2.24.2005

- here's something slightly alchemical, from Blackstone's Day-Book (the last chapter of Forth of July):

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Ultramarine being the diamond of all colors
a glazing pigment out of lapis lazuli
(background painted with dust and clay
become a lively cornerstone, elect and precious)


applied to the low prison cell, with pale
moonlight through the barred grill
over the old bruised boxer's skull
as he wonders at the releasing angel


obliged to use pure Naples yellow and
vermilion for the lights upon the nailheads
of the door
(asphaltum from the Dead
Sea region or American Bottomland)


and directly below the cross in the lower
left corner stands a dark vessel with
shroud-like cloth – Bishop Berkeley's
oily tar and water, or mercurial


salamander vegetating in the fire
(sulfur).
It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay.
And a pale green shamrock gracefully
resolves... into a little Indian red or


vermilion and lake, deepened by black
.
You must have observed the difference in
lustre between silks woven from different-
colored threads... luce di dentro. Mark


how that heavy angel moves the stone door
with downward cross laid over his shoulder.
And he will walk into stone-shrouded Rome
and bear – (lilied footpad, Troyes mummer).


4.20.2000

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