The Iow Review Volume 3 Issue 3 Summer Article 35 1972 Robert Bly Alive in Drkness Anthony Libby Follow this nd dditionl works t: http://ir.uiow.edu/iowreview Prt of Cretive Writing Commons Recommended Cittion Libby, Anthony. "Robert Bly Alive in Drkness." The Iow Review 3.3 (1972): 78-89. Web. Avilble t: https://doi.org/10.17077/0021-065x.1397 This Contents is brought to you for free nd open ccess by Iow Reserch Online. It hs been ccepted for inclusion in The Iow Review by n uthorized dministrtor of Iow Reserch Online. For more informtion, plese contct lib-ir@uiow.edu.
Robert Bly Alive in Drkness Anthony Libby Often self-consciously, poetry now ressumes its ncient forms. When t Antioch College in utumn of 1970 Robert Bly begn reding with n Americn Indin peyote chnt, he seemed merely to be ccepting hip convention lmost expected by n udience ccustomed to Ginsberg nd Snyder. Bly chnted for usul reson, "to lower consciousness down, until it gets into stomch nd into chest nd frr on." But no such convention hd existed in erly fifties, when Bly begn to publish his intimtions of physicl trnscendence, poetry of mysticl body, nd conventionl mysticl terms tht hve since become so esily vilble re still indequte to describe wht hppens in his unique poetry. To use chrcteristic phrse of Bly's, "something importnt is hidden in re tht we don't understnd." Becuse of elusively compelling force of its "deep imges," Bly's poetry de mnds interprettion s much s it seems to resist it. When it does not consist of simple delibertely prosy sttement, much of it seems obscure, distnt, but t sme time it conveys sense of mening immeditely perceived though seldom prphrsble in ny but its own terms. It is difficult to explin Bly's surrelist poetry, hrd to sy why some of his imgery moves us so bsiclly nd why some ppers comprtively contrived, but his undenibly strongest poetry evokes some sort of truth ll more forceful becuse it exists beneth or beyond ny resoned response. However, wht stomch feels, mind wnts to know. Perhps best wy to pprecite Bly's irrtionl evoctions is to ttempt to explin m logiclly. If this seems prdoxicl, such prdoxes re implicit in ct of lmost ll nlyzing poetry, not merely surrelist poetry, nd in ny cse Bly himself provides mple precedent. Like mny mysticl poets he writes with lrge ptterns in mind, nd behind his explortions into drkness re stnds not only complex poetic ory but lso highly rticulted scheme of psychologicl development of civiliztion. This scheme, lso like tht of or mysticl poets (Blke, for instnce), is frequently bsed on logicl ntisis suspended in prdox, nd only through n understnding of prdoxes simple nd profound cn we come to terms with Bly's poetry. He begins with intention of creting truly free ssocitionlism, rdiclly opposed to wht he considers clculted nd rtificilly logicl ssocitionl ism of Eliot nd Pound. In n essy clled "Looking for Drgon Smoke" he rgues tht formlist obsessions of modern Americn poets (from Eliot to Chrles Olson) hve obscured true psychic bses of poetry. "Our tsk is not to invent nd encourge jrgon bout open form' nd breth ptterns, but to continue to 78 University of Iow is collborting with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, nd extend ccess to The Iow Review www.jstor.org
new open corridors into psyche by ssocition." His ssocitive nd implicitly irrtionlist not on form but on on poetry depends imgery, con primrily ception of "subjective imge" developed by Bly nd such friends of his s Willim Duffy nd Jmes Wright. The successful subjective imge (or "deep imge") strikes us with force of newly discovered rchetype, minor or mjor, coming from depths of poet's subjectivity with prdoxiclly universl force, his reveltion mde ours. In privte Bly's for in "Depression," stnce, poet describes his psychic stte in imges which despite ir novelty seem more discovered thn mde. I dremt tht men cme towrd me, thin crrying wires; I felt wires pss in, like fire; y were old Tibetns; Dressed in pdded clos, to keep out cold; Then three work gloves, lying fingers to fingers, In circle, cme towrd me, nd I woke. Like se, re Bly's imges lmost mrked invribly by surrelist concrete ness; not only re or psychologicl spiritul sttes felt in mteril form, but ll substnces seem to seek greter density. In vrious poems in Silence in Snowy Fields, ir frequently becomes wter (" quiet wters of night"), drkness "drifts down like snow," snow becomes "jewels," moonlight becomes "The sound of def hering through bones of ir heds," etc. Even when this met phoricl trnsposition of substnces could be interpreted s moving in oppo site direction, towrd reduction of density ("Wterflls of stone deep in moun tins,/ Or wing flying lone beneth erth") still we feel pervsive sense of heviness, downwrd drift. This imgery suggests constnt preoccuption of Silence; metphoricl flow into concreteness reflects movement encted or wished greter spiritul for in most of poems, sinking into things, into erth, usully into drk ness, finlly into deth. Often, s Richrd Howrd explins in Alone with Amer ic, spiritul immersion becomes literl immersion in wter. Howrd's intelli gent though rhetoriclly somewht convoluted introduction to Bly centers on "ltent" wters of "tht Minnesot mriner," which Howrd connects with " strem Greeks clled Le." As Bly writes in "Return to Solitude," We wnt to go bck, to return to se, The se of solitry corridors, And hlls of wild nights, Explosions of grief, Diving into se of deth, Like strs of wheeling Ber. But though trnscendent deth by wter suggests ncient mystic ptterns, Bly's vision of deth which feeds life is neir exctly trditionl nor relly trns cendentl. Anor min current of imgery in Silence suggests interp?n?trtion of body nd world. Animism ('The dwn stood re with quiet gze;/ Our 79 Criticism
eyes met through top leves of young sh") is complemented by sort of bodily surrelism ('Inside me re is confusion of swllows"). As psyche is crowded with rcne corporel imges, so body contins objects of world. In pst, for instnce in Thoreu, such body-world prllelism nd interp?n?trtion hs been used to suggest higher spiritul relity which penetrtes ll physicl being. More recently, in, sy, poetry of Sylvi Plth, sme pttern of imgery hs grown into vision of ll physicl substnce s grotesquely lien to perceiving consciousness, body ded husk imprison ing sickened spirit, things endowed with terrifying life. While obviously closer to Thoreu, is Bly essentilly similr to neir. His nimism stems from per ception of vitlity in things which connects with vitlity in body, but which is neir seprble from sttes of nor physicl being bsiclly lien to con sciousness. Dying into drkness t hert of Bly's poetry is not trns cendence of body but n immersion in body in turn immersed in cor porel flow of things. If this elusive immersion is chieved, body in its full ness contins nd is contined by " inner world," which is this world, not il luminted but condensed to its deepest indivisible essence. So behind trditionl mysticl prdox? prise of ordinrily negtive sttes, grief nd " deth we love," s venues to holy joy? re exists in Bly furr prdox tht spiritul union with universe must be sought in physicl terms. Perhps for this reson trees ply constnt symbolic role in Silence, reching towrd emptiness, but lwys rooted in erth. In "Poem in Three Prts": The strong leves of box-elder tree, Plunging in wind, cll us to dispper Into wilds of universe, Where we shll sit t foot of plnt, And live forever, like dust. The dust, which ppers frequently in Bly's poetry, suggests most corporel vision of union with cosmos, union spiritully more meningful thn trditionl ologicl drems of deth if only becuse of its physicl inevitbil ity. Bly compres two visions in "At Funerl of Gret-Aunt Mry." The minister tells us tht, being The sons nd dughters of God, We rejoice t deth, for we go To mnsions prepred From foundtions of world. Impossible. No one believes it. Ill Out on bre, pioneer field, The fril body must wit till dusk To be lowered In hot nd sndy erth. 80
The sense of deth s physicl union with everything becomes spiritul or morl force in life becuse it celebrtes loss of self into or which is more bsolute thn ego-loss presumbly implied by deth of trnscendence; trditionl mystic soul united with s god often seems swollen s lost in oneness. Also sense of corporel dissolution of self is, Bly suggests, lwys with us. Every sleep is bodily premonition of deth. Much of Silence concerns periods of trnsition between wking nd sleep, between light nd drkness. During such periods deep imge comes close to surfce becuse mind sinks to depths of body, body opens to world. The dy shll never end, we think: We hve hir tht seems born for dylight; But, t lst, quiet wters of night will rise, And our skin shll see fr off, s it does under wter. Perhps it no longer seems prdoxicl most fully described in "Awkening." tht stte of "pproching sleep" is We re pproching sleep: chestnut blossoms in mind Mingle with thoughts of pin Bodies give off drkness, nd chrysnmums Are drk, nd.. horses,. As gret wheel turns round, grinding The living in wter.... living wkened t lst like ded. In his second collection of poems, The Light Around Body, Bly's prdoxes re deepened becuse much of his poetry spreds into nor world. Like vri ous or Americn most mystics, conspicuously Thoreu, Bly becomes interested in politics of Americn imperilism, subject t lest superficilly uncongen il to mysticism. All but one of sections of Light begin with quottions from Jcob Boehme, Protestnt mystic who influenced Americn trnscenden tlists (through Emerson, who knew him s "Behemen"). "For ccording to outwrd mn, we re in this world nd to ccording inwrd mn, we re in inwrd world... Since n we re out of generted both worlds, we spek in two lnguges, nd we must be understood lso by two lnguges." The poems of Light concern conflict between two worlds, in poet, nd in Amer ic. So inevitbly se poems bring toger two lnguges of which Boehme speks, doubling Bly's prdoxes, sometimes confusingly. Light still prises grief nd mps progress of body towrd tht deth which is fulfillment, but while Silence emphsized intimtions of ultimte union Light focuses on obst cles to good deth, one of which is, prdoxiclly, nor sort of deth. "Smored by World" describes purgtory between life nd deth. 81 Criticism
Once more hevy body mourns! It howls outside hedges of life, Pushed out of enclosure. Now it must meet deth outside deth. Living outside gte is one deth, Cold fces gr long wll, A bg of bones wrms itself in tree. This deth results from bsic spiritul distortion in world. Bly describes it in sme physicl terms he used to connect body nd world, but here connection hs become Humn consciousness grotesque. inhbits objects to suggest generl despir, s in "Those Being Eten by Americ." The wild houses go on With long hir growing from between ir toes The feet t night get up And run down long white rods by mselves only The dms reverse mselves nd wnt to go stnd lone in desert The sterile deth tht follows this despir is occsionlly described in terms of whiteness, often snow, but even drkness which in Silence ws lwys medium of visions hs in Light chnged, become corrupted. "There is nor drkness," Bly writes in "Listening to President Kennedy Lie bout Cubn In vsion." "There is bitter dult nd sd." ftigue, The or drkness, in poems like "Htred of Men with Blck Hir," is de scribed s inhbiting sme deep relms s drkness of vision. The Stte Deprtment flots in hevy jellies ner bottom Like exhusted crustcens, like who re squids confused, Sending out bems of blck light to open se, Both drknesses exist t root of mind, which is source of s politics well s poetry. As title of "Htred" suggests, destructive drkness results from refusl to cknowledge tht more primitive drkness which is wy to union. The Americn drem of self-proclimed innocence, so shot through with uncknowledged blckness, leds to deth which cnnot reinforce life, if only becuse it strikes so unnturlly. This vision is drmtized most fully in Bly's lter poem "The Teeth Mor Nked t Lst," but it is suggested in "At Mrch ginst Vietnm Wr," which ppers in Light. Bly sys of " bot/ Covered with mchine guns:" It is blck, The hnd reches out And cnnot touch it It is tht drkness mong pine boughs 82
Tht Puritns brushed As y went out to kill turkeys At edge of jungle clering It explodes On ground We long to bse ourselves We We hve crried round this cup of drkness hve longed to pour it over our heds Alwys, however individully, poet reflects his time. Primrily Silence con tins poetry written in 1950's, time of comprtive politicl innocence (or nivete) for Americn literture, when literry rebellion ginst Americ ws usully considered rr solitry nd politicl experience. Silence is book of solitude, of Bly lone with world; even its few love poems do not involve recognizble or. Light is book of sixties, predominntly politicl book, like mny or books of poetry published since 1966 ( yer Bly orgnized Americn Writers Aginst Vietnm Wr). But while Bly's development must obviously be understood in terms of our recent history, he might probbly hve undergone similr chnges in ny historicl context, for in Light he is only drm tizing tension implicit in prdoxes of Silence. Trditionlly, mysticism hs existed in potentil or ctul conflict with more erthly pproches to morlity; conflict surfces when mystic orizes bout evil. Hving ccepted grief nd dissolution of his body s spects of vitl flow into " wilds of universe," Bly must logiclly confront experi ences of grief nd deth, perhps unnecessry grief nd premture deth, much less pltble to those who suffer m. The mystic lwys returns to world of men. The perception of dominnt nd perhps inherent evil re cn blunt his or mystic it cn become bsis for more strenuous efforts to cceptnce, wrd trnscendence, denil of essentil relity of certin spects of world in fvor of higher relities. Allen Ginsberg, for instnce, plys more or less with ltter seriously response when he chnts, in "Wichit Vortex Sutr": "I here declre end of Wr/ Ancient dys' Illusion." But becuse Bly's mysti cism remins untrnscendentl ("The two worlds re both in this world") neir trditionl response is relly possible. The socil fct of pointless deth forces deeper exmintion of ide of deth s spiritul good, but Bly is unwilling to deny eir vision. Wht he ttempts to do insted, besides suggesting how primitive sense of union hs been lost, how deth hs been corrupted, is to crete vision of process towrd new world in which resolve mselves. But prdoxes p proch of this world is itself prdoxicl, terrible movement towrd communl deth which, like individul deth of Silence, is lso pproch of birth. As tension between inner nd outer worlds more grows tht center will not hold; however pproching extreme Bly suggests poclypse is lso de 83 Criticism
scribed s evolution. The finl section of Light is clled "A Body Not Yet Born." Like rest of book it contins imges of despiring deth, s in "Hurrying Awy from Erth." Some men hve pierced chest with long needle To stop hert from beting ny more; The time for exhorttion is pst. I hve herd The iron chirs scrping in sylums, Men cry when y her stories of someone rising from ded. If drk night of soul hs become universl drkness, it crries tions of universl illumintion. In "When Dumb Spek," Bly describes implic... joyful night in which we lose Everything, nd drift Like rdish Rising nd flling, nd ocen At lst throws us into ocen One ocen flows from wters of inner experience described throughout much of Silence, but or spreds through time s well s spce. "When Dumb Spek" ends with "imges" which evoke trditionl Christin visions of world ending in poclypse. Imges of body shken in grve, And grve filled with sewter; Fires in se The house fllen, The gold sticks broken, But "Evolution from Fish," s its title indictes, describes wht is to come not s Christin end but s n evolutionry chnge which prllels erlier chnges. Here loss of "everything," which is loss of self, becomes prticiption in physicl development of life from beginning. "The grndson of fishes" is described... towrd his own Ufe moving Like fur, wlking. And when frost comes, he is Fur, mmmoth fur, growing longer He moves towrd niml, niml with furry hed! As poem moves into our time furry-heded one becomes specific, indi 84
vidul, "this mn long with student girl," but in end he is embrking nor voyge, in drkness, through sleep. on Serpents rise from ocen floor with spirl motions, A mn goes inside jewel, nd sleeps. Do Not hold my hnds down! Let me rise m! A fire is pssing up through soles of my feet! An erlier version of "Evolution" ppered in 1962 in brief nthology of poems by Bly, Duffy, nd Wright, The Lions Til nd Eyes. Indictively, it included one dditionl lst line: "I m curving bck into mmmoth pool!" By omit ting bckwrd curve Bly lters finl direction of poem from pst to future; now subject is not repeting cycles of existence but continu ing upwrd spirl into new sttes of being. Bly is t his most difficult, to follow nd to ccept, when he begins to de scribe prticulr nture of poclypse to come, nd evolution it her lds. A premonitory poem in Light, "Romns Angry bout Inner World," describes tht world s "A jgged stone/ Flying towrd m out of drk ness" nd suggests finl rticultion of Bly's evolutionry vision. In poem "executives" wtch Romn executioners torture " womn/ Who hs seen our mor/ In or world." Specificlly lines refer to mysticl cult of Mgn Mter, eventully suppressed by Romns. But nchronistic pres ence of executives implies comprison between imperil Rome nd neo imperilist Americ, comprison tht goes beyond ordinry politics. Lter Bly will elborte ory tht mor-goddesses smored by one empire re returning to hunt psyche of or. In his long introduction to "The Teeth Mor Nked t Lst" t Antioch reding, Bly explined vision of mythic development lrgely bsed on psychologicl nd historicl investig tions of Jung's disciple Erich Neumnn. s Originlly, Bly explins Neumnn, world's gret religions were bsed on worship of femle principle, Gret Mor; Romns nd Jews fought to substitute mle gods for femle goddesses, beginning long western trdition of primcy of mscu line consciousness. Bly defines sexul consciousness in terms: msculine Jungin consciousness involves logic, efficiency, dvncement of mteril civiliztion, nd repression, control of nturl world; nd feminine consciousness involves intuition, cretivity, mystic cceptnce of world. Becuse women re only biologiclly cretive, it is usully mn who feels estic urge to crete with mterils outside his own body. However he is truly inspired only if he mkes " gret turn" towrd mor, ccepting guidnce of (lwys femle) Muse, nd exploring his own feminine consciousness (Jung's nim). Now, though, not only rtists but whole culture is beginning, psychologiclly, to turn to Gret Mor. "Americ looks down in psyche now," Bly sid t Antioch, "nd it sees mors coming up." "Tht's wht's been hppening in Americ in lst fifteen yers, tht fr consciousness civiliztion is dying nd mors re returning." 85 Criticism
As mythic forms of mors suggest, this cn be destructive s well s liberting process. Drwing on vrious mythologies for exmples Bly describes four gret mors in constructive opposed pirs, nd destructive: mor of fertility (Demeter) blnced by mor of destruction (Kli), ecsttic mor (Artemis) blnced by stone mor (Medus). In this reltion to ech or form y cross, or four min compss of points circle, nd teeth mor hovers on circumference between deth nd stone mors. To prove his ory, Bly cites widely vrious bits of evidence of return of different mors. One mnifesttion of destructive mors in estic consciousness ppers, for instnce, in is dekooning's pintings; Bly perhps thinking of works like "Womn I." In very different sphere, Bly ttributes Americn violence of Vietnm, often directed women nd ginst children, to our pthologiclly msculine soldiers' fer of femle, of mors, whom y see only in form of deth mor or teeth mor. On or side, Bly sees in hip nd liberted life styles influence of ecsttic mor, though he explins tht serch for ecsttic mor cn fil in long fll towrd stone mor? use of drugs, too, drmtizes this nd prdox, Bly comedin does not hesitte to on ply sense colloquil of "stoned." To those moved by visionry qulities of Bly's poetry, this ory my pre sent serious problems. How much of it is relly believble, how literlly does Bly intend it, how necessry is it s bsis for his poetry? Indictively, little of ory ctully ppers in "The Teeth Mor Nked t Lst," though it provides title. vision striking Bly's of is gret felt more con evolutionry chnge vincingly in his poetry?explortions into " inwrd world... thoughts we hve not yet thought" which involve little detiled reference to mors? thn in his spoken nd very explicit explntions of wht he thinks now. Bly is performer enormously compelling, constntly mixure disrming of vudeville comedin nd orcle, but in retrospect, beyond rnge of his vibr personl tions, his rchetypl sociology does not fully convince. Perhps in our time ny extreme definition of between mle nd opposition femle consciousness must seem suspect. More importnt, though, is tension between Bly's use of old Jungin rchetypes to describe our future, nd constnt suggestions in his poetry tht movement present of humn consciousness is something new, now hrdly dremed of. Somehow it seems indequte to describe " body not yet born" in terms of ncient myths, however y re blended or trnsmuted to define world to come. Better to ccept Bly's s explntions metphor, his s poems relity. For it is sense of deeply perceived relity in poetry tht leds us in first plce to consider prose rticultion of ory, nd in fct Bly s he poet, points out, ws conflict between "msculine" using nd "feminine" s metphor long before he red Neumnn nd developed his ory. In Light, for instnce, "The Busy Mn Speks" defines " mor" in terms of "rt," "sorrow," " ocen;" nd " fr" in terms of "The stones of cheerfulness, steel of Still money." erlier, in Silence, women re often ssocited with lib erting deth, s in "With Ple Women in Mrylnd:" "Like those before, we move to deth we love/ With ple women in Mrylnd." 86
To see s on Bly's poetry dependent nyone's on Neumnn ory, Jung's, s, or even Bly's own, is not only to deny his belief in irrtionl psychic sources of poetry but lso to dilute unique force of his poems. If we turn to Jung for explntions, we cn sy simply tht origin of Bly's deep imges is col lective unconscious, tht conflict between inner nd outer worlds is conflict between nim nd person, tht wter Bly's imgery is, his con given cerns, predictble. Wter, Jung sys in "Archetypes of Collective Uncon scious," is "no figure of speech, but living symbol of drk psyche," relm "where I experience or in myself." Even Bly's prdoxicl discovery of vitlity in deth cn be explined in terms of Jung's contention, in "Psycho logicl Aspects of Mor Archetype," tht "Nothing cn exist without its op posite; two were one in beginning nd will be one gin in end. Con sciousness cn only exist through continul recognition of unconscious, just s everything tht lives must pss through mny deths." But to interpret Bly bsiclly in se terms is to oversimplify his prdoxes without relly explining m, s Jung's rchetypes inevitbly tend to reduce nd oversimplify complex in dividul sttes of being. Descending into relms initilly explored by Jung nd lter by Neumnn, Bly goes beyond both. His gretest strength is his bility to discover in drkness tht re not t lest not in imges rchetypl, Jun gin sense, becuse y re only beginning to loom into view. But even if we remin unconvinced by detils of Bly's ory we cnnot deny tht it remins fscinting metphor for sttes s yet not nlyticlly de scribble. More importnt, mors metphor enbles Bly to develop nd en rich prdoxes tht flot up from his inner drkness. He hs constructed vision of mystic evolution tht not only refuses to deny but explins morl dissolution tht forms primry vision of Light. The tension between ec sttic mor nd stone mor provides oreticl bsis for Bly's double conception of drkness, inspiring drkness of inner world held in suspen sion with terrifying blckness of outer. "The Teeth Mor Nked t Lst," mp of psychologicl politics behind n imperil wr, is lso rec ord of collision between inner nd outer worlds. "Teeth Mor," though mrked throughout by Bly's chrcteristic surrelist imgery, differs bsiclly from his erlier poetry. So fr it is his only relly ex tensive poem, nd its coherence is more oreticl thn imgistic. its Frequently deep imges give wy to flt, lmost prosy sttement, often fr less thn striking visions of Light, but in some wys more moving. Bly dopts different tctics in this poem prtly becuse he is writing sort of propgnd bsed on juxt position of certin fcts, but lso becuse it seems impossible, nd probbly not desirble, to ssimilte ctulity of Vietnm into poetry s Bly hs previously written it. The Vietnm poems in Light primrily concerned reverbertions of wr; "Teeth Mor" is often simple contempltion of unberble fcts. But it lso n implies explntion. Helicopters flutter overhed. The deth bee is coming. Supersbres like knots of neurotic energy sweep 87 Criticism
round nd return. This is Hmilton's triumph. This is of centrlized bnk. dvntge Destructive?"neurotic"?mchines dominte poem; his morl revul despite sion, Bly's bility to immerse himself in things enbles him to evoke lien world of mchines nd mechnicl men s fully s he evokes inner world. Vietnm represents desperte end of "msculine" rge for order, force tht creted Americn prosperity but force bsiclly corrupted by its denil of inner world. The wrrior mentlity, itself in recreting mchines, not opposes only nture ("800 steel pellets fly through vegetble wlls") but drk flow of its own humnity, its movement towrd deth which completes life. The desire for deth s fulfillment, corrupted, becomes desire for deth s gro tesque destruction. The ministers lie, professors lie, television lies, He... priests These lies men tht country wnts to die. It is desire to tke deth inside, to feel it burning inside, pushing out strong hirs, like clos brush in intestines In series of wkwrd but often striking juxtpositions, Bly suggests tht Americn rejection of grief nd drkness, mde possible by welth, cretes grief of Vietnm. It is: becuse we hve so few ters filing on our own hnds tht Supersbre turns nd screms down towrd erth In fce of this re ppers no dequte response, no prise of grief tht follows denil of no grief, mysticl cceptnce. Bly politicl morlist presents, ironiclly undercut, of ple contempltive dremer, who sees corporel flow of existence very much in terms tht suggest Silence. Tell me bout prticles of Bbylonin thought tht still pss through erthworm every dy, Don't tell me bout " frightening lborers who do not red books" But dehumnizing outer drkness previls: if one of those children cme ner tht we hve set on fire, cme towrd you like gry brn, wlking, you would howl like wind tunnel in hurricne you would ter t your shirt with blue hnds, 88
No response to this, nd or t yet, prdoxiclly, Bly suggests response, lest wy of understnding it. The horribly ctlogued violence ginst humn nd nture cn be seen in more distnt sense s nturl vegetble spect of poclyptic evolutionry chnge described in more positive terms in finl pges of Light. One voice in "Teeth Mor," looking for solce, suggests of violence of " Mrine bttlion," "This hppens when sesons chnge/ this when leves to hppens begin drop from trees too erly." Bly undercuts of suggestion solce, but remins. comprison Vietnm, in some sense deth of Americn drems, is not n end but trnsition, in which teeth mor s n necessrily ppers spect of ecsttic mor. Now whole ntion strts to whirl pigs rush towrd cliff, wters underneth in one ocen prt: luminous globes flot up (in m hiry nd ecsttic rock? musicins) in or, teeth mor, nked t lst. The blnce, nd sense of no cure to cycles evolving, provide present gony. Bly knows it is flse trnscendence of gony, with its ttendnt repression, which distorts humn consciousness in first plce. But vision of evolution enbles Bly to sustin his prdoxicl suspension of despir nd mystic hope, his sense of deth s life. Perhps tht prdox will lwys defy resolution, but in his ltest poetry Bly continues to offer hope for evolution into stte of con sciousness in which cn despir be replced by tht grief which ttends nt url movement of life, which is not inconsistent with joy. At end of recent poem red t Antioch, Bly suggests, through prdox now expressed with cler simplicity, tht conflict between fr nd mor my be resolved by tht consciousness now being born. More of frs re dying ech dy, It's time for sons. Bits of drkness re round gring sons, The drkness ppers s flkes of light. SO MUCH IS NOT SPOKEN Oh yes, I love you, book of my confessions, when swllowed begins to rise from erth gin, nd deep hungers from wells. So much is still inside me?like cows eting in collpsed strwpile ll winter to get out. Everything we need now is buried, it's fr bck into mountin, it's under wter gurded by women. 89 Criticism