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Saturday, April 19th, 2014
I've started putting together a chapbook of poems based on Biblical verses -- using as a core the poems I've been posting lately under the tag book:bible. It's looking interesting! I'll present the chapbook at the taller de poesía en la Universidad Desconocida. The contents (currently -- I am hoping to write at least one more poem this weekend):
- "Profetizarse" -- quotes from Genesis, John. Invocation of God asking for His Word.
- "Caminos de la carne y del EspÃritu" -- quotes from Romans, Psalms. Dialog between flesh and Spirit.
- "Vete y haz lo mismo" -- quotes from Luke. Meditation on the parable of the good Samaritan.
- "Tíramela" -- quotes from Leviticus, John. Meditation on casting the first stone.
- (untitled) -- quote from Ecclesiastes.
- "insensible" -- quote from Matthew.
- (untitled) -- Meditation on prophesy with reference to Joel.
- "Esqueleto" -- Meditation on prophesy.
- "Lo que diría la esposa de Lot" by Karen Finneyfrock.
posted morning of April 19th, 2014: 1 response
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Saturday, May third, 2014
I presented my chapbook of biblical verse, and got good notes. Primarily -- I should keep my poems short and intense, and resonant; anchor the ideas in imagery; and surprise the reader. The favorite was "Esquéleto":
Esquéleto
Esto son mis huesos
desnudos; vestilos
en carne, inspirámelo
el Espíritu a mí.
Planteá Vos la sembra espiritual
que crezca y florezca profecía
derramámelo
fornicámelo
que sueñe yo los sueños
de iluminación
Readings for next week are Latin American vanguard poems, a beautiful selection (which somehow manages to omit Pasos and Cuadras).
posted morning of May third, 2014: 1 response
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Génesispor J Osner
Antes
de mandarle al Agua
que sea agua
ni a la Tierra que sea tierra
ni tampoco a la luz
y la oscuridad que se separen
debe hacer creador el Fuego
y lo dejar
Arder.
posted afternoon of May third, 2014: 1 response
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Monday, June 9th, 2014
Brahma fue el primero de los Devas, el hacedor del Universo, el preservador del mundo. El reveló el Conocimiento de Brahma, la fundación de todo conocimiento, a su hijo mayor Atharva. I stumbled on an old blog post this past weekend which prompted me to take a look at the Mundaka Upanishad. Something about the reverent tone of the prophet who wrote the upanishad seemed very familiar -- it sucked me right in in the way some of my Bible readings have.In keeping with the Bible readings, I'm going to follow the Upanishads in Spanish, prophetic tone seems to come through a little better. But I think I'll try keeping a journal of it in English.
From him comes Agni (fire), the sun being the fuel; from the moon (Soma) comes rain (Parganya); from the earth herbs; and man gives seed unto the woman. Thus many beings are begotten from the Person (purusha).
Last night I read most of the Mundaka Upanishad a bit haltingly in English, focusing mainly on the part about two birds, inseparable friends which is what had brought me to the text -- quickly realized I would like this better in Spanish! Reread in Spanish and going back to the beginning of the upanishad and found a very familiar voice. This is like reading prophets in the Bible, a bit. Plus it has the ring structurally of a couple of my poems in Intenciones extendidas. Is that a tone in common with Old Testament? Not sure -- I tried to model those poems on an OT voice but did not feel like I succeeded, quite.This testament ("upanishad" is, if I understand correctly, a Sanskrit term with the meaning of looking up to, as to a teacher -- and just now "testament" seems like a good term for Upanishads though I think it is a bit shorter than NT) also seems to bear quite directly on recent musings on self and reality.
"Toma este Upanishad como el arco y coloca en él la flecha afilada de la devoción. Si así lo haces, tu mente permanecerá sujeta y darás en el blanco, que es el Indestructible."
posted evening of June 9th, 2014: Respond
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Monday, November 30th, 2020
¿Que cómo era el Edén? En corto: no era como es aquí. (p. 31 I§2)
Whenever I have looked at the Eden story, the question that always bugs me is what is YHWH's intention? Why create Eden and Adam and Eve and give them a commandment in order to punish them and destroy what has been created? I never really get past this. It seems to me like God is pure intention, and if I can't understand the intention what hope do I have of believing the story...
Boullosa's approach is intriguing: Eve, Adam, Eden, (and heaven, and even angels!) but no YHWH. As noted in St. Teresa's censorious foreword, these "pages do not recognise what is most righteous, the majesty and grandeur of the Creator of all things." There is a world, and a garden of Eden, and maybe-divine Thunder which resounds within and around it, but how it came to be is not addressed. (Well not yet anyways, I'm only starting to read the book.)
Eve describes the garden and its denizens as having substance but no qualities. She and Adam have eyes, but they do not see each other, they only look up towards the heavens. They eat and are nourished, but they do not taste, do not smell, until she finds the "apple" (though she notes that things did not yet have names in Eden) -- look at this beautiful passage: The delicious fruit awakened my sense of smell. I perceived an aroma for the first time.The scent prompted me to reach with my arm, to open my hand, to take what was hanging from the branch, to bear it to my mouth. My eyes played no part: it was by way of its aroma that the fruit came to my mouth. I felt its fresh, smooth skin with my lips, with my tongue; my teeth sank into it. (p. 30-31)
What I am thinking as I read is roughly, the world outside Eden is a Chaos of unnamed perceivable qualities, Eden is organized Substance, words without referents -- by eating the "apple" Eve becomes able to perceive the world and to have intentions. This thought is very rough still, I will work on developing it as I read.
posted morning of November 30th, 2020: Respond
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Tuesday, December first, 2020
Bastó un paso para que dejáramos atrás el siniestro, letal mandato del Trueno, atrás quedó el llamado Edén. (p. 47 I§6) [A single step was sufficient for us to leave behind Thunder's sinister, lethal commandment; the place called Eden lay behind us. I am here translating mandato as commandment for the biblical voice of it; other terms that might work are mandate and precinct. I am rendering el llamado Edén as the place called Eden; so-called Eden might be right.]
At the end of Book I of Eve's writings I have some questions. Primarily I am wondering about what commandment Eve and Adam have disobeyed. In Genesis 2:16-17, YHWH explicitly mandates that Adam and Eve may eat fruits of all the trees except his special one. But in this book, Thunder does not talk to Eve and Adam, at least not in clear sentences.After Eve and Adam eat the fruit, their senses are awakened and they begin to exist in Time. They are aware of their nakedness and have access to language (explicitly connected to being-in-time). When Eve tries to take leaves from the tree to cover her nakedness, the tree angrily refuses to allow her to take them (I§3), because she has disobeyed*. But what did she disobey? I reread the opening sections but find no commandment... Also: why does the tree give Eve its seed (I§6)?
I'm interested in the connection between language and being-in-time, and in what is the nature of this tree, as distinct from the rest of Eden. I will be looking to find out more about Eden in the coming books, though Eve and Adam have left Eden I expect Eve's memory of the expulsion will play an important role.
Eve says "Eden expelled us" (and not "Thunder expelled us from Eden") but then immediately says "It stank of dead animals, all we could do was leave." (p. 46) -- It is Eve and Adam that make the choice to leave. Covering their nakedness and leaving are the first two choices they make once they have begun to exist in Time.
 * A neighboring tree, which is presumably the Tree of Life, also refuses her. She is able to take leaves and branches from a third tree, a fig tree.
posted morning of December first, 2020: Respond
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Thursday, December third, 2020
Book II of Eve's writings describes Eve's and Adam's flight from Eden, their first experiences of Earth. By and large I have found it easy to follow. They discover thirst, they drink, they experience cold and are warmed by the fire that Eve steals from the Angel who guards the gate of Eden (I str this is the Angel of Death?); they experience night and day, and sleep; Eve invents cooking in a dream. Eve touches Adam and luxuriates in the feel of his skin, although they do not yet have genitalia -- I think sex will come in Book IV and V.
I am wondering about how this compares with Canon. I have always assumed Adam and Eve had sexual characteristics in Eden, and that these characteristics were the nakedness of which they were ashamed after eating the apple. Paintings show Adam and Eve with genitalia although I'm not sure from memory how explicit they are. My memory is that Eve's punishment was to suffer in childbirth, but I'm not at all clear on whether she had the ability to procreate before the Fall. I think so? But then why are her children only post-Fall? Need to do some research.
I am finding this passage from the very beginning of II§7 confusing (and enjoying the passing reference to Aristophanes' speech from the Symposium):
Éramos en parte de aparencia animal por las apestosas pieles de bestias con que nos había cubierto el Trueno y los cascos en los pies. Teníamos pezuñas. Nuestras uñas eran como las de los equinos y las cabras que nos auxiliaban con la empinada cuesta del áspero Monte Divino. La memoria nos recuerda conscientes de nuestros cuatro cascos, los dos del varón, los dos de hembra, yo, y que los cuatro eran cascos idénticos. No "de hembra" ni "varoniles", neutros, como lo éramos nosotros.
¿O será que nos supimos desnudos porque, previo a morder la manzana, una cutícula pulida nos recubría; una que cayó con la primera mordida? ¿Nos envolvía cuando vivíamos allá, y tal vez por eso yo no oía, no sentía, no veía, no escuchaba, no percibía? Eran las pezuñas el remanente de esa cutícula?
Será verdad que habíamos sido antes una sola persona de cuatro piernas, un solo ser con el rostro de mujer al frente y el de varón mirando hacia atrás, recubiertos sus dos cuerpos distintos en una cutícula común, unidos por la espalda?
It seems to me like she is saying their feet were not yet distinctively "male" and "female" feet, but were practically identical. I'm confused about why she needs to point this out...
 Hm, interesting... Very first article I happen on in my searches asserts that Cain was contrary to Canon, conceived and born before the fall. Which confirms my thinking that Eve's children are traditionally thought to have been born after the Fall, and also introduces a new bit of detail... And the command "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:22) certainly implies that Adam and Eve were able to procreate, though there is nothing specifying that it would be done with genitals and womb as it is post-Fall.
posted morning of December third, 2020: Respond
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