Alternative to Speech 0691014329

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An

Alternative to Speech

David Lehman

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON SERIES OE CONTEMPORARY POETS For Other Books

Copyright

©

in the Series, see

page 99

1986 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, In the

New

Jersev 08^40

United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,

Guildford, Surrev

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Library' of

Congress Cataloging

found on the

last

in Publication

Data

will

be

printed page of this book

Isbn 0-69 -066841

1

Isbn 0-691-01432-9 (pbk.)

Publication of this

book has been aided by

a grant

from the Paul

Mellon Fund of Princeton University Press This book has been composed in Linotron Perpetua

Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-iree paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durabilitv. Paperbacks, although satisfactory for

personal collections, are not usually suitable for library rebinding

Printed in the United States of America

by Princeton University Press Princeton,

New Jersey

Designed by Peter A. Andersen

Cover

illustration

The author wishes

to

by Darragh Park

thank the Ingram Merrill Foundation for grants that

helped support the writing of this book.

And A

that’s the long

life

sentence, a syntax

Idle tears,

As

if,

and

short

of our

of tears

melodious tears

—

—

parole,

by concentrating hard enough, we could fnally hear

Hymns of heroic

heaven,

and

all

our woe would disappear.

CONTENTS PART ONE The Heroic Couple,

And About Time,

How To Think, Of

Self

3

5

7

and Soul, 9

The More You Have To Blind Hopes,

Lose,

1

1

Journey into the Eye,

Love and Destiny,

1

1

But Not Forever, 19 Sonnet, 21

The Thirtv-nine

Steps, 23

The Difference Between First Offense,

27

In Praise of A. R.

The

Last

Pepsi and Coke, 25

Ammons, 29

Day of J uly,

3

Ode, 33

Dominant X, 35

Toward

An

the Vanishing Point, 37

Alternative to Speech, 41

PART

TWO

The Master of Ceremonies, 45 Peripheral Vision, 47

Arbeit Gift

Macht

Frei,

Means Poison

49 in

German,

Reverse Angle, 53

The Problem of Evil, 55

The Concept of Dread, 57 Perpetual Motion, 59

Amnesia, 61

Recent Acquisition, 63 Third and Icarus, 65

The True Philosopher,

71

Twenty Questions, 75 Simultaneous Windows, 77

The

Ideal

Subway, 79

Glose, 8

The Innocent Bystanders, 83 The

Evil Genius, 85

Enigma

Variations, 87

The Long Goodbye, 9 Shake the Superflux!, 93

Notes,

91

5

Many

of these poems

initially

appeared

in the following periodicals:

The Agni Review. Reverse Angle Boulevard:

The True Philosopher

Epoch: Shake the Superflux!,

Grand

Street:

The

Evil

Genius

The Master of Ceremonies, Close

The Pans Review. Love and Destiny, Arbeit Partisan Review. Poetry:

Of Self and

And About Time, How To

The Heroic Couple, Journev Shenandoah

:

Macht

Frei,

Enigma Variations

Soul, Recent Acquisition

Think, In Praise of A. R.

into the Eye,

The Concept of Dread, An

Ammons, Ode,

Amnesia

Alternative to Speech,

The

Subway, The Long Goodbye, Twenty Questions, Dominant Southwest Review. Third

Sun 8^Moon:

Toward

and

Icarus, Peripheral Vision

the Vanishing Point,

The Times Literary Supplement: But

More You Have To

Ideal

X

The Thirtv-nine

Steps

Not Forever, Sonnet, Blind Hopes, The

Lose, Simultaneous

Windows, Perpetual Motion, The

Innocent Bystanders Virginia Quarterly Review: Gift

Means Poison

in

German, The Problem of

Evil

PART ONE

The Heroic Couple for Stefanie

T

O copy the same sentence each day of his life, His

Yet

fate.

we

never

tire

of reading

it,

Each time expecting to be surprised, Each time disappointed that we who know why

Must Not

fail

when we

try not to care,

to hide our despair with a useless grin

Or useful lie, like an orphan’s birthday party, A polite ovation for the ancient actress

Who

has just forgotten her immortal lines

Flaying terror-struck Jocasta. “It could have happened

To anyone,” our embarrassment

wishes to say but

Fears just the opposite, and the words remain

Unspoken. Only the subdued clapping of hands Ripples the dark theater silence. Necessary? Naturally. But like a face slapped by an angry father, It

doesn’t change a thing, except after he’s dead

Perhaps, and even then, what good

And

to

whom? Of what

comfort

is

is

the knowledge,

the

memory

of

air

That enabled the divers to reach the ocean floor Before turning into poison inside them?

What

can’t be recovered

(Until the

room

stops

survival

How

to

tell

more;

the ship goes

down

swimming, and we forget to drown

Can’t be learned by the

Our

when

No

living, can’t

be

named

depends on ignorance. Or so we

time

in this seasick

dream

or known. like to say.

that won’t last

Longer than

We

a student’s swift

will gladly

summer

vacation

never know, glad that our “never”

is

A temporary condition. After all, it takes time to figure What exactly was being listened to (and so intently!)

When

you confused Mozart’s Flute Concerto

For the

humming

known,

Is

it

Not known.

in

seems

as

though you had never

we

In other words,

in

may have been tomorrow morning

present disguise of dilemmas doesn’t look

The genius of the the edge of

Of bodiless

When

many

born; what besides a cup of hemlock

is

shore;

now and damn years!

is

due

which of us more recently went

doom and

emotions,

life

up, and

along;

all

Friendlier by far than any we’ve studied for

To

your

all

wake

are sure to

If its

love

D

of the refrigerator, but once the truth

This

How

out

back; and the where and

when

I

woke

when

up,

you woke up, and neither of us was gone,

Can’t be learned in a book, can’t be

Given the power to run,

who would

lost,

once won.

walk?

Furthermore, the questions signify nothing If

not a proliferation of answers,

if

not

Statuarv without marble, music without sound,

And what It’s

can’t be looked at for the glib but true reason

too busy doing the seeing. In desperation,

The anecdote reduces I

forget.

So

it

And

The

is

itself to its final

no longer

his

two words:

a desirable

vanished with the shutting of the

last

one martyr’s eyes

hand-holding parents, puzzled by the free

Publicity,

4

secret

began the slow mournful journey home.

And About Time AT the heart of every memory

IX

Is

an oblivion from which

From time

to time a message

Or two must Or

else.

The

There

be rescued is

no

alternative.

sentence, like a

Can never be

dream death, Thus,

finished.

You might remember

trying to read

The notes scrawled on

Of the

the decaying

leav


Windows

Simultaneous

T

HH

ballerina stood tiptoe

The sun having burned

on the

a hole

tricycle seat,

on the

inside of her thigh.

Out of sight,

And

far

from simultaneous windows,

a bird catches cold

and escapes

The brooding

arcades.

Goodbye,

guilt.

I

ate

your green and

purple grapes,

now the core of an apple is a skull in my mouth. am a novelist. know which of my characters is due to die Tomorrow, and who will go to bed with whom, and why, And to what end the rival siblings raped the virgin south But

I

I

Of the nightmare

border,

how manv

crimson skies ago.

One

chooses

The

details of a sunrise;

Her

balance. In the adjacent

one hopes the

window, singing the

Asks vou to help her perpetuate fifty

And you

—

ballerina will not lose

a fiction for the

blues, Sis

next

minutes,

you

can’t miss.

blindfolded

You do whatever she

asks, a

kiss.

Singing, the slate-colored junco in the gingko honors her

tits.

77

The

A He I

Ideal

L L the old

is

first

right,

change overnight. Consider:

I

leaf of

an artichoke

is

an owl.

found that out the dav

subway stretches

like the

marks on

a

new mother’s

East Gardens to Star, with stops at Opera, Hell

Our Lady

Wrong Each

of course.

took a ride on the ideal subway.

ideal

From

of the Lilacs,

station, at

Get out

and Doors of

each stop, has a distinctive

Wrong

Ravmond your

The Clock, Abyss, Horn of

Point, Ivory Gate, Waterloo,

Get out

You

facts

According to Arshile Gorky, the

l

The

Subway

Plenty, Italy.

flavor.

Point and you’re in the Los Angeles of

Chandler.

Ivory Gate and though you’ve lived in a forest

at

belly

Mouth, Flood,

all

life

lose

your composure when the owl hidden

in

alma

mater’s skirt

Lets out a scornful hoot, in the middle of the night, announcing

The

start

of a dream. Later that night, Plato arrives in his

chariot Saying, “the

The

ideal

bodv

subway

is

the

differs

tomb of the dreamer’s from

soul,

and thus

a celestial bus.”

79

He

He

doesn’t bother to explain.

Not

for

experienced dreamers

doesn’t have to

like us.

Allowing for the

inevitable delay,

A dream It

links

doesn’t end on the same night

our hearts

as

we

ride

on the

it

ideal

starts.

subway.

Close

E T our frail

L

enough

In trenches big

j

I

thoughts daily with false surmise.

changed chance into

a

No, not one, but many

With

two

for

synonym

lovers

and

a

machine gun,

for the sun.

skies.

a shrill whistle the referee called time

And back

to the

bench they went,

their previous

triumphs

forgotten,

Their pious guilt remembered, by generals bereft

Of a

reasonable war.

For more

Under

:

changed chance into

I

light less light less

than a

the circumstances, did

it

a

little light

rhvme was

left.

pay to advertise?

Seduced by the words,

The sky was Take

Filed with the absence of birds.

off your glasses.

Take

me

by surprise.

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.

Open your

eyes.

When

the birds of February escape

Into March, and the trees prepare to

don the

By which alone they can be recognized, Into an idol, and break

The It’s

it.

Though

shall

change chance

Reluctant to change shape,

caterpillar slinks away.

already hard to

I

disguise

The cobra consents

to dance.

remember who won

the peace has just begun. Suspending our disbelief,

8

Perhaps we’ll see the career of a tree

Don’t bet on

it.

In trenches big

There’s

enough

work for

to be

two

on every

elevator will stop

Inevitable.

On

its

a

machine gun.

own, steady rise

every floor a different century

With our bandaged

binoculars,

In an age of poverty,

—and

then

it’s

what could we

gone.

see?

what could be done?

shall divine your every wish,

The waiter

says, proffering the dish

Of pearls and (I

and

floor, its

Clicks into place. Thirty seconds

I

done

lovers

Close your eyes. Obeying laws of

The

in a single fallen leaf.

amethysts he has chanced upon.

changed chance into a synonym for the sun.)

The anxious

son, pride of the parish, dies in a capsized canoe.

The nude resumes her

place on the couch,

now

that the

revolution,

Like a boulder swallowed by the ocean,

Has ended

To

form.

in a splash

Is lose

The question There

is,

seen by no one. Such falsehoods run true

the opposite offind

—

or of win ?

has launched a thousand

in fact,

lies.

nothing to fear

Except for the strangeness of being here Since the sun, like a guillotined orange, has begun to

No, not one, but many

82

skies.

rise.

The Innocent Bystanders

H Can

ELL

is

a place

where

Eyeglasses are forbidden,

grow',

and dentures kept

where only

nails

—

Sank long ago into the hamburgers of Ohio

Of the blood we It

was,

it is,

later

spilled,

than

or was

we

and hair

in glass cases

it

the basis

the ink?

think.

It is,

for example, too late to use the sink:

One

gurgle, echoing through the tenements,

Will

wake the innocent bystanders whose very existence

Confirms that somebody

Was It

it

is

guilty.

But who?

the Catholic, the Protestant, or the Jew?

could be the holder of a worthless

Who spent

i.o.u.

the day in bed until, forced by the

May weather

to depart, he set forth in

In search of a nurse to

rub alcohol on

warm

good cheer

his

upper arm

Before her love can sting him. The recent and near

Revolution disappears, as a

line drive of light

Eludes the hands of cheering fans, and lands out of

sight.

The

Evil

Genius

UDDENLY a voice: “You turn

S

left at

the stars.”

But I’m always hearing things wrong, hearing things rhyme:

The Third

Reich: the third

The marine had never seen

Our

rules are simple.

The

fly

And

the

One

of

rail:

so

I

like Ike:

many

the Holy Grail.

shades of green.

The germs we shoot up ensure our immunity.

between the crocodile’s eyes buzzes with impunity.

two

figures in the fog invite

them always

lies.

our credulity:

The other sometimes

tells

the truth.

Nostalgic for their cages, for what seemed like ages,

The

birds lined

And

sang, with the valor of the

up on

their telegraph wires

Until an arrowhead of geese

The canary on It

damned,

left for

another year.

the coal miner’s shoulder whistled a happy tune.

was the only thing we had

to fear.

Enigma Variations

I

R

I

S

Winston Churchill advised

“Especially

when you may

against suicide

live to regret it.”

After an endless faculty meeting at Princeton, Einstein revised his theorv of eternity.

“Just a run in time’s stocking,” said Nabokov.

The

child

grows older while everyone around him

Stays the age they

The

painter and his

The nude wears Otherwise she

On

were when he was born.

a

is

places.

mask. Otherwise she

just like

this hijacked jet

One

model change

all

is

nude.

the other passengers

suspended over Manhattan.

terrorist says: Let the death be as illuminating

As the resurrection. Everyone Into the age they

else has frozen

were when he was born.

2

H T the alcoholic transcend

L

/

Let the Leaning

Tower

his religious upbringing.

of Pisa stabilize

its tilt.

Let the spaces between Pollock’s “Blue Poles”

Vibrate with the music of the spheres and Let the death be as illuminating as the resurrection,

And

as beautiful.

A

million degrees centigrade:

The sun’s corona during

If

the world has terrors, said Rilke, then

We must

learn to love them, for they belong to us.

Notice the

One

“if.” If

“We

shall outlive

His escape did not

The

among

all

these skeletons

stood up to denounce his tormentors

Crying

88

a total eclipse.

mean

them!”

in

triumph

his destruction:

sun’s corona during a total eclipse.

as if

3

T

HE

driver of the hearse seen from the hospital

Says, “There’s

And

window

one more inside,”

so does the bus conductor the next afternoon.

We know And we

We

room

for

it

will crash,

but

it’s

our destiny

from our destiny, though

can’t escape

refuse to climb aboard.

A

used syringe was found

In the toilet in the back of the bus.

They would never have permitted

The

lovers

When I

dreamed

they

woke

it

in the hospital.

midway between heaven and no

was the blind painter who could see

Only by touching

Which

her.

We met on

didn’t crash, except

And we could Except that

converged

in parallel lines that

up,

model

the bus

when we were

see the place exactly as

we were

his

place.

it

asleep

was

missing from the picture.

They would never have permitted

it

in the hospital.

89

4

T The

h

RROR

Thanks to Allies

links the father, the son, a choice

typo in Time

people,

who

,

live across

Having babies and working for a

the street,

living.

requires a medical examination before execution:

The law of self-preservation, which doesn’t If

we

The Is

At

can commit suicide and

no one

exist, it.

homeward,

else to blame.

are the chosen people, choosing to laugh

a practical joke that isn’t

The Appian Way need

In his plane

As he

flies,

And no

90

live to regret

terror of transgressing angels, looking

ours, because there’s

We

sacrificial

snatched victory from “the jews of defeat,”

The chosen

The law

and the

is

all

that funny.

now Highway

fear

fatherless,

7,

and Icarus

no more the heat of the sun

midway between heaven

place: a suicide

who

lived to regret

it.

ram.

The Long Goodbye O U L D N T love, ’

isn’t loved, will love:

I’m afraid our time for today

is

up.

You’re welcome. Help yourself to a second cup.

(She slipped off her body

like a glove.)

Whatever happens, you mustn’t

The

lose hope.

truth takes time but can be seen;

The answer

is

on the blackboard, which

Why

do you think they

Keep

in

mind

Some of us

And some Proceed

Upper

and

are not impressed

can’t wait to get undressed,

you

can.

Keep

a stiff

Under the knowledge

tree

Don’t ask the snake If

he thinks you’re making

What won’t

be,

won’t

a mistake.

be.

As the sun goes on going west, Indifferent to shades of black

Be sure to murmur

And

lie

down and

a last

green.

dope?

it

that the odds are long,

as best

lip.

call

is

and white,

good night

take your beauty rest.

if

Shake the Superflux!

L

I

I

KE

now,

in this

at

walking on streets

two

town

in the

as black

and wet

as this

one

when everyone

solemnly musical morning,

else

emptied of Lestrvgonians and Lotus-eaters

why they aren’t asleep, while unknown to them Ulysses walks into the shabby apartment live in, humming and feeling is

asleep or trying or worrying

I

happy with the avant-garde weather we’re having, the winds (a fugue for flute and oboe) pouring into the 1

live

windows which

on the pround

I

floor

mv

left

and there have been

two

burglaries

do

quickly take a look to see

if

I

on

open although

block alreadv this week,

the valuables are missing? No, that

it’s

is

an epistemological quandarv: what

valuable,

would they?

Who are

they,

can’t,

I

I

consider

anyway?

I’d

with speculations based on newspaper accounts

Donald

E.

it

in

mv

it

makes me want

catalogue of pleasures

designed to hide the ugliness or sweep

way

were

twenty-four hours

of abstinence tastes so good

the

I

Westlake, whose novels I’m hooked on, but

this first cigarette after

to include

answer that

if

it

the violent overflow of rain over

away cliffs

cleans the sewers and drains of Ithaca

whose

waterfalls head

crudities of carrots

my

and

list,

followed by

beets, roots

and

all,

93

with rained-on radishes, too beautiful to

eat,

and the pure pleasure of talking, talking and not knowing

where the

Furthermore

I

shall

my

but willing to take

talk will lead,

enumerate some

chances.

varieties of tulips

(Bacchus, Tantalus, Dardanelles) and other flowers

w ith names

that have a

of their

life

own (Love

Dw arf Blue Bedding, Burning Bush, Torch Mostly, as I’ve implied, that count;

still,

the

it’s

sometimes

Lies Bleeding,

Lily, Narcissus).

names of things

wonder and, wondering,

I

find

the path of least resistance, the earth’s orbit

around the sun’s delirious

clarity.

Once you

sniff

the aphrodisiac of disaster, you know: there’s no reason for the anxietv trv telling

or so

say to

I

The way

I

—

or for expecting to be free of

it;

Franz Kafka he has no reason to feel guilty;

w ell-meaning mongers

figure,

you

of

common

sense.

with the names

start

which are keys and then you throw them away and learn to love the locked rooms, with or without corpses inside, riddles to unravel, emptiness to possess, a

woman

to

wake up with

a kiss

(who

is

she?

no one knows) who begs your forgiveness

you cannot know) and then,

w ho

of one to put

up your hands and beg the were

I

feel

it

what? tone

has weathered the storm of his exile, orders you

as if

it

(for

in the authoritative

in

your power.

with each drop.

I

And

am

rain to continue

it is,

standing

outside at the window, looking in on myself

w riting

94

these

w ords,

feeling

what wretches

feel, just

as the

doctor ordered.

what the storm

And

that’s

was caught

I

much

each bite

haven’t taken.

I

as a glass

whose coat of many with blood,

my

my

me

to do,

appetite, fast

of water, and love shall

become the romantic poet

apron,

left

or brought back to

death, confirms

instead, an alien prince of

who

plan to do,

colors smeared

like a butcher’s

in the sacred pit

to confirm

I

I

reminded

in

to shake the superflux, distribute

without so

what

my

my new

father life

dungeons and dreams

sheds the disguise people recognize him by

to reveal himself to his true brothers at last in the silence that stuns before joy descends, like rain.

95

NOTES “Third and Icarus”

is

the

title

of a 1950 painting by Louis Guglielmi (1906-

Museum

19^6) at the Herbert

F.

“Enigma Variations”

splices together, collage-style,

and

Johnson

allusions. Besides those

of Art at Cornell University.

numerous quotations

acknowledged within the text

itself, lines

or

phrases from Diaghilev, Borges, John Ashberv, and John Updike are lifted or

adapted. “It

is

never necessary to commit suicide, especially

live to regret it”:

Churchill to Harold Macmillan.

incorrigible sensualist, can express,

not damage the amenities of

and

life,

is

when you mav

“The only wish

and that the death should be

(1945).

3

refers to an episode in the British

Other poems

in this

book

I,

an

.

as beautiful

as illuminating as the resurrection”: Serge Diaghilev (190^).

part of section

that

that the forthcoming struggle should

reflect a similar

The

first

movie Dead of Night

method of incorporating

echoes and quotations.

“Shake the Superflux!” takes (act

scene

III,

4).

its title

As Lear intended

it,

from King Lear’s speech on the heath superflux

means “surplus” or

“superabundance.” According to the O.E.D., i8th-centurv speakers used the

word

in the additional sense

of “an overflowing, or excessive flow, of

water.” “Another very remarkable waterfall

is

the superflux of a collection

of water on the top of the high mountain of Mongerlogh,” S.

Derrick

water

.

.

.

in 1767.

A

slightlv later entry speaks of

the superflux of which clears

all

w rote one

“the astonishing supply of

the drains and sewers.”

97

PRINCETON SERIES OF CONTEMPORARY POETS Returning Your Call by

Burn

Down

the Icons

Reservations,

Leonard Nathan

bv Robert Pinsky

Sadness and Happiness

by Grace Schulman

by James Richardson

The Double Witness, bv Ben Belitt Sight Talk and Other Poems, bv Richard Pevear Listeners at the Breathing Place,

The Power

An

to

Explanation of America, by

Signs

by Garv Miranda

Change Geography, by Diana

O

Hehir

Robert Pinskv

and Wonders, by Carl Dennis

Walking Tour Ways

in the

Wind, by John Allman

Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts, bv Jorie

Movable Islands, by

i

Yellow Stars

and

Graham

Debora Greger

Ice,

by Susan Stewart

The Expectations of Light, by Pattiann Rogers

A Woman Under Visting Rites,

An Apology for Erosion,

the Surface,

bv Alicia Ostriker

by Phyllis Janowitz Loving the Old Hymns, bv Jordan

by Jorie Graham

Grace Period, bv In the Absence

Whinny Moor

Garv Miranda

of Horses, bv Vicki Hearne

by Judith Moffett

Crossing,

The Late Wisconsin Spring, by John Koethe

A Drink Blessing,

The

bv Michael

at the Mirage,

J.

Rosen

by Christopher Jane Corkerv

New World bv Frederick T urner

And, by Debora Greger The Tradition, by A.

F.

Moritz

Smith

Data Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Lehman, David, 1948-

An

alternative to speech.

(Princeton series of contemporary poets) I.

Title.

II.

Series.

PS3562.F.428A79

1986

Isbn 0-69 -066841

Isbn 0-691-01432-9 (pbk.)

8 ii '.£4

86-12175