Subject
*Dark Ice* I (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. NABOKV-L is honored to present Tom Bolt's poem *DARK ICE*
with its many reverberations of VN's PALE FIRE. Because of the length of
the work (1001 lines plus "Notes"), the text is being sent in sections
corresponding to the poems XII Cantos, followed by the Notes. (The whole
is ideally viewed in its hypertext format on ZEMBLA http:
//www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/diintro.htm). NABOKV-L thanks Tom
Bolt for permitting us to present his poem.
Dark Ice first appeared in BOMB.
Dark Ice is copyright © 1993 and 1997 by Thomas Bolt. All rights reserved.
=====================
D a r k I c e
=====================
for
Roland Forrester
1926-1993
+++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++
A transition, from one state to another, of any
element, is only accomplished by violence
(though this violence be immeasurably slow).
The remainder of our text shall be concerned
with this phenomenon in its varied forms:
revolutionary evaporations, cataclysmic
meltings, excruciating condensations.
--Dr. Noble Möll
*An Introduction to Variable States*, 1896
+++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++
=====================
D a r k I c e
=====================
I
I've stood on thinner sheets. Took crunching walks
On leaf-embodying and lumpy glass
To a sidewalk's abrupt end, along a bright
Section of newly-insulated path,
Over a prickling hump of weedy dam
And onto this broad opening in the words: lake,
Brown language adrift with plants and fish,
Masked underneath a civilizing white
Tectonic crystalline, a cloudy plate.
10 Sun burned horizon black, and then went down;
The honed air slipped and whisked across the lake.
*Flare, pile of glassleaves!*--no--*fail, pyre*:
An undecided dusk gave out at last.
Snow deepened to an ashen regolith,
A lunar cast. Too cold. I found a path;
An alphabet of shadows followed me,
Seeming to indicate a leak of light,
The thinnest wash of dusk: plum aquarelle.
(A shallow chill: of ghostleaves fluttering?
20 Bleak conjugations rustling in the woods?)
A haunted aura deepened, spread, and blurred.
AM VIVID.(Where?) LOOK BARN.(The last glow fell
Along the roofridge of a looming, chinked
Abandoned barn; a broken vane withheld
Its ripening signal from prevailing words):
Something encoded in the characters
Of winter branches. I could just make out
QUARTZ HIVING DAMP. FLOW BACK,SEX JOY! Creak.
--A wind came up; the rusted vane revived:
30 Its bent N pointed toward me; W
To sky. I hurried down the icehumped path,
And that was that: day left unfinished. Night.
(A double me is more than twice enough.)
I marked my place; exhausted, went to bed.
Then dreamed; awakened: saw my old alarm
Oddly aglow; but quickly focused on
Its Liquid Crystal face-blue numerals,
Crisp and reassuring. Woke next day,
Drank coffee, read newspaper, dressed, went out.
40 A mere reader, I read mirrors, fear wet play;
But find a mothball scatter on the lawn.
with its many reverberations of VN's PALE FIRE. Because of the length of
the work (1001 lines plus "Notes"), the text is being sent in sections
corresponding to the poems XII Cantos, followed by the Notes. (The whole
is ideally viewed in its hypertext format on ZEMBLA http:
//www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/diintro.htm). NABOKV-L thanks Tom
Bolt for permitting us to present his poem.
Dark Ice first appeared in BOMB.
Dark Ice is copyright © 1993 and 1997 by Thomas Bolt. All rights reserved.
=====================
D a r k I c e
=====================
for
Roland Forrester
1926-1993
+++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++
A transition, from one state to another, of any
element, is only accomplished by violence
(though this violence be immeasurably slow).
The remainder of our text shall be concerned
with this phenomenon in its varied forms:
revolutionary evaporations, cataclysmic
meltings, excruciating condensations.
--Dr. Noble Möll
*An Introduction to Variable States*, 1896
+++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++
=====================
D a r k I c e
=====================
I
I've stood on thinner sheets. Took crunching walks
On leaf-embodying and lumpy glass
To a sidewalk's abrupt end, along a bright
Section of newly-insulated path,
Over a prickling hump of weedy dam
And onto this broad opening in the words: lake,
Brown language adrift with plants and fish,
Masked underneath a civilizing white
Tectonic crystalline, a cloudy plate.
10 Sun burned horizon black, and then went down;
The honed air slipped and whisked across the lake.
*Flare, pile of glassleaves!*--no--*fail, pyre*:
An undecided dusk gave out at last.
Snow deepened to an ashen regolith,
A lunar cast. Too cold. I found a path;
An alphabet of shadows followed me,
Seeming to indicate a leak of light,
The thinnest wash of dusk: plum aquarelle.
(A shallow chill: of ghostleaves fluttering?
20 Bleak conjugations rustling in the woods?)
A haunted aura deepened, spread, and blurred.
AM VIVID.(Where?) LOOK BARN.(The last glow fell
Along the roofridge of a looming, chinked
Abandoned barn; a broken vane withheld
Its ripening signal from prevailing words):
Something encoded in the characters
Of winter branches. I could just make out
QUARTZ HIVING DAMP. FLOW BACK,SEX JOY! Creak.
--A wind came up; the rusted vane revived:
30 Its bent N pointed toward me; W
To sky. I hurried down the icehumped path,
And that was that: day left unfinished. Night.
(A double me is more than twice enough.)
I marked my place; exhausted, went to bed.
Then dreamed; awakened: saw my old alarm
Oddly aglow; but quickly focused on
Its Liquid Crystal face-blue numerals,
Crisp and reassuring. Woke next day,
Drank coffee, read newspaper, dressed, went out.
40 A mere reader, I read mirrors, fear wet play;
But find a mothball scatter on the lawn.