activity
of the Mind  --  how Thot
cerebrates endlessly
just below the limit horizon of experience
absorbed always in infinity

Will we understand the rightful
poem-rich        potential
of fully upright Man.

3)
All voyages are imaginary
even those we actually take .


Symbols cannot be borrowd or built on
they must be seized
each time --
their real       value, use

is how much light they contain
how much we can see
in them
our self .

"Reality must be revealed"

The Real
has just these boundaries
That we imagine
–R.D.


Reality must be revealed . Again & again , countless times over .

Like shouting yr name to a mirror . Reflections of the Word
bounce back at you in the face .
Or over the Waters where , over the roar of the Waters
there’s No One there
there’s no
Echo

Until you speak

Until Spirit opens up yr jaws & starts jabbering
until you hear the Word coming strangely
up out of yr own mouth
smokelike
streaming
speaking tongue-tying riddles with yr own tongue

Only then will you believe .

"Remember"

(from "Letterbombs")
 
An overwhelming majority live in ignorance
of the visible & invisible wonders that surround us

And therefore        they are easily controlled
by desire , superstition and fear

A black iron billyclub in this world
a red hot poker in the next

Enlightenment is what we need , here now
not religion

Black Fire on White Fire

As loud as the sun
inside me , bright
as the inner Light
spilling its spell of protons & photons
thro the funnel of my skull


These words made flesh
in the flash of utterance


I write with my whole body in my hand
writing
my body
spelling my body
speaking my name

What does yr soul look like?

I believe that
in a future not too distant
or too different from the past
a science far more sacred than our own

Someday will deduce and prove
the existence of a spiritual body
for every body

And we’ll photograph
and show each other our souls
and laugh out loud and weigh
starlight’s tenuous but ponderable shadow

And sit here and wonder silently
how it is
we never knew this about ourselves before

from "Circling Around Circles"

(1)
Fiction is true
and the Poet’s ability to apprehend the truth in fiction

Keeps the story in play
keeps the plot thickening

Incorporates as many seemingly contradictory
or paradoxical
or mutually exclusive       elements       as possible
in an ever-expanding  W H O L E


The great power of fictive imagination
resides in its bringing into a single story

The most heterogeneous aspects of
our experience of the world


(3)
Sentences turning back upon themselves
convoluted continually creshendoing contours of consciousness
majestic mountains of metamorphorizing
schizophrenic - autistic
ambiguous use of clauses
conversions of gerunds back into verbums
tacking on of Verb to predicate Object
so that Object becomes Subject
all nouns becoming verbs

Sentences circling
around circles
spiral-wise


(5)
“The track        down which everything passes
is backward turning "

"The way       there
is the way       back "

"Up & Down
One & the same "


(6)
There is always more Time remaining

World whirls round & round in circles
and there is no where any where on a circle
where the circle begins or ends

Every turning a means for the next turn
each turn mutually pushing
and pulling the next turn into shape
each the seed        each the leaven
for a new rise into embodied
being as it was always will be
there is no where any where in a wheel’s turning
where the wheelturning begins or ends

(and it goes without saying that
if the wheelturning stopt turning
there would never be
nothing to know
there was no turning
round wheeling
mandala spinning
no more )

from "I Was (a mystic teenage mutant)"

(aka "Black Swan")

“People are so alienated from their own soul
that when they meet their soul they
think it comes from another star system”
– Terence McKenna


1
A profound sense of exile
is the lot
of the Poet

Who undertakes to recognize and recover
all that has been lost
all along our long slow sojourn here


2
His will be
a quest to extend his vision  
both below and beyond the limits
of the measurable

To include all that our cultyr excludes
or occults or hides from itself
the Mysteries of being all of us
are born temporarily blind to


3
He will come to religion
thro the back door 

&c . . .

He will carry the alien
nation w/ him where
ever he goes

The house that he builds
w/ his own two hands
will feel like a place of exile
from inside




12
"In the shamanic tradition only a person who has healed himself is regarded as a wise man, be cause only such a person truly knows the dark secrets of the psyche. Thus in a psychological sense the seeker of knowledge is ill. His illness is usually due to a combination of physical and conflictual psychological tensions. During the course of his illness the seeker struggles dramatically and valiantly [. . .]"


13
His Angel had to fall, in order to save him.
How else could the imponderable secrets of Heaven be given him?

The Angels who give saving knowledge to men and women are the very same Angels we consider fallen.

Some will tempt with forbidden fruit. Some will wrestle you to the ground. Still others will bind and gag you into surrender.

His Angel gave him a book, a book no one had ever seen. A book that no one has ever seen since.


14
I turn the pages
in the dark

and find the Wyrd
no one has ever written

Charles Muses - "Meaning"

σοφία

(The gnostic Wisdom
outside of the human drama 
to contain & be activated by
it is profoundly useless )

      1)
the cultivation of energy-states
in man
the many multitudes of Form
She takes on
each one solely the issue
of the time
of the moment
of Her creation

      2)
how the heat of Her
in me in that instance
solid congeals
crystallizes to crystal
under the sign of this
one right here
out of the archetype of my self
through the symbol of the man
I am
or will become

      3)
Wise Dame 
Her Self
in the habit of the moment
right here right now
She comes for me
every time I write
or else the words
come not at all

Thaumaturgy

To speak of
transformation is
to present an
instance of transformation


"One cannot speak of
transformation without
transforming oneself "
sd the angel to the boy


Thus every instance
of transformation is
an announcement of

the transformation that
one is in the very act
of accomplishing


psychoanalyschizosynthesis

Acorn

in the pattern
in the seed
all is present
all at once

"Infinite in finite"

"Infinite in finite"

Elohim

Field Forces
fold
in >< out

in spiral
aspires all
Form



1.
the Forces are the Forge

that Form the Forms

on fire in all directions

"apocalyptic master mind"

(from 'YHshVH Poems' an ongoing work-in-progress)

YHshVH was executed for sedition against Imperial Rome
for encouraging & supporting the Galilee insurrection

a bastard Romanish Jew
under the screws of two antagonistic cultyrs
at war with one another

and for many years after his death
a heightening of violence afterword ensued

like a hidden leaven
He, yes even HE
was widely held to be

a disturbed individual

radical revolutionary supported by terrorists
savage mystic believer in sympathetic magic
spiritual figurehead of tribal insurgents

apocalyptic master mind

He had a way about Him
of picking up others’ torches and carrying them

so far
in the distance his predecessors were forgotten

LIGHT they lit for me
pathway in the dark
revealed by the LIGHT

inside my house am I
all lit up by their LIGHT
everywhere inside . . .

"Our words are"

Our words are
literally
our World


Their permission
what they lead us to
is all we have now


All
we’ll ever have

"to begin"

to begin
to return
to Paradise

see
the Holy
in the profane

Vow

1
this body was born
and I know it will die

will be eaten up by sun
washd away by sea


2
I have enterd it
like an egg in the shell
and like a bird
going to another nest

when this one is rotted
I shall enter in
to different bodies
again and again


3
thus have I ever been
from beginning to end
of this world

giving up successive bodies
and assuming ever new ones
over & over ever again


4
and having
in the space of time
gotten in
to this present body

I am in this way
made to go
round
in an endless going round

and round on an endless circle
cycle

of beginningless births
and deathless deaths


5
until the meaning of my mattering
no longer matters, and the sphere

of my spirit
is pure spirit


6
and I peer out
in to the appearing
of a child

as a sun beam
through the eyehole
of a clearing


7
and I come to my senses at last


8
and I've determined to put an end

to my beginning without end


9
and I vow

never
again
to be

found on
this endless wheel of
these monstrous

transformigrations of Me

Charles Stein - Wisdom

from "3 Doctrinal Poems," included in 'Poems & Glyphs'

"Ecstasy"

woven in thorny crosses

on a spiral spike

I break open

in fiery blossoms

my body a flowerbed

red roses in bloom

My chin on yr heart

beating fast  my face

blushing with flame

Yr voice is every 
where      yr body every 
where

I take yr hand in mine

its reach fills my grasp

at last I am touching sky