CONTACT IS CONTRACT
Missive #10 - Transcribed Poetic Dictation with Vision Accompaniments
[Opening line announced itself June 23rd. The rest came in three interrupted sections, culminating on July 3rd around 1am eastern while in the woods; vision accompaniments of the sinking steamboat ‘Twilight’, the erupting stars of Arcturus and Vega overhead, the myth of Vega and Altair, the three-headed demon Dis rotating large in front of me, the speech and gathering of Zarathustra and his guests, the nemuri-neko sculpture of Nikkō Tōshō-gū coming alive and jumping down onto the stone steps in front of me, and then lastly the spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu emerging from his funerary urn to hold eye-contact with me, transmitting several images of his vision and hope for lasting peace throughout the land] Received 6/23 to 7/3/2023 | ~1am
CONTACT IS CONTRACT
From first contact the contract is made
By first dreaming, the prescription of the
dream is already known, and agreed to.
To an honest and all-pervasive intelligence
From first breath to last, gasping, grasping
Laughing and letting go, re-leasing life unto
Death; dying is another contact with the same.
Contractually obligated physicians of the heart
Overseeing large tracts of land with mere tact-ic
-Al-ignment of touch, out-of-touch quandaries
Vacuum sealed in the beyond of within
Abutting conserving domiciles, domes filled
with European ornamentals; I too am ornamental.
Lo and lo and lo, and hark!
The hallowed steamboat sinks: the scuttling
Flames blazing until water pours in on all sides.
Water is life; the Twilight seizes, and is taken
under
To lie, and wait, a hundred years in muck and
sludge
Children's delight, children's despair, lurking
Leviathan, humbled and still at the bottom
of the lake.
We are creatures of contract, bearthing contractions
Before periods of expansion, surging market
Trends, moonfall searing stars zig-zagging like
Satellites, low-hanging fruits, or UFOs overhead
Arcturus and Vega firing off like a Roman candle, in
Purples and reds and golden rays of disbelief, until
Again, the star resumes an ordinary flicker
One among many, many among one
The terms are clear to all, seven logical steps
Of a Tractatus, the bane and boon of its ilk
Disapproving, dis-associating the city of Dis
Nine, eight, seven, six; from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Dives, Dius, Di(e)spiter, Dis Pater, seraph's
shadow
A slobbering beast, devoid of words: discreature
Miscreant's procredence, six eyes and three mouths.
The creatural bounds all around us. C upon C upon C
Drop down your hand, O Vega! and lift up mortal Altair
Saved but for the ire of the father, who would see
A promise fulfilled, 'pon starry crown, yet far apart
Separated always by the milky river between them.
"You are mere bridges; you signify steps:
It is not for you that I am waiting here
In these mountains; it is not for you
that I may go down for the last time
Only as signs have you come to me—
You are not those of the Great Yearning,
of the Great Disgust, of the Great Satiety—
No! It is for others that I am waiting here
in these mountains, nor will I lift my foot
from here without them… have you as yet
heard nothing of my children? And that they
are on their way to me here? Speak to me then
of my gardens, of my Isles of the Blest, of my
beautiful new kind—This guests' gift I entreat
from your love, that you speak to me of my children.
For this I am rich, for this I become poor:
what did I not give, what would I not give,
that I might have one thing: these children,
this living plantation, these trees of life
of my will and of my highest hope!"
Thus spoke Zarathustra, who suddenly paused
For his yearning overwhelmed him, and
He closed his mouth and eyes as his heart
was so moved. And we all, his guests—
some too his children in dis-guise—
were silent with him, and stood still
In dismay, until the soothe-sayer moved.
Al-Wali is the protection or safety that arises
from a truly intimate relationship.
Turn back toward your loved one with
familiarity and closeness. Turn away from
Alienation; you are safe in the arms of the beloved.
Lie down next to someone to offer protection.
"A peaceful sleeping cat is the closest
image to enlightenment on earth" said
my Zen teacher to me one day in Japan.
The nemuri-neko sits guard over the way
To Ieyasu's final resting place. One passes
Through many gates, ferociously and
Magnificently ringed by dragons and deities,
On one's way to greet the famed founder.
So splendid, it took more than 15,000 craftsmen
Just one and a half years to build the complex.
Near the end of the eastern corridor, one arrives
at Kugurimon, the entrance to the inner shrine,
Where sleeps the peaceful, sleeping cat in a bed
of peonies, a couple of sparrows playing on the
far side. A personification, or representation
of Peace, for the dead, for the nation, for
The world. The cat rests in a patch of sunlight—
as many others of its kind are wont to do—
I am reminded with a smile to "Walk quietly,
So as not to disturb the cat." And I walk
Lightly, stalking through, smiling with everyone
Else. We climb the final 200 stone steps through
a forest up to a small, modest landing where
The shogun rests. His desired ‘small shrine’.
Offer a prayer facing the hole in an aged cedar tree,
Protector of the enshrined remains for many years.
Your prayers will be answered.
Descend now, in return, and make eye contact with
the one white column (of 12) in the Yōmeimon
placed deliberately upside-down so as to
avoid angering the gods with any presumption
of Perfection. It is known as the "evil
-averting inverted pillar." Do not forget
The importance of such pillars in yourself.
Humility is alignment with the sense of
Humor of God. It is the cat that lies
In intimate relationship to the dead ruler;
A small cat, yet said to be the manifestation
of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Medicine,
who offers the ultimate protection:
A promise and provenance of peace.
Let what is dead die, and let what
is dear to them lie near to them.
This is the solace we seek.
The contract concludes, and the
Next is renewed, and entered into.
Reach out, and touch, and begin again.
Let what is dead die 🔔