(from Joseph Cornell "Shadowplay Eterniday")
Cornell had a very unique sense of time. Hourglasses are a perfect visual metaphor, and he certainly had some hourglasses, little toy ones and so on. His Sand Fountains express the idea that time runs off. There's a very different feeling between the fountains that have an intact cordial glass and the ones that are broken, where some sand is lost and spilled back into what the Greeks call the "kloaka maxima," the space where everything is, in an unorganized way.
****
"Artist who work with found materials are frequently described as making something out of nothing. This characterization is based on the estimation that the salvaged materials are ordinary, their value transitory or forgotten, and their existence ephemeral until the artist has intervened and provided them with a new reality or reason for being. Cornell's interest in the ordinary and fleeting was so elevated that he named it the "metaphysique d'ephemera," suggesting that literal things can create an elaborate and subtle form of magic."
p.23
***
"The key concept in this search is "eterniday," Cornell's much-repeated designation for a fusion of the timeless and the daily, similar in some respects to the universal "Bloomsday" memorialized in James Joyce's Ulysses, and reminiscent of St. Augustine's apostrophe to his Lord, "Your today is followed by no tomorrow and comes after no yesterday. Your today is eternity..."
p.40
***
"Christian theology, though it readily embraced the eternal, could not utterly dismiss time as it is commonly experienced -- as one thing after another, in irreversible sequence and duration. In fact, the Christian pageant of redemption -- whether played out individually in the life of each sinner, or collectively in the great biblical juggernaut that proceeds from Creation to Apocalypse -- requires temporal "extension," an unfolding of eternal truth in and through earthly time. This paradox is epitomized in the mystery of the Incarnation, in which the eternal Christ, plunged into flesh as the historical person of Jesus, is at once wholly human and wholly divine."
p.41
***
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
--T.S. Eliot
***
"Time as it flows, is so much time wasted and nothing can ever truly be possessed save under the aspect of eternity which is also the aspect of Art....Yes, art because it gives the past a form, saves it from change and disintegration."
--Proust
***The Rest of Your Life
Adrienne Rich
Dear Adrienne:
I'm calling you up tonight
as I might call up a friend
as I might call up a ghost
to ask what you intend to do
with the rest of your life.
Sometimes you act
as if you have all the time there is.
I worry about you when I see this....
I hope you've got something in mind.
I hope you have some idea
about the rest of your life.
In sisterhood,
Adrienne
Contradictions: Tracking Poems 6
***
The Story of Kirzai
Long ago there was a young merchant named Kirzai whose business called him one day to travel to the village of Tchigan two hundred kilometers away. Ordinarily, he would have taken the route that followed along the edge of the mountains, enabling him to make most of his journey protected from the sun. But on this occasion Kirzai was under the pressure of time; it was urgent that he get to Tchigan as soon as possible. And so he decided to strike out directly across the Syr Daya desert. The Syr Daya is known for the intensity of its sun and very few dare to venture across it. Nevertheless, Kirzai watered his camel, filled his gourds and set off on his journey.
Several hours after he left, the desert wind began to rise. Kirzai grumbled to himself and quickened the pace of his camel. Suddenly he stopped, stupefied. About a hundred meters ahead of him there rose up a giant whirlwind. Never had Kirzai seen anything like it. It cast a strange purple light all around it; even the color of the sand was changed.
Kirzai hesitated. Should he make a lengthy detour in order to avoid this strange apparition or should he continue straight ahead? Kirzai was in a great hurry; he felt he did not have the time to take the slower path, so he lowered his head, hunched his shoulders and advanced forward. To his surprise, the moment he entered the storm everything became much calmer. The wind no longer cut so sharply against his face. He felt pleased that he had made the right decision.
But suddenly he was compelled to stop again. A few steps ahead a man lay stretched upon the ground next to a crouching camel. Kirzai immediately dismounted to see what was wrong. The man's head was wrapped in a scarf, but Kirzai could tell that he was old.
The old man opened his eyes, looked at Kirzai intently for a moment and then said in a hoarse whisper: "Is it ... you?" Kirzai laughed and shook his head. He said, "What? Don't tell me you know who I am? Has my fame spread to the desert of Syr Daya? But you, old man, who are you?"
The man said nothing. Kirzai continued: "In any case, you are not well. Where are you going?" The old man sighed, "To Givah ... but I have no more water." Kirzai reflected. He could certainly share some of his water with the old man, but if he did he risked running out of water himself. But he could not just leave him. A man is not a dog to be left dying without a backward glance.
To devil with my plans, Kirzai thought. I need only find my way to the path along the mountains if I need more water. A human life counts more than a business appointment! He helped the old man drink some water, filled one of his gourds and then helped him mount his camel. "Go straight ahead that way," he said, pointing with his finger, "and you'll be in Givah within two hours."
The old man made a sign of acknowledgment with his hands. Before leaving, he looked for a long moment at Kirzai and uttered these strange words: "One day the desert will repay you." He then spurred his camel in the direction that Kirzai had indicated. Kirzai continued his journey. The opportunity that had been waiting for him in Tchigan was no doubt lost, but he felt at peace with himself.
Time passed. Thirty years later Kirzai's business took him continually back and forth between Givah and Tchigan. He did not become rich, but what he earned was enough to provide a good life for his family. He did not ask for more than that.
****
One day, when Kirzai was selling hides at the market place in Tchigan, he learned that his son was gravely ill. It was urgent that he go to him immediately. Kirzai did not hesitate. He remembered the shortcut across the desert that he had wanted to take thirty years before. He watered his camel, filled his gourds and set off. Along the way he battled against time, spurring his camel unceasingly. He did not stop or even slow down while drinking, and because of that the accident occurred. His gourd suddenly fell from his hands, and before he was able to get down to retrieve it the water disappeared into the sand. Kirzai cursed out loud! With only one full gourd it was impossible to cross the desert. But, thinking of his son, the old man pushed himself onward: "I must do it, I will do it!"
The sun of the Syr Daya desert is merciless. It cares little why or for what purposes a man tries to brave its rays; it blazes unremittingly with always the same power and intensity. Kirzai soon realized that he had made a great mistake. His tongue became parched; his skin burned. His only remaining gourd was already empty. And now, to his dismay, he saw a sandstorm was beginning. Kirzai wrapped his head in his scarf, closed his eyes and let his camel carry him forward where it would. He was no longer conscious of anything.
A gigantic whirlwind now rose up in front of him. It gave off a soft purple light, but Kirzai remained nearly unconscious and saw nothing. His camel entered into the whirlwind, advanced a few steps and then abruptly sat down. Kirzai tumbled onto the ground. "I'm finished," he thought. "My son will never see me again!"
All at once, however, he gave a cry of joy. A man mounted on a camel was moving toward him. But the closer the man came, the more Kirzai's joy turned to stupefaction. This man who was now dismounting from his camel -- Kirzai knew him! He recognized his youthful face, his clothes -- even the camel he was riding! A camel that Kirzai himself had bought for two valuable vases many years before.
Kirzai was certain: the young man who had come to help him was himself! It was Kirzai himself as he was thirty years before! "Is it ... you?" Kirzai said in a hoarse whisper. The young man looked at him and laughed. "What?" he asked. "Don't tell me you know who I am? Has my fame spread to the desert of the Syr Daya? But you, old man, who are you?"
Kirzai did not answer. He did not know what to do. Should he tell the young man who he was, or say nothing about it? Meanwhile the young man went on: "In any case you are not well. Where are you going?"
"To Givah," Kirzai replied. "But I have no more water." Kirzai saw that the young man was weighing the situation to himself and knew exactly what was going through his mind: should he help Kirzai or continue on his own business? But Kirzai also knew what the decision would be and he smiled as he watched the young man offering him a drink of water. The young man then filled his empty gourd, helped him on his camel and pointed his finger: "Go straight ahead that way and you'll be in Givah within two hours."
The old Kirzai looked a long moment at the young man he had once been and made a sign of acknowledgment to him. He would have wished to speak to the young man of many things, but could only find these words: "One day the desert will repay you."
And then he hastened off to Givah where his son awaited him. Kirzai grew to be a wise man, respected by all. And when he would tell his strange tale, everyone who heard it believed him. Ever since that time the desert of Syr Daya has been known by the name Samovstrecha, which means: the desert where one meets oneself.
-- excerpted from Time and the Soul , by Jacob Needleman
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