I often think, mainly, on Wednesdays, about
Solder
And flames coming out of a can with a pump.
I think this arrangement of metal is called “A torch.”
The flame is used to melt the lead.
Esthetes often used this torches to melt lead,
For melted lead
Is more beautiful than solid lead,
Just as the spiritual is rumored to be more beautiful than the material.
Perhaps, melted lead is what Ferdinand Saussure
Was referring to when he spoke of “speech circuit,” circuit de parole.
I am not very concerned with semiological objects,
But am ardently concerned with melted lead.

Melted lead is a sacred, silver temple, amorphous,
And majestic in its variety of cryptic silver shapes.

Melted lead is the afternoon of a melted sun,
The twilight of Ash Wednesday.

Melted lead is Thomas Aquinas commenting
On the allegorical mode of Biblical interpretation.

Progress has taken place, and now melted lead can be brought in tubes.

Tonight, I will squeeze out three drops of melted lead on a white plate,
Tilt the plate, back and forth,
And have a vision of the bird called the bee-eater singing at noon
In an olive tree just turned a hundred years old
and its branches split to spread.

I AM FILLED WITH A SENSE OF THE INSCRUTABLE

The shape of a lizard’s tongue
Is different from
The shape of a frog’s tongue,
But when these tongues come out and are seen,
A harmony, a correspondence, or an allegory
Is apprehended by the astute viewer,
And some times when the viewer had prepared himself
With vitamins or fasting
A mystic vision.

During the early study of tongues the student
Should dispense with all words.

The effects of tongue study on the transformation
And transfiguration of the student,
His rebirth from a person never mentioned
To the one that is the topic of many discussions,
Cannot be understood by logic,
It cannot be transmitted in words,
It cannot be measured by reason.


Tongue study is love,
Tongue study is hate,
Tongue study is a rose,
Tongue study is a rose thorn,
Tongue study is a crystal,
Tongue study is a pistol.
Tongue study is a Chinese Garden,
Tongue study is the city dump.
Tongue study is a bureaucrat.
Tongue study is a junk sculptor.

ASTROPHEL AND ASTROPHIL ARE CONNECTED

I found in a drawer that had been stuck shut for several years,
A silver necklace.

Something like a silver tusk hung from the end. The person

Who gave the necklace to me, know I was a conservationist;
Would not have accepted the necklace if it had been ivory.

She, the giver, told me, if I never took the necklace off, wore
It in the shower, wore it all night, I would
Someday have a vision,
A vision of the promised land.

I was not concerned with the promised land,
As I was happy with where I was,
Although it is not a very pleasant place,
As the library has only two books by Descartes.
I often wondered how many books of Descartes
Would the library in the promised land have.

Once in a state of despair after searching
Three hours for a misplaced copy of Milton’s “Lycidas,”
I started to put the necklace on and perhaps
Receive in my vision a map to the promised land.
I kept remembering Dr. Johnson’s comment that “Lycidas’
Was “easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting,”
So I overcame the temptation to wear the necklace.

She who gave me the necklace, always asked why I did not wear it.
I never answered, but changed the subject to discuss the Horatian Ode,
Or the implications and historical development of Sir Philip Sidney’s observation when he called himself a fool and told himself
to look in his heart and write in his “Astrophil and Stella,” or
“Astrohel and Stella” (Spelling depends on the scholar).

She finally deserted me, telling me she was going to the promised land.

I THINK OF THE HIDDEN FORCES IN HOME TOWNS

I have heard, really overheard, that people
Take pride in their home towns.
I don’t.

I take pride in Montepulciano, Orivetto, Würzburg,
Bruges, and Holland’s Dike road, but not
Tampa.

I learned from Dante’s “Purgatio” that two poets,
Sordello and Virgil
Took pride in their home town of Mantua, Mantova.

When in purgatory, the two poets do not recognize each other,
But from their accents, they recognized they are Mantuan and embraced.
These two have great pride in being Mantuans.

Dante witnessed this embrace of the two poets from Mantua.

If I were in the Inferno, Purgatio, or Paradiso, I would not embrace
A Tampan if I met one.

I also take pride in Mantua, Mantova.

I take great pride in the Palazzo a Té.

I take great pride in Pysche and Cupid taking a bath together in that bowl.
An angel poured from a pitcher the water.

I think Guilio Romano is greater than Michelangleo.
The scene of Psyche and Cupid taking a bath together is greater
Than the Sistine chapel scene of God touching Adam’s finger.

DO, RE, FA, SOL AND LA
CAN PASS INTO THE NEXT HIGHER TONES

I often reread the first book of the Divine Comedy,
I’m interested in Hell.
I am trying to understand my life in Tampa.

I studied Dante,
I found out what is literally done in Hell, a man
Chewing another man’s head,
Is figuratively done daily in Tampa.

Using figurations, metaphors, thanking Aristotle for his insight
Into metaphors,
I can say that all my teachers in Tampa chewed on my head,
Trying to chew out my brains.
The teachers bit and bit,
Trying to destroy my brain,
But the teachers ended up with broken teeth.