Part 1
Produced by Al Haines, produced from scans provided by Steven Bartlett
BEHOLD THIS DREAMER
Elizabeth Bartlett
_Behold This Dreamer_ was originally published in 1959 by Editorial Jus in Mexico City, and is now out-of-print. The authors literary executor, Steven James Bartlett, has decided to make the book available as an open access publication, freely available to readers through Project Gutenberg under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs license, which allows anyone to distribute this work without changes to its content, provided that both the author and the original URL from which this work was obtained are mentioned, that the contents of this work are not used for commercial purposes or profit, and that this work will not be used without the copyright holder's written permission in derivative works (i.e., you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without such permission). The full legal statement of this license may be found at:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
_Behold this Dreamer_
_By_ ELIZABETH BARTLETT
BOOKS
_poems of yes and no_ _Behold this Dreamer_
POEMS
_Accent, American Weave, Approach, Arizona Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Canadian Forum, Catholic World, Chelsea Review, Coastlines, Commentary, Cresset, Epos, Fiddlehead, Folio, four quarters, Harper's, Harper's Bazaar, Literary Review, Mexican Life, Naked Ear, New Mexico Quarterly, New Poems 2, New Voices 2, N. Y. Herald Tribune, N. Y. Times, Nimrod, Odyssey, Outposts, Personalist, Poetry Chapbook, Prairie Schooner, Quixote, Saturday Review, Shenandoah Review, Southwest Review, Sparrow, Step Ladder, Venture, Views, Western Review, Western Humanities Review, Whetstone, Wisconsin Poetry._
Acknowledgements: Certain of the poems in this collection have appeared in publications listed above.
The title, _Behold This Dreamer_, is taken from an anthology of that name, in tribute to its author, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956).
_Behold this Dreamer_
_Elizabeth Bartlett_
_Editorial Jus, S. A._ _Mexico City_
First Edition © 1959 Elizabeth Bartlett
_To_ CHARLOTTE HOWELL REED
CONTENTS
Vision
The poet's dream
Time will tell
Afternoon of a journey
The cave
The test
In his image
All this, before
The creation
_Vision_
EYE _center of the universe Whose pupil is the world Teach us to see the light Embracing night_
_Between the sunset and the dawn To see the unicorn Within that crystal ball Of pure recall_
_Where time is an iris mirror A pointillated blur Of image and of form Caught in its storm_
_With every moment held inside The frame of canvas mind Forever captive, stilled, Motion fulfilled_
_Where memory and dream evoke The future like a window Made of stained glass, one cast From the fractured past_
_As retina and perspective For our darkness, the bridge Connecting what has been With things foreseen_
_Through your bright lens, illuminate The galaxy that waits Invisible as trust In stars and dust_
_The Poet's Dream_
WHEN _the waters of the sun Fall on the flaming sea_
_When the desert rose is one With the snow sipping bee_
_All that our senses now shun Time's alchemy will free_
_On the coral shores of night The ghosts of fish shall wake_
_And offer incense to the light That gives them bread to break_
_From the singing shells with wings An artist's eye shall peer_
_With violin hands for strings And a poet's ear_
_Then white silence like a nun Shall lift her long white sleeves_
_And shake the treasures she has spun From dreams whose thread she weaves_
_From the surf of mountain caves A billion stars shall gush_
_And whirl on the windward waves Through the darkened hush_
_In the valley of moon trees The glowing fruit shall sway_
_And rise by twos and threes Above the cradled day_
_On the jungle's peaceful floor Lion and deer shall meet_
_A crucifix made of ore Between their kneeling feet_
_All of this and more shall be Within that shining net_
_When time redeems mortality From its mortal debt_
_Then magnet age shall point its north Towards youth's eternal pole_
_That alpha star in the fourth Dimension of the soul_
_Where love curves back in heartspace Within its chrysalis_
_And gravitates the imaged face Of the all creating this_
_From the light years of the past The undeflected force_
_Shall bind the future fast To God's own source_
_As cause and word unending Repeat the rhythmic plan_
_Of universe transcending Man's origin as man_
_Time Will Tell_
WHERE _fireflies are stars And the evening sky a sea, There you will find me, far From the leveling demands That leveled you and me._
_When distant mountains bend Like deep swells toward the shore, Then you will see the ends For which I built my dikes Against the lowly roar._
_Though breath was all I owned To force my heart to climb, Though words were all the stones I had to seal my mind, You will know why, in time._
_Afternoon of a Journey_
THERE _will never be another, That day was forever._
_We dove through tropic noon Into a green sky. The palms stood Quiet, still, their fronds Like swollen waves about To break, transparent, lime limned And streaked from base to rim With icy light._
_Lungs gilled and arms finned wide, We slipped into the pale Of that dry sea, following downrays Until we reached the cool Of silence, a sandpaved lagoon Upholding its weight of time Under trees that climbed._
_Perched on a log, we scanned The currents, the drifting shaft Of shadows, instinctively alert To armadillo's crawl, the stir Of something red, The eye of an iguana met... Ourselves. Perceiving_
_We were not alone in breathing, Being witness, As well as evidence In that primal air, How all of us shared In the serene of a sunless glow Which waterless flowed._
_Gently, we moved along a path That opened as we passed, Whispering our affirmations To those secret ones Who flickered and flashed, Carrying our echoes back From near, then far, far off._
_And slowly, the silence arced, Leaped high--and broke, With parrots in the undertow As the waves rolled over And the green tide flooded The forest floor, whirling, Swirling a world set free._
_Now all of us were cells In a chemistry of shells Older than snails, Plankton or sunbaked clay, Fellow creatures in an afternoon As joyous as a long lost tune About to be remembered._
_Oh all of us there In that drenched, tropic green Began to sing and sing, Shedding our ties With root and rock and sky, As we found our song In our living bond._
_Pod and leaf, mouth and beak, Whatever lived and breathed That sudden afternoon, Sang wonder through the woods, As we heard and discovered Each in the other Without a word._
_Until a metallic bird, On roaring wings, Crashed our song beneath The hammered surf, As it thundered, Like lightning in a storm, Fearfully born._
_Then all of us Grew motionless In the sculptured undersea Of silenced green, Knowing, as we did again, The thing forbidden and forgotten In a world of men._
_There will never be another, That day was forever._
_The Cave_
DROP _by drop The earth is born A billion years From dark to dawn_
_Drop by drop As rivers flow Past sunless cliffs No wind has known_
_Where no grass blows And no birds sing There time drips slow And patient clings_
_Drop by drop Till waterfalls Are turned to stone_
_Here new stars form And mountains rise Clear of the storms That twist the sky_
_Drop by drop While caverns tall Carve crystal bones_
_What dream lies walled Within this night What shape shall crawl Up to the light_
_Drop by drop As silence grows Inside its vault Of carbon snow_
_When glaciers halt Before no zones When both the poles At last are one_
_Drop by drop The dawn shall come A billion years From cave to sun_
_The Test_
HE _who would climb the heights of tone And scale the peaks beyond the listening ear, Must first walk over water And learn to stand on air, alone._
_He who would swim the waves of light And dive past shores into a sunless glow, Must first merge with his shadow And melt through solid glass, like night._
_Where eyes are fins and sound is leap, The rhythmic force performs its own ballet; When dreams are fired in clay, They burn a path through timeless sleep._
_In His Image_
WHO _has not looked into the heart of night and seen the darker light, concealed like spectral stars beyond the rim of Mars,_
_Who has not listened to the sound of mind and heard the silence wind, like rivers underground out to a sea profound,_
_has only eyes and ears._
_Who has not reached above the clouded span and touched the cosmic plan, upheld like spider's climb upon the spokes of time,_
_Who has not followed the labyrinthine thread And crushed the monstrous dread, that other men may gleam the glory of the dream,_
_has only hands and feet._
_Who has not lived within his hour of space and etched it with his face, as portrait of the sun reflects the solar one,_
_is only shape and dust._
_All This, Before_
I RACED, _I rushed, I ran, to catch the empty hand of time-- Before the wind, the blowing wind, This breathless gift._
_I willed, I worked, I wept, To melt the frozen face of time-- Before the sun, the burning sun, This frenzied bone._
_I drank, I danced, I dared, To tempt the stony foot of time-- Before the rain, the driving rain, This raptured flame._
_I leaped, I laughed, I loved, To ease the burdened heart of time-- Before the dust, the settling dust, This flesh and blood._
_The Creation_
OUT _of the white and the blue Out of the mist and the ice Out of the wind and the flame The creature came._
_With eyes as brilliant as the light With ears as lucid as the sound With feet as sudden as the thought The creature caught_
_A breath from the yawning sky A drop from the nodding sea A root from the sleeping earth And from their birth_
_Measured the length of the seasons Balanced the rhythm of the tides Secured the growing of the seed And woke the need_
_Of the dream inside the egg Of the thirst within the cell Of the shape beneath the bone Then took a stone_
_And breaking the silent void And loosing the swollen stream And cutting the golden thread The creature said:_
_Here on this dot of bounded space Here in this point of moving time Here with this seal of life and death I fix my breath_
_That all the works of my hands That all the passions of my heart That all the wonders of my brain Shall here remain._
_I, Gilgamesh, Rama, Adam I, Phoenician, Saxon, Mayan I, Peasant, Leader, Architect By this reject_
_Perpetual day or night Everlasting rain or drought Eternal struggle or peace Until words cease_
_Between infinite men and gods Between partisan young and old Between ultimate right and wrong For each is strong._
_Let calendar be as record Let monument be as witness Let history here determine Which shall win._
_Then the sky hurled its lightning Then the sea roared its thunder Then the earth reared its fire To show their ire_
_At the vanity of the ego At the rashness of the sower At the folly of the dreamer And redeemer_
_Who would thus destroy the sun Who would thus defy the flood Who would thus pollute the air And showed him there_
_The blinding vision of the truth The deafening echoes of the damned The crashing madness of the plan That he began._
_And when he saw the faces And when he heard the weeping And when he knew the sickness That men possess_
_As mortal children of ambition As transient strangers of desire As fatal victims of perfection Released by none_
_From the essence of the grape From the music of the reed From the incense of the bowl The creature stole_
_The power of forgetfulness The illusion of contentment The promise of exaltation Making them one_
_That the lost and unfulfilled That the laughter and the pain That the glory and defeat Be complete_
_Seeing how frail is the candle Hearing how brief is the song Knowing how soon is the temple Darkened and still._
_Then slipped the root from his feet Then poured the sound from his ears Then blew the light from his eyes And went more wise_
_Into the white and the blue Into the mist and the ice Into the wind and the flame The way he came._
[Editorial note: The author's literary executor discovered in Elizabeth Bartlett's personal autographed hardbound copy of _Behold This Dreamer_ her own marginal notations relating to the next-to-the-last stanza of the above poem, accompanied by her confirming handwritten revision of that stanza. The stanza as printed here incorporates her revision.]
_Behold This Dreamer_ is a signed, limited edition designed by the author on Corsican rag paper in Baskerville type
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Bartlett (1911-1994) was an American poet and writer noted for her lyrical and symbolic poetry, creation of the new twelve-tone form of poetry, founder of the international non-profit organization Literary Olympics, Inc., and known as an author of fiction, essays, reviews, translations, and as an editor. She is not to be confused with the British poet (1924-2008) of the same name. For more detailed information about her life, work, and critical commendations, see the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bartlett_%28American_poet%29.
Bartletts most notable achievements include:
* Creation of a new form of poetry, "the twelve-tone poem," adapting Arnold Schonbergs musical system to the verbal, accented sounds of language. Called "the Emily Dickinson of the 20th Century," her concise lyrics have been praised by poets, musicians, and composers alike.
* Publication of 16 books of poetry, a group of edited anthologies, and more than 1,000 poems, short stories, and essays published, for example, in _Harpers_, _Virginia Quarterly_, _New York Times_, _North American Review_, _Saturday Review_, _Prairie Schooner_, and in numerous international collections.
* Recipient of many fellowships, grants and awards, including NEA, PEN Syndicate, fellowships at the Huntington Hartford Foundation, Montalvo, Yaddo, MacDowell, Dorland Mt. Colony and Ragdale, travel grants, and honors for introducing literature as part of the Olympics.
* Founder of the Literary Olympics, to restore literature, specifically poetry, as a vital part of the Olympics as it once had been in ancient Greece.
Bartletts poetry came to the attention of leading poets, writers, and critics as diverse as Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Mark Van Doren, Conrad Aiken, Allen Tate, Alfred Kreymborg, Robert Hillyer, Louis Untermeyer, Rolfe Humphries, John Ciardi, Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Robert M. Hutchins, Kenneth Rexroth, William Stafford, and others. Over the years, Bartlett maintained an active and extensive correspondence with eminent poets, writers, and literary critics; evident throughout this collected literary correspondence are strong statements attesting to the importance of her work.
_Behold This Dreamer_ was published in Mexico City in 1959. By 1961, Jonathan Williams wrote of the book: "Your language is cultivated, employed consistently and lucidly. To my observation, it seems fair to say that you belong with the best of your generation, which I would say includes May Swenson, Denise Levertov, Garrigue, et al." Louis Untermeyer added his voice: "I particularly like your fusion of observation and whimsicality, as well as your avoidance of the poetic stereotypes." Rolfe Humphries was intrigued by Bartletts poetic techniques: "I enjoyed your poems and admire many...." About _Behold This Dreamer_, Gustav Davidson wrote: "I enjoyed reading these poems. I was impressed by their precision, clarity, and technical competence." About the same work, critic Paul Jordan-Smith wrote: "Your poems were begotten of a strong, imaginative sense. My congratulations on this beautiful collection."
Elizabeth Bartlett's husband, Paul Alexander Bartlett (19091990) was an American writer, artist, and poet. He made a large-scale study of more than 350 Mexican haciendas, published novels, short stories, and poetry, and worked as a fine artist in a variety of media. For more detailed information about his life and work, see the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Alexander_Bartlett .
Elizabeth Bartletts son, Steven James Bartlett (1945 ), is a psychologist and philosopher who has published many books and articles in the fields of philosophy and psychology. For more detailed information about his life and work, see the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_James_Bartlett.
End of Project Gutenberg's Behold this Dreamer, by Elizabeth Bartlett