[Illustration: Cover art] BEHOLD THIS DREAMER Elizabeth Bartlett _Behold This Dreamer_ was originally published in 1959 by Editorial Jus in Mexico City, and is now out-of-print. The author�s literary executor, Steven James Bartlett, has decided to make the book available as an open access publication, freely available to readers through Project Gutenberg under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs license, which allows anyone to distribute this work without changes to its content, provided that both the author and the original URL from which this work was obtained are mentioned, that the contents of this work are not used for commercial purposes or profit, and that this work will not be used without the copyright holder's written permission in derivative works (i.e., you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without such permission). The full legal statement of this license may be found at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode [Illustration: Creative Commons logo] _Behold this Dreamer_ _By_ ELIZABETH BARTLETT BOOKS _poems of yes and no_ _Behold this Dreamer_ POEMS _Accent, American Weave, Approach, Arizona Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Canadian Forum, Catholic World, Chelsea Review, Coastlines, Commentary, Cresset, Epos, Fiddlehead, Folio, four quarters, Harper's, Harper's Bazaar, Literary Review, Mexican Life, Naked Ear, New Mexico Quarterly, New Poems 2, New Voices 2, N. Y. Herald Tribune, N. Y. Times, Nimrod, Odyssey, Outposts, Personalist, Poetry Chapbook, Prairie Schooner, Quixote, Saturday Review, Shenandoah Review, Southwest Review, Sparrow, Step Ladder, Venture, Views, Western Review, Western Humanities Review, Whetstone, Wisconsin Poetry._ Acknowledgements: Certain of the poems in this collection have appeared in publications listed above. The title, _Behold This Dreamer_, is taken from an anthology of that name, in tribute to its author, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956). _Behold this Dreamer_ _Elizabeth Bartlett_ _Editorial Jus, S. A._ _Mexico City_ First Edition © 1959 Elizabeth Bartlett _To_ CHARLOTTE HOWELL REED CONTENTS Vision The poet's dream Time will tell Afternoon of a journey The cave The test In his image All this, before The creation _Vision_ EYE _center of the universe Whose pupil is the world Teach us to see the light Embracing night_ _Between the sunset and the dawn To see the unicorn Within that crystal ball Of pure recall_ _Where time is an iris mirror A pointillated blur Of image and of form Caught in its storm_ _With every moment held inside The frame of canvas mind Forever captive, stilled, Motion fulfilled_ _Where memory and dream evoke The future like a window Made of stained glass, one cast From the fractured past_ _As retina and perspective For our darkness, the bridge Connecting what has been With things foreseen_ _Through your bright lens, illuminate The galaxy that waits Invisible as trust In stars and dust_ _The Poet's Dream_ WHEN _the waters of the sun Fall on the flaming sea_ _When the desert rose is one With the snow sipping bee_ _All that our senses now shun Time's alchemy will free_ _On the coral shores of night The ghosts of fish shall wake_ _And offer incense to the light That gives them bread to break_ _From the singing shells with wings An artist's eye shall peer_ _With violin hands for strings And a poet's ear_ _Then white silence like a nun Shall lift her long white sleeves_ _And shake the treasures she has spun From dreams whose thread she weaves_ _From the surf of mountain caves A billion stars shall gush_ _And whirl on the windward waves Through the darkened hush_ _In the valley of moon trees The glowing fruit shall sway_ _And rise by twos and threes Above the cradled day_ _On the jungle's peaceful floor Lion and deer shall meet_ _A crucifix made of ore Between their kneeling feet_ _All of this and more shall be Within that shining net_ _When time redeems mortality From its mortal debt_ _Then magnet age shall point its north Towards youth's eternal pole_ _That alpha star in the fourth Dimension of the soul_ _Where love curves back in heartspace Within its chrysalis_ _And gravitates the imaged face Of the all creating this_ _From the light years of the past The undeflected force_ _Shall bind the future fast To God's own source_ _As cause and word unending Repeat the rhythmic plan_ _Of universe transcending Man's origin as man_ _Time Will Tell_ WHERE _fireflies are stars And the evening sky a sea, There you will find me, far From the leveling demands That leveled you and me._ _When distant mountains bend Like deep swells toward the shore, Then you will see the ends For which I built my dikes Against the lowly roar._ _Though breath was all I owned To force my heart to climb, Though words were all the stones I had to seal my mind, You will know why, in time._ _Afternoon of a Journey_ THERE _will never be another, That day was forever._ _We dove through tropic noon Into a green sky. The palms stood Quiet, still, their fronds Like swollen waves about To break, transparent, lime limned And streaked from base to rim With icy light._ _Lungs gilled and arms finned wide, We slipped into the pale Of that dry sea, following downrays Until we reached the cool Of silence, a sandpaved lagoon Upholding its weight of time Under trees that climbed._ _Perched on a log, we scanned The currents, the drifting shaft Of shadows, instinctively alert To armadillo's crawl, the stir Of something red, The eye of an iguana met... Ourselves. Perceiving_ _We were not alone in breathing, Being witness, As well as evidence In that primal air, How all of us shared In the serene of a sunless glow Which waterless flowed._ _Gently, we moved along a path That opened as we passed, Whispering our affirmations To those secret ones Who flickered and flashed, Carrying our echoes back From near, then far, far off._ _And slowly, the silence arced, Leaped high--and broke, With parrots in the undertow As the waves rolled over And the green tide flooded The forest floor, whirling, Swirling a world set free._ _Now all of us were cells In a chemistry of shells Older than snails, Plankton or sunbaked clay, Fellow creatures in an afternoon As joyous as a long lost tune About to be remembered._ _Oh all of us there In that drenched, tropic green Began to sing and sing, Shedding our ties With root and rock and sky, As we found our song In our living bond._ _Pod and leaf, mouth and beak, Whatever lived and breathed That sudden afternoon, Sang wonder through the woods, As we heard and discovered Each in the other Without a word._ _Until a metallic bird, On roaring wings, Crashed our song beneath The hammered surf, As it thundered, Like lightning in a storm, Fearfully born._ _Then all of us Grew motionless In the sculptured undersea Of silenced green, Knowing, as we did again, The thing forbidden and forgotten In a world of men._ _There will never be another, That day was forever._ _The Cave_ DROP _by drop The earth is born A billion years From dark to dawn_ _Drop by drop As rivers flow Past sunless cliffs No wind has known_ _Where no grass blows And no birds sing There time drips slow And patient clings_ _Drop by drop Till waterfalls Are turned to stone_ _Here new stars form And mountains rise Clear of the storms That twist the sky_ _Drop by drop While caverns tall Carve crystal bones_ _What dream lies walled Within this night What shape shall crawl Up to the light_ _Drop by drop As silence grows Inside its vault Of carbon snow_ _When glaciers halt Before no zones When both the poles At last are one_ _Drop by drop The dawn shall come A billion years From cave to sun_ _The Test_ HE _who would climb the heights of tone And scale the peaks beyond the listening ear, Must first walk over water And learn to stand on air, alone._ _He who would swim the waves of light And dive past shores into a sunless glow, Must first merge with his shadow And melt through solid glass, like night._ _Where eyes are fins and sound is leap, The rhythmic force performs its own ballet; When dreams are fired in clay, They burn a path through timeless sleep._ _In His Image_ WHO _has not looked into the heart of night and seen the darker light, concealed like spectral stars beyond the rim of Mars,_ _Who has not listened to the sound of mind and heard the silence wind, like rivers underground out to a sea profound,_ _has only eyes and ears._ _Who has not reached above the clouded span and touched the cosmic plan, upheld like spider's climb upon the spokes of time,_ _Who has not followed the labyrinthine thread And crushed the monstrous dread, that other men may gleam the glory of the dream,_ _has only hands and feet._ _Who has not lived within his hour of space and etched it with his face, as portrait of the sun reflects the solar one,_ _is only shape and dust._ _All This, Before_ I RACED, _I rushed, I ran, to catch the empty hand of time-- Before the wind, the blowing wind, This breathless gift._ _I willed, I worked, I wept, To melt the frozen face of time-- Before the sun, the burning sun, This frenzied bone._ _I drank, I danced, I dared, To tempt the stony foot of time-- Before the rain, the driving rain, This raptured flame._ _I leaped, I laughed, I loved, To ease the burdened heart of time-- Before the dust, the settling dust, This flesh and blood._ _The Creation_ OUT _of the white and the blue Out of the mist and the ice Out of the wind and the flame The creature came._ _With eyes as brilliant as the light With ears as lucid as the sound With feet as sudden as the thought The creature caught_ _A breath from the yawning sky A drop from the nodding sea A root from the sleeping earth And from their birth_ _Measured the length of the seasons Balanced the rhythm of the tides Secured the growing of the seed And woke the need_ _Of the dream inside the egg Of the thirst within the cell Of the shape beneath the bone Then took a stone_ _And breaking the silent void And loosing the swollen stream And cutting the golden thread The creature said:_ _Here on this dot of bounded space Here in this point of moving time Here with this seal of life and death I fix my breath_ _That all the works of my hands That all the passions of my heart That all the wonders of my brain Shall here remain._ _I, Gilgamesh, Rama, Adam I, Phoenician, Saxon, Mayan I, Peasant, Leader, Architect By this reject_ _Perpetual day or night Everlasting rain or drought Eternal struggle or peace Until words cease_ _Between infinite men and gods Between partisan young and old Between ultimate right and wrong For each is strong._ _Let calendar be as record Let monument be as witness Let history here determine Which shall win._ _Then the sky hurled its lightning Then the sea roared its thunder Then the earth reared its fire To show their ire_ _At the vanity of the ego At the rashness of the sower At the folly of the dreamer And redeemer_ _Who would thus destroy the sun Who would thus defy the flood Who would thus pollute the air And showed him there_ _The blinding vision of the truth The deafening echoes of the damned The crashing madness of the plan That he began._ _And when he saw the faces And when he heard the weeping And when he knew the sickness That men possess_ _As mortal children of ambition As transient strangers of desire As fatal victims of perfection Released by none_ _From the essence of the grape From the music of the reed From the incense of the bowl The creature stole_ _The power of forgetfulness The illusion of contentment The promise of exaltation Making them one_ _That the lost and unfulfilled That the laughter and the pain That the glory and defeat Be complete_ _Seeing how frail is the candle Hearing how brief is the song Knowing how soon is the temple Darkened and still._ _Then slipped the root from his feet Then poured the sound from his ears Then blew the light from his eyes And went more wise_ _Into the white and the blue Into the mist and the ice Into the wind and the flame The way he came._ [Editorial note: The author's literary executor discovered in Elizabeth Bartlett's personal autographed hardbound copy of _Behold This Dreamer_ her own marginal notations relating to the next-to-the-last stanza of the above poem, accompanied by her confirming handwritten revision of that stanza. The stanza as printed here incorporates her revision.] _Behold This Dreamer_ is a signed, limited edition designed by the author on Corsican rag paper in Baskerville type ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elizabeth Bartlett (1911-1994) was an American poet and writer noted for her lyrical and symbolic poetry, creation of the new twelve-tone form of poetry, founder of the international non-profit organization Literary Olympics, Inc., and known as an author of fiction, essays, reviews, translations, and as an editor. She is not to be confused with the British poet (1924-2008) of the same name. For more detailed information about her life, work, and critical commendations, see the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bartlett_%28American_poet%29. Bartlett�s most notable achievements include: * Creation of a new form of poetry, "the twelve-tone poem," adapting Arnold Schonberg�s musical system to the verbal, accented sounds of language. Called "the Emily Dickinson of the 20th Century," her concise lyrics have been praised by poets, musicians, and composers alike. * Publication of 16 books of poetry, a group of edited anthologies, and more than 1,000 poems, short stories, and essays published, for example, in _Harper�s_, _Virginia Quarterly_, _New York Times_, _North American Review_, _Saturday Review_, _Prairie Schooner_, and in numerous international collections. * Recipient of many fellowships, grants and awards, including NEA, PEN Syndicate, fellowships at the Huntington Hartford Foundation, Montalvo, Yaddo, MacDowell, Dorland Mt. Colony and Ragdale, travel grants, and honors for introducing literature as part of the Olympics. * Founder of the Literary Olympics, to restore literature, specifically poetry, as a vital part of the Olympics as it once had been in ancient Greece. Bartlett�s poetry came to the attention of leading poets, writers, and critics as diverse as Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Mark Van Doren, Conrad Aiken, Allen Tate, Alfred Kreymborg, Robert Hillyer, Louis Untermeyer, Rolfe Humphries, John Ciardi, Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Robert M. Hutchins, Kenneth Rexroth, William Stafford, and others. Over the years, Bartlett maintained an active and extensive correspondence with eminent poets, writers, and literary critics; evident throughout this collected literary correspondence are strong statements attesting to the importance of her work. _Behold This Dreamer_ was published in Mexico City in 1959. By 1961, Jonathan Williams wrote of the book: "Your language is cultivated, employed consistently and lucidly. To my observation, it seems fair to say that you belong with the best of your generation, which I would say includes May Swenson, Denise Levertov, Garrigue, et al." Louis Untermeyer added his voice: "I particularly like your fusion of observation and whimsicality, as well as your avoidance of the poetic stereotypes." Rolfe Humphries was intrigued by Bartlett�s poetic techniques: "I enjoyed your poems and admire many...." About _Behold This Dreamer_, Gustav Davidson wrote: "I enjoyed reading these poems. I was impressed by their precision, clarity, and technical competence." About the same work, critic Paul Jordan-Smith wrote: "Your poems were begotten of a strong, imaginative sense. My congratulations on this beautiful collection." Elizabeth Bartlett's husband, Paul Alexander Bartlett (1909�1990) was an American writer, artist, and poet. He made a large-scale study of more than 350 Mexican haciendas, published novels, short stories, and poetry, and worked as a fine artist in a variety of media. For more detailed information about his life and work, see the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Alexander_Bartlett . Elizabeth Bartlett�s son, Steven James Bartlett (1945� ), is a psychologist and philosopher who has published many books and articles in the fields of philosophy and psychology. For more detailed information about his life and work, see the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_James_Bartlett.