In the catacomb of my mind
Where the dead endure—a kingdom
I conjure by love to rise
— Samuel Menashe, as quoted by
Stephen Spender in a review of four
different poets, "The Last Ditch,"
The New York Review of Books , July 22, 1971
"…the ghost reveals that the beggar
is in fact a sorcerer, a necromancer
who is preparing the mandala in order
to achieve an evil end. The ascetic
intends to bind the ghost to the corpse,
place it in the center of the circle,
and worship it as a deity."
— The King and the Corpse (from synopsis in
"How Many Facets Can a Non-Existent Jewel Have?")
Menashe died on Monday, August 22, 2011.
Related material by and for two other poets
who also died on Monday:
- By Jerry Leiber— "Love Potion #9"
-
For Nick Ashford— Nicole Kidman in
Sermon (from Jan. 9) and
Conjure Wife, a 1943 tale by Fritz Leiber
See also an excerpt from Kerouac I cached on Monday, and
Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail .