Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HERO / LIL: THE THIRD SHELL, by DAVID MELTZER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HERO / LIL: THE THIRD SHELL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And behold, that hard shell (I.E. Embodiment of evil), lilith, is always
Subject(s): Mysticism - Judaism


And behold, that hard shell (i.e. embodiment of evil), Lilith, is always
present in the bedlinen of man and wife when they copulate, in order to take
hold of the sparks of the drops of semen which are lost -- because it is
impossible to perform the marital act without such a loss of sparks -- and she
creates out of them demons, spirits and Lilin. . . . But there is an incantation
for this, to chase Lilith away from the bed and to bring forth pure souls . . .
in that moment, when a man copulates with his wife, let him direct his heart to
the holiness of his Master, and say;
"In the name of God.
O you who are wrapped in velvet
You have appeared.
Release, release!
Neither come nor go!
The seed is not yours,
Nor in your inheritance.
Go back, go back!
The sea rages,
Its waves call you.
I hold on to the Holy One,
Wrap myself into the King's holiness."
From: Emek Ha-Melekh
(Sha'ar Tikkune Ha-teshuvah)

(1)
L Y L Y T
30 10 30 10 400

*

30 10 30 10 400 = 480 = 12

*

The book within the book.
All year long. Night & day.
(2)
The embrace.
Locked in love.
Man inside woman,
Woman inside man.
Yod in Hay,
Hay in Yod.
The halves made whole.

(3)
Lilith: process.
One end of the imagination to the other.
Start & stop in her core.
Fill her bowl with light.
She is song.
Song goes thru
Seed in her womb.
Her womb is Aleph.
First woman. Before Eve.
Last woman.
Matronita, Shekinah.
Brides of God.
Within me.
The process.

(4)
Into the Hay of her, the Hay within the Hay within the Hay of her, as
thru door after door of her. All combinations of her interchange. Face into
face. Sex into sex. All sparks & specks sing a multitude of possibility. Into
the Hay of her, the Hay within the Hay within the Hay of her.
Her grace made more so by completion
Upper & lower cherubic spheres extend & pipeline light thru all our
veins. Birth the triumph, creation the song of it.
Flesh vanity. A shell our eyes touch & appraise. Skin deep.
Before & after each pass, praise her invisible tongue.
(5)
"To banish his loneliness, Lilith was first given to Adam as wife.
Like him she had been created from the dust of the ground. But she remained
with Adam only a short time, because she insisted upon enjoying full equality
with her husband. She derived her right from their identical origin."
From: Midrash Bereshit Rabbah.

(6)
Words thrown back.
Stars, suns, moons.
We fear her more than He.
His thunder speech
Can not hide the need for union.
We father daughters to reach her.
Words thrown back.
Man stands at root end
Pointing to her door.
Words thrown back.
Stones against her window.
Jewels thrown at her feet.
Stars, suns, moon.
Letters snow upon her gold crown as she walks by.

(7)
At night I touch her mouth with language. Afterwards. I move against
her. She spends all day dressing for night, preparing her face. I am a farmer.
She asks me to light her pipe. We are married by flashlight. She stands in a
circle of raccoons. I drive a machine of letters. We are behind the wheel.
The radio's on. She caresses my shoulder blades. A field of corn turns into
mercury sheets her body swims under. Law is reversed at night, black is white &
white black. She wants words only after sunrise. I touch her mouth with
language. Afterwards. I move against her.

(8)
"You have made a mistake."
"Try the other door. It's really locked."
"You only think it's God."
"Your name has been reversed."
"No tricks."
"Don't ever get used to being cheated."
"It still hasn't been said. Give her another kiss."
"No book should be longer."

(9)
"Her radiance, however, is so great that the angels must cover their
faces with their wings so as not to see her. The ministering angels are removed
from the Shekinah by myriads of parasangs, and the body of Shekinah herself
measures millions of miles."
From: Midrash Ha-Gadol Shemini.
(10)
Ah you old whore
step halfway out the blue door
with Woolworth mirror bangles
& burlesque spangles
& wink at any guy
passing by
minding his own
business.

We all know Lilith
as she moves


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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