Light
by J.B. Packard

Gently o’er the senses stealing,
Lute-like comes an unseen throng,
Spirits, waking each a feeling
With a birth-baptismal song.

Chalice held by fairy fingers,
Seems the soul–all brimming o’er–
‘Neath a fountain, still it lingers
Where the living waters pour.

Now, a mirror’s disc seemeth,
Far beneath a crystal flow,
Where the inner sun-light gleameth
As the bubbles upward go.

Beaming eye-light truly telleth,
In a language all its own,
That behind these glances dwelleth
Love, illuming pleasure’s throne.

I picked up a copy of The Spirit Minstrel; A Collection of Hymns And Music For The use of Spiritualists, In their Circles and Public Meetings by J. B. Packard and J.S. Loveland. There are some very interesting lyrics in this book, including the above lyric, which shows the “inner sun” of the Swedenborgians (and later of the Spiritualists) as a sun reflected in the water of a fountain. This same sun, of course, illuminated the Transcendentalists as well. This edition of the Minstrel was published by Bela Marsh, 14 Bromfield St., in Boston.

Davy’s Books
D. Nemo text
Laura Moriarity uvdocs (illustrations)
A Gargoyle Edition
West House Books, 2007.

This folded blue card presents a combination of D. Nemo’s texts with Laura Moriarity’s collages. The texts themselves seem to be a book-seller’s or bibliographer’s mad cataloguing dream:

The Scattering, by Zed, Edward (im, A.H.), adventure.
Preowned. Mint. Parsecs are invoked guaranteeing at
least a pot of thought travel. 500 standard pages, a
thousand in 3D. Barriers float opening onto islands,
beings, sails, currents, charts, eclipses, ellipses,
foci, fossils, fish, systems, organs, destinies, destinations
and forgone conclusions. Note the IRC. There is a tear
in the grid exactly equivalent to the one in the universe.
Direct contact with constituent beings assumed to be
desired by buyer. Experience recommended but not
required. Stardust jacket (uvdocs#17) by Alan Halsey.
Priced to sell.

We especially like the refrence to the IRC.

The Last Hunting Of The Lizopard
8 b/w images by Alan Halsey
with text by David Annwn
Edition of 150 copies signed & numbered
by author & artist.
20 p.p., large format, paper, saddle-stitched
ISBN 978-1-904052-23-4
West House Books 12pounds 95 p.
order: www.westhousebooks.co.uk or via SPD.

More of the epic quest for the Lizopard down vast arcades af numinous imagery clanged together by the grand master of Hermetic heraldry Alan Halsey “in the smithey of his soul” with the Hammer of Los on Wieland’s Anvil. We see flashes of Ernst, Kunrath, Michael Maier, and that French alchemical text that has no writing but features the collection of dew. Annwnn’s text is Oceanic and I can’t help but reproduce one below (unfortunately this system doesn’t allow italics):

Crewed as real. Rigged with vine & lightning we trawl
deeps & politick man-oeuvres. Yes, as if to myself, a
people, we can save you, my voice your arm and heart-
face, we can re-pre-sent-u-ho-nest texting organ-donors’
files, crude urn twigged bones their say-so, ling a lattice
a sweetsake dusbstar.

Night Jessamine my coder won’t accept your supple
changer, gear & filigree can’t begin but will, breaker/
breaker, lilac’s magneto fuses in no more than
enough, curts solo pipette, flume brazens it, snarls
tasks to sweat-blossom dreams and street retort.

In a good hour, talking of the Malheur Fungus; oldest,
biggest clonal colonies Armillaria. We learn in such a
place our world.

This demands to be spoken aloud with Alan’s illustrations thrown up large on the wall behind the performer. A magickal coupling of micro and macro–in fact I had so much trouble keeping my arms and legs from assuming da Vinci’s “Grand Man” stance as I read, that my dear wife had to encircle me with her arms “long and smalle”–another plus! Highly recommended for Man, Woman, Child, and Beast! God bless the golden Lizopard! May it be shot through with more arrows than St. Sebastian! Etc.!