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III. Loss of InnocenceFirst Day of School- -- -- - -- - - - -- - --- -- - -- - -- - -- -- -- - - -- - - -- - -- -- - -- -- 53Poetry: Gardner, McKay -------------------------------------------- 57Poetry: Mitchell, Nims -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- - -- - --- -- -- - -- -- -- - - -- --- -- - -- - 58Poetry: Dickinson, Owen, ------------------------------------------- 59Poetry: VVilbur------------------------------------------------------ 60Pandora - -- ---- ------------------ -------- ---- --------------- --- ----- - 61Green Gulch--------------------------------------------------------- 64Genesis 3 - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - 65

TIlE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL R. V. Cassill

Thirteen bubbles floated in the milk. Their pearl transparent hemispheresgleamed like souvenirs of the SUlIlII>i!r days just past, rich with blue reflectionsof the sky and of shadowy greens. John Hawkins jabbed the bubble closestto him with his spocn, and it disappeared without a ripple. On the whitesurface there· was no mark of where it had been.

"Stop fooling that oatmeal and eat it," his IllOther said. She glancedmeaningfully at the clock on the va=ished cupboard. She nodded a heavy,emphatic affirmation that now the clock was boss. Summer was over, whenthe gracious oncoming of mo=ing light and the stir of early breezes promisedthat time was a luxury.

"Audrey's not even down yet," he said."Audrey'U be down.""You think she's taking longer to dress because she wants to look nice

today?"She likes to look ~.""What I was thinking," he said slowly, "was that maybe she didn't feel

like going tOday. Didn't feel exactly like it.""Of course she'll go.""I meant she might not want to go until tomo=w, maybe. Until we see

what happens.""Nothing's going to happen," his mother said."I know there ian' t. But what if it did?" Again John swirled the tip

of his spoon in the milk. It was like writing on a surface that would keepno mark.

"Eat and be quiet. Audrey's coming, so let's stop this here kind oftalk."

He heard the tap of heels on the stairs, and his sister came down intothe kitchen. She looked fresh and <:Dol in her white dress. Her lids lookedheavy. She must have slept all right - and for this John felt both envy. anda faint resentment. He had IlOt really slep; since midnight. The heavytraffic in town, the long vail of ho=s as somebody raced in on the U.S.highway holding the horn button down, and the restless =, like the soundof a celebration down in the courthouse square, had ·kept him awake after ~at.

Each time a car had passed their house his breath had gone tight and sluggish.It was better to stay awake and ready, he had told himself, than to becaught asleep.

"Daddy gone?" Audrey asked softly as she took her place a=ss the tablefrom her brother.

"Be's been gone an hour,· their mother answered. "You know what timehe has to be at the mine.·

"She means, did he go to work today?" John said. His voice had risenimpatiently. He met his mother's stout gaze in a staring contest, tryingto make her admit by at least some flicker of expression that today vasdifferent from any other day. "I thought he might be down at Reveren6Specker's," John said. "Cal's father and Vonnie's and some of the othersare going to be there to wait and see."

Maybe his DlOther smiled then. If so, the smile was so faint that hecould not be sure. ·You know your father ian't Illt1ch of a hand for waiting,·she said. "Eat. It's a quarter past eight."

As he spooned the warm oatmeal into his IllOUth he heard the rain crowcalling again from the trees beyond the railroad embankment. He had heardit since the first light came before dawn, and he had thought, Maybe the birdknows it's going to rain, after all. He hoped it would. They won't come outin the rain, he had thought. Not sO many of them, at least. He could wear

a raincoat. A raincoat might help him feel more protected on the walk toschool. It would be a sort of disguise, at least.

But since dawn the sun had lain acress the green Kentucky trees andthe roofs of town like a clean, hard fire. The sky was as clear as fresh­washed window glass. The rain crew was wrong about the weather. And still,John thought, its lamenting, repeated call must mean something.

His mother and Audrey were talking about the groceries she was tobring when she came. ho~ from s.dJ.ool at lunch time. A five-pound bag ofsugar, a fresh pineapple, a pound of butter •

"Listenl" John said. Downtown the sound of a siren had begun. A volleyof automobile homs breke around it as if they meant to drown it out."Listen to them."

"It's only the National Guard, I expect," his mother said calmly. "Theycame in early this moming before light. And it may be some foolish kidshonking at them, the way they would. Audrey, if Henry doesn't have a good­looking roast, why then let it go, and I'll walk out to Weaver's this after­noon and get one there. I wanted to have something a little bit special forour dinner tonight."

So ••• John thought ••• she wasn't asleep last night either. Someonehad come stealthily to the house to bring his parents word about the NationaIGuard. That meant they knew about the others who had come into town, too.Maybe all through the night there had been a swift passage of messengersthrough the neighborhood and a whispering of information that his mothermeant to keep from him. Your folks told you, he reflected bitterly, thatnothing is better than knowing. Knowing whatever there is in this world tobe known. That was why you had to be one of the half dozen kids out of somenine hundred colored of school age who were going today to start classes at)joseph P. Gilmore High instead of at Webster. Knowing and learning the truthwere worth so IllUch they said - and then left it to the hooting rain crow totell you that things were worse than everybody had hoped.

Something had gone wrong, bad enough wrong so the National Guard had. tobe called out.

"It's eight twenty-five," his mother said. "Did you get that snapsewed on right, Audrey?" As her experienced fingers examined the shoulderof Audrey's dress, they lingered a moment in aa involuntary, shelteringcaress. "It's all arranged," she told her children, "how you'll walk downto the Baptist Church and meet the others there. You' know there'll beReverend Chader, Reverend smith, and Mr. Hall to go with you. It may bethat the white ministers will go with you, or they may be waiting at school.We don't know. But now you be sure, don't you go farther than the BaptistCbI1rch alone." Carefully she lifted her hand clear of Audrey's shoulder.John thought, Why doesn't she hug her if that's what she wants to do?

He pushed away from the table and went out on the front porch. Thedazzling sunlight lay shadowless on the street that swept down toward theBaptist Church at the edge of the colored section. The street seemed awfullylong this moming, the way it had looked when he was little. A chicken waSclucking contentedly behind their neighbor's house, feeling the warmth,settling itself into the sun-warmed dust. Lucky chickenl

He blinked at the sun's glare on the concrete steps leading down fromthe porch. He remembered something else from the time he was little•. oncehe had kicked Audrey's doll buggy down these same steps. He had done itout of meanness - for some silly reason he had been mad at her. But as soonas the buggy had started to bump down, he had understood how te=ible it wasnot to be able to run after it and stop it. It had gathered speed at each

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step and when it hit the sidewalk it had spilled over. Audrey's doll hadsmashed into sharp little pieces on the sidewalk below. His mother hadcome out of the house to find him crying harder than Audrey. "Now you knowthat when something gets out of your hands it is in th_e Devil' shands," hismother had explained to him. Did she expect him to forget - now - thatthat was always the way things went to smash when they got out of hand?Again he heard the siren and the hooting, mocking iloms from the center oftown. Didn't his mother think they CXluld get out of hand?

He closed his eyes and seemed to see something like a doll buggy bumpdown long steps like those at Joseph P. Gilmore High, and it seemed tohim that it was not a doll that was riding down to be smashed.

He made up his mind then. He would go today, because he had said hewould. Therefore he had to. But he wouldn't go unless Audrey stayed home.That was going to be his CXlndition. His bargaining looked perfect. Hewould trade them one for one.

His mother and Audrey came together onto the porch. His mother said,"My stars, I forgot to give lOu the money for the groceries." She let thescreen door bang as she went swiftly back into the house.

As soon as they were alone, he took Audrey's bare arm in his hand andpinched bUd. "You gotta stay home," he whispered. "Don't you know there'sthousands of people down there? Didn't you hear them coming in all night··long? You slept, didn't you? All right. You can hear them now. Tell heryou're sick. She won't expect you to go if you're sick.. I'll knock youdown, I' 11 smash you if you don't teil her that.' He bared his teeth andtwisted his nails into the skin of her arm. "Hear them ho=s?" he hissed.

He forced her half way to her knees with the strength of his fear andrage. They swayed there, locked for a minute. Her knee dropped to theporch floor. She lowered" her eyes. He thought he had won.

But she was saying something and in spite of himself he listened to heralmost -nispered refusal. "Don't .you know anything? Don't you know it.',sharder for them than us? Don't you know Daddy didn't go to the mine thislIIO=ing? They laid him off on account of us. They told him not to come ifwe went to school."

Uncertainly he relaxed _his grip. "How do you know all that?""I listen," she said. Her eyes lit with ill sudden spark that seemed to

come from theii absolute brown depths. "But I don't let on all I know theway you do. I'm not a • • •• Her last word sunk so low that he could notexaCtly hear it. But if his ear missed it, his understanding caught it.He knew she had said "coward."

He let her go then. She was standing beside him serene and prim whentheir IIIOther came out on the porch again.

"Here child," their .mother said to Audrey, counting the dollar billsinto her hand. "There' s six, and I guess it will be all right if you havesome left if you and Brother get yourselves a cone to lick on the way home."

John was not looking at his sister then. He was already turning toface the shadowless street, t he heard the =istakable poised amusementof her voice when she said, " ,don't you know we're a little too old forthat?"

"Yes, you are," their moth..ar said. "Seems I had forgotten that."They were too old to take ,~ach other's hand, either, as they went down

the steps of their home into the >ttreet. As they turned to the right, facingthe sun. they heard the chattering of a tank's tread on the pavement by theschool. A voice too distant to be understood bawled a military command. There

were hams again and a crescendo of boos.Behind them they heard their lOOther call something. It was lost in

the general racket."What?" John called back to her. "What?"She had followed them out as far as the sidewalk, but not past the

gate. As they hesitated to listen, she put her hands to either side ofher lIIOuth and called to them the words she had so often used when she letthem go away from home.

"Behave yourselves,' she said.

\

LOSS OF INNOCENCE

Little Rock, Arkansas 1957 - Isabella Gardnerdedicated to the nine children

Clasping like bucklers to their bodies, books,nine children move through blasts of killing looks.Committed to this battle, each child dares,deliberately, the fusillades of jeers.Their valor iron in their ironed clothes,they walk politely in their polished shoesdown ambushed halls to classrooms sown with minesto learn their lesson. Obviously nine'sa carefully calculated number, oddnot even, a suave size that can be add-ed to, discreetly, later, or culled nowshould one child break not bend; or fail to bowsufficiently his bloody head... a ruleto heed, child, be you black and going to school.

If We Must Die - Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.If we must die, 0 let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shedIn vain; then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!o kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

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Woodstock - Joni Mitchell

I came upon a child of God; he was walking along the roadAnd I asked him, "Where are you going?" This he told me:"I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm, Gonna join in a rock and roll band.I'm gonna camp out on the land and try'n get my soul free."

CHORUS: We are stardust, we are goldenAnd we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

"Then can I walk beside you? I have come here to lose the smogAnd feel to be a cog in something turning.Maybe it is just the time of the year, or maybe it's the time of man.I don't know who I am, but life is for learning."

CHORUS: We are stardust, we are goldenAnd we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strongAnd everywhere was song and celebration.And I dreamed I saw the bombers riding shotgun in the sky,Turning into butterflies above our nation.

CHORUS: We are stardust, billion year old carbonCaught in the devil's bargainAnd we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

A.D. 2267 - John Frederick Nims

Once on the gritty moon (burnt earth hung farIn the black, rhinestone sky - lopsided star),Two gadgets, with great fishbowls for a head,Feet clubbed, hips loaded, shoulders bent. She said,"Fantasies haunt me. A green garden. TwoLovers aglow in flesh. The pools so blue!"He whirrs with masculinity pity, "Can't forgetOld superstitions? the earth-legend yet?"

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Eden Is That Old-Fashioned House - Emily Dickinson

Eden is that old-fashioned HouseWe dwell in every dayWithout suspecting our abodeUntil we drive away.

How fair on looking back, the DayWe sauntered from the Door ­Unconscious our returning,But discover it no more.

Arms and the Boy - Wilfred Owen

Let the boy try along this bayonet-bladeHow cold steel is, and keen with hunger for blood;Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leadsWhich long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads,Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;And God will grow no talons at his heels,Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

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----'

Boy at the Window - Richard Wilbur

Seeing the snowman standing all aloneIn dusk and cold is more than he can bear.The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepareA night of gnashings and enormous moan.His tearful sight can hardly reach to whereThe pale-faced figure with bitumen eyesReturns him such a god-forsaken stareAs outcast Adam gave to Paradise.The man of snow is, nonetheless, content,Having no wish to go inside and die.Still, he is moved to see the youngster cryThough frozen water is his element,He melts enough to drop from one soft eyeA trickle of the purest rain, a tearFor the child at the bright pane

surrounded bySuch warmth, such light, such love, and

so much fear.

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Pandora - A Greek myth retold by W. T. Jewkes

It was not enough for Zeus that Prometheus be punished; the father ofgods knew that man also bore some responsibility for the act of defiance.So the cloud-gatherer sent for Hephaestus, the blacksmith of Olympus.

"Hephaestus," he thundered, "as the price of the fire which men havereceived from Prometheus, I am resolved to give them an evil thing,something that they will cherish and take delight in, but that will bringthem unending grief. Go back to your workshop and set to work. Takeearth and plaster it with water, infuse into it a human voice, breathe into itthe breath of life. Make limbs that move, beautiful limbs like those of asupple young girl, and a face like that of an immortal goddess. Let Athenahelp you; tell her I want her to teach this woman her household arts, andespecially how to do intricate weaving. And then put Aphrodite to work,filling her heart with desire and longing and words of golden endearment.And see that you leave her head empty, ready for my gift."

So, while the lame smith hobbled away to his workshop, Zeus himselfset to work on a project of his own. He found a large jar with a lid, and init he imprisoned all the Spites that might plague mankind - Old Age,Labor, Madness, Sickness, Hunger, Treachery - all the troubles that couldcome upon man, day or night. This he set to one side, and waited forHephaestus. .

Meanwhile, back in his workshop, the lame smith took a large tub ofclay, and began to work and model it in the likeness of a graceful younggirl. When he had finished, he called Athena to come and dress her, andthe Graces to array her with necklaces and dazzling gold ornaments. TheSeasons combed out her beautiful black tresses and put on her head acoronal of spring flowers. Then the four Winds came from the comers ofthe earth and breathed life into her. Last of all, Hermes came to view thework. The herald of the gods put a soft, persuasive voice in her and gaveher the name Pandora, which signified that the Olympian gods had eachgiven her a gift. And Zeus laughed long and loud when he saw how wellhis fellow-gods had carried out his wishes. It was some satisfaction tothink that this bewitching, enticing creature would bring misery ondisobedient man.

"Hermes," he roared, "she is superb! She will suit my plan toperfection. Now she is ready for my gift."

And the cloud-gatherer took his gift, fatal curiosity, placed it on hishand, and blew thunderously. Off flew the treacherous gift and enteredinto Pandora's head. Zeus laughed again and turned to Hermes.

"Now, slayer of Argos, it is fitting that you get the honor of taking herto that slow-witted brother of Prometheus. You mustn't let him know what

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a deceptive-looking bargain she is. Tell him that I am sending her to himto show my good will. And take this jar along with you as a personal giftfrom me."

So off Hermes sped, propelled by his winged sandals across the heavens,with Pandora in his arms, and the jar strapped to his side. In no time at allhe had met up with Epimetheus, who was sitting with his head in his hands,sadly meditating on his poor brother's fate.

"Epimetheus," said the messenger of the gods as he alighted beside him,"why so gloomy? You look as though you'd lost your best friend."

"I have," replied Epimetheus. "Prometheus is more than a friend to me;he is a brother. I don't know how I'll get along without him. It is just tooterrible. To think that Zeus could be so vengeful."

"Well, there is an end to his anger, anyway," declared Hermes. "Look,I have brought this woman for you, at his request. It is his way of tryingto ease the pain he has caused you by punishing Prometheus."

Epimetheus had already found that he was unable to take his eyes off thedazzlingly beautiful young woman who stood beside Hermes, smiling in avery friendly and enticing way at him. He wasn't sure he was even hearingHermes aright.

"Did you say she has been sent for me?" he asked, in a daze. "For me?""That's what I said. Zeus wants her to be your wife."Somewhere in the very back of his mind, among misty memories, there

stirred the echo of something Prometheus had once said to his brother:"Remember, Epimetheus, never accept anything that Zeus may send as agift to you. The father of gods often intends evil to mankind, and there isno telling how he might try to disguise his purpose." But it was only anecho, a far-back faint voice, and poor Epimetheus's head was stillswimming from the vision of dark hair and flashing eyes that stood beforehim.

Surely even Prometheus would have admitted that a woman as beautifulas Pandora could not be part of an evil plot. Now the jar - that wassomething different. Who knew what it contained, closed tightly by thatlid. That indeed might be a trick.

"What is her name?" he finally managed to ask."Pandora," replied Hermes."Does she want to be my wife?""Yes she does. Can't you see how much she likes you?""Well," Epimetheus declared, "I never thought I'd have such luck!"So it was settled. They were married, and Epimetheus took her to liv'~

with him. And he found that besides being beautiful, it was very pleasantto have her around, even if she was inclined to chatter a good deal, andneeded a firm hand at times when she was minded to be willful.

One day, as she was restlessly wandering around the courtyard, Pandora

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noticed the beautiful urn standing on a low wall."Oh, husband," she cried, stroking its smooth, curved sides, "what a

beautiful jar! Where did it come from?""Oh, that? Hermes brought it when he brought you,. It's a personal

gift from Zeus.""But why do you keep it covered?" she went on, trying to remove the

tight-fitting cover from the jar."Don't take off that lid!" shouted Epimetheus, jumping up and snatching

back -her hand."But why not?" she pouted. \"Because I suspect something is wrong with that jar. Zeus sent it as a

personal gift, and my brother Prometheus warned me about the danger ofgifts from Zeus. And Prometheus always was smarter than 1. So it's bestthat we do what he asked."

But Pandora was not to be put off by her husband's cautions."Sometimes I think he is just plain stupid!" she mused that evening as

she looked once again at the intriguing jar. "Or maybe he does it just tospite me. I simply can't go on not knowing what the inside of that jar islike."

She looked around the shadowy courtyard, and seeing that no one wasnear, she took the jar fmnly in one hand, while with the other she workedat the lid. It was stiff, but it began to give. Then, suddenly, it came looseon one edge. At once there issued a fearsome noise, wild groans andshrieks, and a terrible smell like burning sulfur. There followed a dank,rushing wind from the jar, and black shapes sprang forth and began to biteand pinch at the poor girl. In terror she dropped back the lid and began toscream. Almost at once Epimetheus came at a run to see what was thematter, and he too was attacked before he could reach her. smarting withthe pain of the nips and pinches, he grabbed Pandora by the arm, draggedher into the nearest room, and slammed and barred the door.

"Oh, husband," sobbed the terrified young woman, "you came just intime!"

"No," replied Epimetheus, shaking his head. "Too late, Pandora, toolate. You've ruined everything now."

But though neither of them knew it at the time, Pandora had not quiteruined everything. When Zeus had been imprisoning all those Spites in thejar, something else had sneaked in unknown to him, and had settled right tothe bottom.

And though she had let the Spites loose from the jar, Pandora had alsoreleased the one thing that would comfort men through ages of anxiety.This was Hope.

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Green Gulch- by Loran EiseleyWe stood in a wide flat field at sunset. For the life of me I can

remember no other children before them. I must have run away and beenplaying by myself until I had wandered to the edge of town. They wereolder than I and knew where they came from and how to get back. I joinedthem.

They were not going home. They were going to a place called GreenGulch. They came from some other part of town, and their clothes wererough, their eyes worldly and sly. I think, looking back, that it must havebeen a little like a child following goblins home to their hill at nightfall,but nobody threatened me. Besides, I was very small and did not know theway home, so I followed them.

Presently we came to some rocks. The place was well named. It was ahuge pool in a sandstone basin, green and dark with the evening over it andthe trees leaning secretly inward above the water. When you looked down,you saw the sky. I remember that place as it was when we came there. Iremember the quiet and the green ferns touching the green water. Iremember we played there, innocently at first.

But someone found the spirit of the place, a huge old turtle, asleep inthe ferns. He was the last lord of the green water before the town pouredover it. I saw his end. They pounded him to death with stones on theother side of the pool while I looked on in stupefied horror. I had neverseen death before.

Suddenly, as I stood there small and uncertain and frightened, a grimysplattered gnome who had been stooping over the turtle stood up with arock in his hand. He looked at me, and around that little group somecurious evil impulse passed like a wave. I felt it and drew back. I wasalone there. They were not human.

I do not know who threw the fust stone, who splashed water over mysuit, who struck me first, or even who finally, among that ring of viciousfaces, put me on my feet, dragged me to the roadside, pointed and saidroughly, "There's your road, kid, follow the street lamps. They'll take youhome."

They stood in a little group watching me, nervous now, ashamed a littleat the ferocious pack impulse toward the outsider that had swept over them.

I never forgot that moment.I went because I had to, down that road with the wind moving in the

fields. I went slowly from one spot of light to another and in between Ithought the things a child thinks, so that I did not stop at any house nor askanyone to help me when I came to the lighted streets.

I had discovered evil. It was a monstrous and corroding knowledge. Itcould not be told to adults because it was the evil of childhood in which noone believes. I was alone with it in the dark.

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Genesis 3 - the BibleNow the serpent was more

subtle than any other wildcreature that the LORD God hadmade. He said to the woman, "DidGod say, 'You shall not eat of anytree of the garden?'" And thewoman said to the serpent, "Wemay eat of the fruit of the trees ofthe garden; but God said, 'Youshall not eat of the fruit of the treewhich is in the midst of thegarden, neither shall you touch it,lest you die.''' But the serpentsaid to the woman, "You will notdie. For God knows that whenyou eat of it your eyes will beopened, and you will be like God,knowing good and evil." So whenthe woman saw that the tree wasgood for food, and that it was adelight to the eyes, and that thetree was to be desired to make onewise, she took of its fruit and ate;and she also gave some to herhusband, and he ate. Then theeyes of both were opened, andthey knew that they were naked;and they sewed fig leaves togetherand made themselves aprons.

And they heard the sound ofthe LORD God walking in thegarden in the cool of the day, andthe man and his wife hidthemselves from the presence ofthe LORD God among the trees ofthe garden. But the LORD Godcalled to the man and said to him,"Where are you?" And he said "Iheard the sound of thee in thegarden, and I was afraid, becauseI was naked; and I hid myself."

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He said, "Who told you that youwere naked? Have you eaten ofthe tree of which of which Icommanded you not to eat?" Theman said, "The woman whomthou gavest to be with me, shegave me fruit of the tree, and Iate." Then the LORD God said tothe woman, "What is this that youhave done?" The woman said,"The serpent beguiled me, and Iate." The LORD God said to theserpent,

"Because you have done this,cursed are you above all cattle,and above all wild animals;upon your belly you shall go,and dust you shall eatall the days of your life.I will put enmity between you

and the woman,and between your seed and her

seed;he shall bruise your head,and you shall bruise his heel."To the woman he said,"I will greatly multiply your

pain in childbearing;in pain you shall bring forth

your childrenyet your desire shall be for

your husband,and he shall rule over you."And to Adam he said,"Because you have listened to

the voice of your wife,and have eaten of the tree of

which I commanded you,'You shall not eat of it.'cursed is the ground because of

you;in toil you shall eat of it all the

days of your life;thorns and thistles it shall bring

forth to you;and you shall eat the plants of

the field.In the sweat of your face you

shall eat breadtill you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;you are dust and to dust you

shall return."The man called his wife's name

Eve, because she was the motherof all living. And the LORD Godmade for Adam and for his wifegarments of skins, and clothedthem.

Then the LORD God said,"Behold, the man has become like

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one of us, knowing good and evil;and now, lest he put forth his handand take also of the tree of life,and eat, and live forever" ­therefore the LORD God sent himforth from the garden of Eden, totill the ground from which he wastaken. He drove out the man; andat the east of the garden of Eden,he placed the cherubim, and aflaming sword which turned everyway, to guard the way to the treeof life.

Now Adam knew Eve his wife,and she conceived and bore Cain, ­saying, "I have gotten a man withthe help of the LORD." Andagain, she bore his brother Abel.

· .,

from The Song of Solomon ­from the Bible

The voice of my beloved!Behold, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains,bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle,or a young stag.

Behold, there he standsbehind our wall,

gazing in at the windows,looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me:'Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away;for 10, the winter is past,

the rain is over and gone.The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing has come,and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one,and come away.

o my dove, in the clefts of therock,

in the covert of the cliff,let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,and your face is comely,

Catch us the foxes,the little foxes,

that spoil the vineyards,for our vineyards are In

blossom."

LOVE

My beloved is mine and I am hishe pastures his flock among the

lilies.Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,tum, my beloved, be like agazelle,

or a young stag upon ruggedmountains -What is your beloved more thananother beloved,

o fairest among women?What is your beloved more thananother beloved,

that youths adjure us?

My beloved is all radiant andruddy,

distinguished among tenthousand.His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,black as a raven.

His eyes are like dovesbeside springs of water,bathed in milk,fitly set.

His cheeks are like beds of spices,yielding fragrance.

His lips are lilies,distilling liquid myrrh.

His arms :ir~ rounded gold,set wirh jewels.

His body i~; ivory work,encrusted with sapphires.

His legs are alabaster columns,set upon bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,choice as the cedars.

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