From whiskey river:
Remember
That to have the eyes of an artist,
That can be enough,
The ear of a poet,
That can be enough.
The soul of a human
just pointed
in the direction of the divine,
that can be more than enough.
I tell you this to remind myself.
Every gesture is an act of creation.
Even empty spaces and silence
can be the wings and voices of angels.
(Michele Linfante)
Not from whiskey river:
Salthouse
When we walked up the hill above Salthouse
and saw, looking down where we’d beenourselves on the beach waving back —
we were here and there and no-placecoming and going at once, perceiving
the speckled clouds as sleeping seals,as we dipped our toes in the breeze
and watched from the hill’s shorelinea kestrel come in with the tide,
and hold his stillness openover the ship weathervane
of a church that was floating and drowned,his shadow on the ground beneath him
the anchor that kept him aloft.
(by Charles Bennett)
And:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
(T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets: Little Gidding)
Finally, speaking of empty space and the voices of angels…
Usually when we hear the phrase “voice of an angel,” it describes a woman’s ethereal voice. (I remember Charlotte Church‘s voice described that way, for example; indeed, it was the title of her debut album.) Yet angels aren’t universally acknowledged to be the embodiment of sweetness and light, and these darker angels often appear in male form. In a Season 5 (1998) episode of The X-Files, Scully came face to face with a particularly terrifying (and supposedly benign) one:
[Father McCue shows Scully a book] Father McCue: “Is that what you saw? It’s a Seraphim, an angel, with four faces. Those of a man, a lion, an eagle and a bull. In the story the angel descends from Heaven and fathers four children with a mortal woman. Their offspring are the Nepholim, the Fallen Ones. They have the souls of angels, but they weren’t meant to be. They’re deformed, tormented. So the Lord sends the Seraphim to Earth to bring back the souls of the Nepholim, to keep the Devil from claiming them as his own.”
(Transcript from Red Wolf’s excellent “X-Files Episode Guide” site. YouTube has a video of that episode’s teaser/opening.)
But some men have the voices of benign angels. And sometimes you can hear such a voice singing of — yearning for — empty space. And if you’re really lucky, you can hear such a voice, singing such a song, over the vision of a more-than-natural being in the process of discovering himself:
Lyrics:
Up on the Roof
(words and music by Gerry Goffin and Carole King,
performed by The Drifters)When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be
And there the world below can’t bother me
Let me tell you nowWhen I come home feelin’ tired and beat
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof)
I get away from the hustling crowd
And all that rat-race noise down in the street (up on the roof)
On the roof, the only place I know
Where you just have to wish to make it so
Let’s go up on the roof (up on the roof)[brief instrumental]
At night the stars put on a show for free
And, darling, you can share it all with meI keep a-tellin’ you
Right smack dab in the middle of town
[Fade]
I’ve found a paradise that’s trouble proof (up on the roof)
And if this world starts getting you down
There’s room enough for two
Up on the roof (up on the roof)
Up on the roo-oo-oof (up on the roof)
Oh, come on, baby (up on the roof)
Oh, come on, honey (up on the roof)Everything is all right (up on the roof)
(If you’re a purist, you can see The Drifters themselves lip-syncing the song in a 1950s-era “video.” Note that the brrrr-rrrrrr sound which you can hear in th background, starting at around 1:35 or so, isn’t the purr of a cellphone; it’s the cooing of the pigeons on the roof in the video.)
marta says
Well, I was going to ruminate on these poems for a while and comment later–but then I saw the recaptcha and had to say something–anything–now. Ha.
recaptcha: person proceeds
Indeed.
cuff says
On that line, I got “Booker Emerson” for my words. Two major figures of the 19th century are all but demanding that I comment now, before the time has passed and my recaptcha is something less eminent, like “benign neglect.” It’s been a long time since I’ve read T.S. Eliot, and I didn’t recognize the lines from the Quartets, even stylistically. I’m losing my touch.
John says
What a riot. If we didn’t have recaptcha, none of us would have anything to say! (For the record, mine — no kidding — is “Politics seasick.” Make of that what you will, but you probably won’t have to work too hard.)
marta: Message from the universe, hmm? I read that as saying Don’t you dare slack off — you asked for this! (Another argument for spectating rather than participating in NaNoWriMo. :)
cuff: See, this gets seriously weird here… In a draft of this post, I had a quote from RWE. (“The angels are so enamoured of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.”) Then later, when I was still considering how to tie it all up and browsing YouTube, I found an ooooold video of “Green Onions.” Yes, by the original performer. (I still have that tab open in Firefox, which is why I have the URL handy.)
MsJax says
Really liked today’s entry. Especially the first poem and the juxtaposition of Spiderman with The Drifters.
Slightly inspired.
Kate Lord Brown says
Well this recaptcha is: filled clock (ha! and it really is). You know ‘Wings of Desire’? Did some posts in the summer – my kind of angels (though Nic Cage in ‘City of Angels’ also had a certain something). The line Eliot cherrypicked from Julian of Norwich (And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well) is pinned over my desk. Great post. Whips are cracking – back to the m/s …
John says
MsJax: Not surprised you’d like the Spidey/Drifters connection. I hope by “slightly inspired” you were referring to THAT; if you were referring to today’s entry in general I trust you offered the “slightly” wryly, as in “How could it possibly be otherwise, but…” [g]
(Oh, and on the subject of recaptchas, the one I’ve got now was probably meant for you, in a sort of… Bodog sense: “be Hoyle.”)
Kate: I wasn’t crazy about City of Angels, but really really do like Wings of Desire. (It’s always been right on the edge of movies I sorta kinda wish I had a copy of.) Haunting from beginning to end.
Jules says
I can hardly get past that first poem. Swoon.
I’m entirely, completely sure that folks are tired of me talking about how great Sam Phillips’ music is, but she’s a true poet. Anyway, that poem made me think of some of the lyrics to a song on her new CD, in which she’s looking for signals….”between heart and skin/ Through the shoulders where the wings might have been.” I love that.
Thanks for the poetry.
Sara says
This makes me think of David Almond’s book, Skellig.
Lots to think about here, but I couldn’t resist watching Peter Parker get spidery.
John says
Jules: I do a lot of joking, in the comments above, about coincidence. But I do love the way the mind makes connections like the one you just made, between the poem here and Sam Phillips’ lyrics. (Found a recent YouTube video of her singing that song, “Signal,” on NPR. The lyrics are in the “more info” box at the right side of the video itself.)
Glad you liked it!
John says
Sara: Had never (blushing) even heard of Skellig before reading your comment. The Amazon review of it begins:
That reviewer had me at “man-owl-angel.” Thanks for the recommendation!