Description
Editor:
Eldon Garnet.
Associate Editor:
Anne Hall.
Table of Contents:
Editor’s Introduction; Suzy Lake; Colleen Kennedy; Les Levine; David Young; Rodney Werden; Susan Musgrave; Ralph Fones; Margaret Campbell; Diane Boadway; Lorne Fromer; Anne Wordsworth; Wendy Knox-Leet; Sue Swan; Colette Whiten; Vince Sharp; Maurizio Nannucci; Eldon Garnet; Joe Hall; Michael Snow; Hans Jewinski; David McFadden; Vincent Tangredi; Peter Dudar; Bobbe Besold; Chrysanne Stathacos; Vic D’or; By example; Brian Trevers; Stephen Shortt; Massimo Nannucci; Dawn Eagle; Basia Irland; Joe Rosenblatt; John Lander; Jack McCluskey; Paul Campbell; Barbara Astman; R Right; Pearl White; David Hlynsky; Gary Michael Dault; Ruby Etch; Edwina Frankford; John Scott; John MacGregor; Fletcher Starbuck; A.S.A. Harrison; Steve McCaffery; Penny Chalmers; Judy Keeler; Amirgo Marras; General Idea; L C Foot; Mark Lightbody; Dave Godfrey; Art Canada; Heather McDonald; R Rose; Francoise Sullivan; Art life; Paul Harnett.
Editorial:
it is Tiresias who begins it all the prophetic seer saying : “yes, if he does not come to know himself” the boy Narcissus will live a long life & the dark river nymph Liriope embraced by the curving stream Cephisus imprisoned in his waves & forcefully loved to bare Narcissus the image of his mother’s beauty at 16 who could be called boy & man his soft young body by pride unyielding to the touch of boy or girl
Echo when she still had a body & was not just a voice saw the boy driving deer into his nets & she fell into love
for holding Juno from the truth by the chatter of her tongue Echo is stripped of her power of invention & left with only imitation when she saw Narcissus wandering through the woods she followed secretly in his steps & she could not articulate her pleas only wait for words she might echo
Narcissus lost from his friends calls out: “is there anyone here?”
Echo: “here”
Narcissus: “come”
Echo: “come”
Narcissus looking behind him: “why are you avoiding me?”
Echo: “why are you avoiding me?”
Narcissus: “come here & let us meet”
Echo: “let us meet” running from the woods embracing but Narcissus retreating “away with these embraces. i would die before i would have you touch me”
she hid her shamed face in the shelter of leaves & ran to the lonely caves & the pain in her heart would not let her sleep & she became thin slowly wasted her beauty the morning mist into the dry air & only her voice and bones remained till finally only her voice in the woods in the mountains in the empty room. she lives another he had ignored complained to heaven: “may he himself fall into the empty love as we have with him” & Nemesis heard Narcissus tired from the hunt hot lay down beside a pure pool where shepherds goats or cattle had never been. a place of peace undisturbed by bird or beast or falling branches. protected by trees ever cool to relieve his thirst drank & as he drank fell in love held enchanted by his self motionless. stars his eyes ivory his skin the rose flush on the smooth snow. wanted himself seeking & sought himself the flame which he burned. to kiss the pool reaching deep into the water to touch. he did not know. himslef to hold the drifting image. it comes with you & lasts while you are present, it will depart when you depart if you are able no food no sleep unable to leave the pool stretched on the grass fixed on himself with eyes that could never be filled by his eyes undone: “woods has anyone felt a crueler love? i see my love but the form i see i cannot reach. not separated by endless ocean or highway or mountain or city wall with barred gate only a little water. my love desires me. i lean forward to kiss the clear waters he lifts his face to mine. why do you elude me? your looks offer me hope. when i stretch my arms to you stretch your arms to me, you laugh when i laugh, your tears when i weep, your lips answer in words that never reach my ears. i know & i am not deceived by my image. i burn with love for myself the flame which i must endure. what i desire i possess, my riches make me poor. i pray to separate myself from myself, a lover i wish the lover i love away. little life remains, i am cut off the flower of my youth. i have no objection to death in death i will forget my pain only i wish my love might outlive me but we must die together”
the tears from his eyes disturbed the water the pool rippled the image grew faint & as he saw it disappearing cried: “stay, do not desert your love. if i cannot touch let me look let me feed my love in sight” beating his breast till it bled “for the boy i love in vain” reaching into the red water entering himself. nothing remained. the echo from the woods: “for the boy i love in vain”
in the underworld he kept looking at himself in the waters of the Styx. his sisters the nymphs of the spring mourned for him cut off their hair in tribute to their brother Echo singing her refrain to their lament for the pyre for the torches no body was found only a flower with a circle of white petals round a yellow centre for this circle Tiresias can be blamed.
Eldon Garnet
