Theme of "domestic hellenism" in Mandelstam's essays. Poetics of celebration of mankind "at home" in this world - ecology of civilization.

Eden Again.

from India Point

8

The winter mist, the angles of rooftops,
the shadowy academies, the swoop
of wren between the dripping
trees. Odysseus, wrestling Cyclops

far from home, remembers the kitchen stove.
From the low barn in the farmyard
starting out and returning, a star-word
points the bricks toward unbounded love

and the subtle flicker of a snakeskin
(in and out of the muddy ground) portends
another springtime (umbilical, endless).
A morris-dance in every Troy-town

coils around its secret law. A cold iron
ring (forged in starlight) turns molten gold.

*

You turn your face toward the truth
like a grandmother gazing at the hearth.

Unbending law under a dogwood branch
swaying in the early wind of March.
Bead on the level. Night-watch
on horizon-line. Gyro (unchangeable) -

what seemed fatal (Time's unfolding,
imperturbable). Donated to chance,
equilibrium - beyond remonstrance
seemingly - Darwinian - til holding

only held (mold or death-mask) -
far light outlining final shape.
Oval of your murmuring lips,
a lofty, graceful arabesque.

12.31.02