(“Boo in broken chair by pile of books”-provided by DWB)
In the mid-1860s Feodor Dostoevsky published his prophetic, hilarious, tragic novella Notes from the Underground, or Letters from the Underworld, in his own magazine, Epokha, or Epoch, which he edited with his brother, Mikhail.
Epokha was a short-lived, monthly literary magazine which fell apart after less than two years due to the death of Mikhail, plus more of Feodor’s endless financial problems, never helped by his occasional crazed, maniacal gambling binges.
But Dostoevsky’s self-published novella has never fallen apart. This work takes its place on the vast stage of nineteenth century Western literature as one of the most profound, influential, lasting and memorable works created in that century of upheaval, horror, and beauty which produced so many grand, great and good works.
Dostoevsky had been converted from a skeptical, stoical agnostic into a believer by his time in the Siberian prison camps. He was sent there, after a mock execution which turned him into a full-blown epileptic for life, for reading and disseminating revolutionary literature. Not for planning to instigate a revolution, only for reading and passing on material which criticized the czar and the oppressive ways of Russian life.
Only one book was allowed in the prison camps. Dostoevsky was already extremely familiar with the Bible, just as all Russians of his place and time were. But in Siberia, when it became his only reading material, he went deeper, much deeper than he’d ever gone before.
It was the life and teachings of Jesus and his apostles as presented in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament which converted Dostoevsky into a believer.
He read the life and stories of Jesus in the same way he’d read secular literature before he was sent to Siberia, which is to say as creative writing, in other words as ART.
Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle.
My poem “The Halloween Crow” is very much a take-off on Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, since my poem is a kind of letter from the underworld from a narrator who has a lot in common with Dostoevsky’s underground man.
This poem contains the phrase “light of the body,” another quotation from Jesus.
The light of the body, in my poem, is the small flame of the seer, the truth-sayer, and the silent poet and while there are very few of us in the modern world, there are also many among us on another level.
Harold Bloom called it the “saving remnant.” Bloom wrote, “Even among Jews, that small, isolated race, Jesus himself seeks only a saving remnant.” Bloom, himself a Jewish genius, and not a believer in the divinity of Jesus, said that Jesus was the greatest genius who ever lived, smarter than all the other geniuses who ever lived put together.
Wallace Stevens wrote, “How high that highest candle lights the dark.”
This poem is based on a real incident and a real bird in a real place at a real time. The words, with no wordiness, are an effort to capture this experience.
Edgar Allan Poe, who also published most of his own work in magazines he himself edited, was one of Dostoevsky’s favorite writers. Poe’s mad monologists influenced Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, who in turn influenced Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, among other masterpieces, like Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and The Stranger of Camus, Howl by Ginsberg and much of Nietzsche.
On his way to Siberia, Dostoevsky wrote in a letter to someone: “This is my last message to you. In sorrow, seek happiness.”
The HALLOWEEN Crow!
He sat high across the way from
me in my midwestern town.
He was perched on the old
pinnacle of the opposite, gloomy,
semi-urban apartment building
outside Chicago.
But only for a moment.
I saw him land there, sitting.
Then he swung, out toward me,
like he flew right to me from
across the street, Houdini in
black feathers toward my second-story
apartment window where I sat
in my broken chair, my Siberian Husky
Bucephalus beside me
dreaming of Mary.
I was in my chair, but flying.
I WAS IN MY CHAIR BUT
FLYING ONLY FOR A MOMENT
then with good old Mr. Edgar Poe Crow.
Check out the Halloween Bird, bro!
And we were flying together, both he
and I being so high together, flying
in that imaginary moment to where
the sky broke open (which happens
when you die).
And the shot thought was thought
like a thought shot through me:
the Christ-like
light of the body is seen as demonic
by these moneyed sinners.
He was flying right toward me
and for me.
Before he disappeared.
While waving goodbye, goodbye!
d.w.b.
D. Williams Barrigar lives in the rough-edged, blue-collar midwestern suburbs and sometimes the woods. His connection to the underground remains strong and proud. He assiduously avoids the affluent suburbs and all other locations whose well-manicured parks and lawns are almost invariably posted with uptight signs which declare: “No Dogs Allowed.” The underground allows, and celebrates, dogs. You get looked down upon a lot; but it’s also much easier to avoid surveillance, enough to maintain your sanity most of the time – in the underground.
Saragun Springs 
Hello Dale
Upon re-reading the “moneyed sinners” is especially brilliant. Tremendous seething energy fit for the topic(s).
You have attracted twice the readership this week and I thank you for it!
Leila
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Hi Leila!
This is really, really, really, really very great news about the Readership and I thank you for sharing!
And I thank you for GIVING ME BACK MY OWN POEMS AS IF REBORN, by which I mean, that as I’ve had a chance to read them again in this new and awesome context this week, my own poems have come back to me as if they were new works I’d never seen before and I’ve been able to see, and sense, aspects of them that are there but that I never even knew were there before and that I never consciously intended, but am so happy to find now – a truly new discovery, like waking up as a whole new person.
For a writer, such a gift is like being given back your very own personality, or your own hidden mystery most Personal Personality, itself, and there is no gift greater, better or more lasting that can be given to one than that, ever, on this side of the grave.
So the words don’t really capture all the feelings, but unto to you I say once again, Thank you!
Dale
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Leila
I also want to say that today’s photo-image is a mirror, for whoever wishes to look honestly into it with a deep sense of honor for their own struggle, and soul. It’s not about me – it’s about YOU, whoever you are…
Dale
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Leila
I also want to say that today’s photo-image is a mirror, for whoever wishes to look honestly into it with a deep sense of honor for their own struggle, and soul. It’s not about me – it’s about YOU, whoever you are…
Dale
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Dale – At various times I’ve read and written about religion as an outsider. One of the things that people who have studied the Bible claim is that much of what is stated to be from Jesus was falsely attributed to him. There are arguments about which is real and which is not. Example – His life was made to fit with older prophecies such as being related to David. Could be wrong, this is from many years ago.
I read Twitter too much. So many claims there that Don Trump is “a man of God” and picturing him with someone’s concept of Jesus (made to look like he’s from California, not the Middle East).
Thanks for the literature lesson. Most of what I know about writers is mystery writers.
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Dear Doug
Thanks so much for your excellent comments, it’s deeply appreciated!
Sometimes I like to think of Jesus as Yeshua to remind myself that he was a Jew who lived 2,000 years ago. (Kind of like how Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen were/are Jews who speak for Jesus: the REAL Jesus.)
The Jesus I think of on a daily and nightly basis has virtually nothing whatsoever to do with any established religion (at least so far) on this Planet. Instead, for me, he can pretty much be thought of as my favorite literary character. Another one would be Hamlet, by Shakespeare. But Jesus was smarter than anyone, I do believe: even Hamlet and Shakespeare.
Some folks complain that it makes no sense that the Gospel writers, Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John, all present different versions of Jesus, including how and where he was born, etc.
But for me, that very fact is all part of the fun, AND the truth.
Jesus was a real person. No rational historian denies that fact now, from China to the USA and everywhere in between.
So it makes sense that four different writers, each presenting their “versions” of the same person, would present at least a slightly different version.
He’s more holy in Matthew. He’s more angry, misunderstood, and hated in Mark. He tells more stories in Luke. And he’s more of a philosopher-poet in John.
And then there are all the non-canonical Gospels, especially The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene, but also many, many, many others.
It doesn’t mean that none of those versions are true. It means that ALL OF THEM ARE TRUE, which is much more astonishing (and much more true) and equals the reason why Jesus is, hands down, and with no close second, the most famous human being who has ever lived, or ever will live, on this Planet. Even a well-known unbeliever like Kurt Vonnegut called himself “a Christ-loving atheist.” Albert Einstein, another Jew, also, in his own unique way, worshipped Jesus.
I really appreciate skeptical non-religionists like yourself who are brave enough to engage with religion anyway in the way you describe here.
So thanks again for sharing!
Dale
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Almost forgot – A top book was the Last Temptation Of Christ. A whole new way to look at his life.
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Hi Dale
I didn’t know Dostoevsky was so subversive. Or an artist living a brave life under a political oppression is more likely. He sounds like the type that will not go easily into the night. These essays on writers are truly enlightening! I like the human side of him. The gambling binges…
I’m back on “Crime and Punishment.” There is some humor in this story, very subtle making fun of the human condition. I can see how he influenced psychology. I minored in psych and ended up with 30 credits (loved abnormal and cognitive psy.). I almost made it my major… But I opted for an easier, cumulative Gen. Studies degree (mistake). Art philosophy may have been my favorite class. Sociology was an unexpected pleasure too. All delayed by alcoholism, but acquired in sobriety. lol.
I like in your writing style how you critic society. It is full of an enjoyable and truthful wit. The other day you said our writing styles are similar, (sorry I missed that post until a few days later). I agree! Our lean prose has certainly been influenced by Chekhov, Hemingway, Carver…
First off I love the title! “Halloween Crow”
This poem takes off and the tone is dark and compelling.
The concrete details ground the reader, and the flight of this crow makes me feel like it’s coming for me. Great image!
“Houdini in
black feathers (cool line).”
Sitting in a broken chair. There’s a sense of poverty in the details, but not quite unhappiness. I liked the one rhyme. It sounds like insanity bubbling up, coming to the top. But also enlightening to the spirit.
“Sky broke through” Almost like this crow is the spirit harbinger of EAP himself. Coming as if called from the man in the chair reading his work. (If he is).
The epiphany of thought is startling in its revelation.
Great poem! You obviously know what you’re doing. Beautiful lines! I’ve always thought of poetry as a high art that floats in dangerous waters. You navigate it well!
Christopher
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Christopher
Thanks so much for all your great commentary! You UNDERSTAND my work so well AND express this understanding with such clarity and power that any poet under the sun would be lucky to have this, can’t say in words how much I appreciate it all, I think that’s one thing poets know, and I know YOU are a poet too, despite everything one can do with words, they fail, and can NEVER say it all…..everything written, thus, is only an attempt, at least at the highest (or the deepest) levels, and yet, and yet, a Noble Attempt if the motives are pure!!
Regarding my Friday stuff, I talk a little bit about two American poets that I recommend you (and anyone) check out in greater detail whenever you can (all you need is the internet, of course).
Their names are: TED BERRIGAN. And BOB KAUFMAN.
Simply starting by looking at their pictures on the Internet will tell you a lot.
Check these two out whenever you can or want to, these are two very very great American poets who are well worth studying whenever you get the urge to explore two very great American poets from the latter half of 20th century America. And, both of them lived, and died, as poets, in poverty. AND both of them are much more famous now than when they were alive (although still underground figures because such pure poets).
More later!
Dale
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