The

Lost Lunar

Baedeker

PODIUS OF

Mina Lny

DDITED BY NOGf,R I,. CONOVDN

,!

i

I

II

I

ii

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CARCAN ET

FRONTISPIECE

Mina Iny, 1909. Stephen Howeis photograph.

F;tst puhlkhed by Fanar, Strcus tt Ciroux, lnc., New York.

First publkhed in Cteat Bitain in 1997 by

Carcanet Press Limited4th Floor, Conauon Court

1 2- 1 6 BlackJriars Street

Manchester M3 5BQ

Introduction and edition copyight@ Rrrger L. Conouer 1995Works rtf Mina l-oy copyight @ The Estate of Mina Loy 1996

The ight oJ Roger L. Conouer to be identifed as the editorof this work has been asserted by him in aaordance with the

Copyr;ght, Designs and Patents Aet oJ 1988.All nghts reseoetl.

A CIP record Jor this book

k availablefrom the Britkh Library.ISBN I 85754 326 2

The publbher acknowledges fnancial assistanee

Jrom the Aru Council oJ England.

ffiPrinted and bound by Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastbourne

Thi^s book is Mina Loy's to giae

to Arthur Crauan, toella Bayer, and Fabienne Bencdict.

With their blessing, it is also for Case, Strand, and, Anna

LLti in f'lnr"nrn- ro. l9t)9, Stephen Hauets photogroph

iCollet'tion Rog"r ['. Oonoter'i

Songs to Joannes

I

Spawn of Fantasies

Silting the appraisable

Pig Cupid his rosv snout

Rooting erotic garbage

"Once upon a time"Pulls a weed white star-toPPed

Among wild oats sown in mucous-membrane

I would an eve in a Bengal lightEternity in a sky-rocketConstellations in an ocean

Whose rivers run no fresher

Than a trickle of saliva

These are suspect Plac,es

I must live in my ianternTrirnming subliminal fl ickerVirginal to the bellows

Of ExperienceColoured glass

II

The skin-sackln which a wanton dualityPackedAll the completion of mv inli"uctuous impulses

Something the shape of a man

To the casual vulgaritv of the rnerell obsen'ant

More of a c]ock-work mechanism

Running dorvn against timeTo'which I am not paced

My finger-tips are numb from fretting your hairA God's door-mat

On the threshold of vour rnind

III

We rnight have r:oupled

In the bed-ridden monopolv of a moment

Or broken flesh u'ith one another

At the profane comrnunion tableWhere rvine is spili'd on promiscuous lips

We might have given birth to a butter{yWith the dailv news

Prinled in blood on it* 'a ings

IV

f)nce in a mezzanino

The starry'ceilingVaulted an unimaginable familyBird-like aborlionsWith human throats

And Wisdom's eyes

Who wore lamp-shade red dresses

And woolen hair

One bore a baby

In a padded porte-enfantTied with a sarsenet ribborrTo her goose's wings

But for the abominahle shadows

I would ha-re iived

Among their fearful lurnilureTo teach them to tell me their seerets

Before I guessed.-Sweeping the brood clean out

Midnight empties the street

Of all but us

ThreeI arn undecided which way back

To the left a boy

-One wing has been washed in the rain

The other wili never be clean any more-Pulling door-bells to remindThose that are snug

To the right a haloed asceticThreading houses

Probes wounds for souls

--The poor can't wash in hot water--And I don't know which turning to takeSince you got home to yourself-first

VI

I know the Wire-Puller intimatelyAnd if it were not for the peopleOn whom you keep one eveYou could look straight at meAnd Time would be set back

VII

My pair of feetSmack the flag-stonesThat are something left over from your walkingThe wind stuffs the scum of the white street

Into my lungs and my nostrilsExhilarated birdsProlonging flight into the nightNever reachitg-* --

VII]

I am the iealous store-house of the candle-endsThat lit your adolescent leaming

Behind Cod's eyesThere mightBe other lights

iX

When we liftedOur eye-lids on LoveA cosmos

Of coloured 'roicesAnd laughing honey

And spermatozoaAt the core of NothingIn the milk of the Moon

X

Shuttie-cock and battle-doorA little pink-loveAnd {'eathers are strewn

XI

Dear one at your mercyOur Universetrs onl,-i,

A colnrless onionYou derobeSheath by sheath

RernainingA disheartening odour

About your nervy hands

XII

Voices break on the con{ines of passion

Desire Suspicion Man Woman

Solve in the humid carnage

Flesh from fleshI)raws the inseparable delightKissing at gasps to catch it

Is it trueThat I have set you apart

Inviolate in an utter crystallization0{ all the jolting of the crowd

Taught me willingly to live to share

Or are you

Only the other halfOf an ego's necessityScourging pride with compassionTo the shallow sound of dissonance

And boom of cscaping breath

XIII

Come to me There is somethingI have got to tell you and I can't teiiSomething taking shape

Sornething that has a new name

A rrew dimension

A new useA new illusion

It is ambient And it is in your eyesSomething shinv Something only for you

Something that I must not see

It is in my ears Something very resonantSomething that you must not hear

Something only for me

Let us be very jealousVery suspiciousVery conservativeVery cruelOr we might make an end of the jostling of aspirationsDisorb inviolate egos

Where two or three are welded togetherThey shall become god

Oh that's rightKeep away from me Please give me a pushDon't let me understand you Don't realise meOr we might tumble togetherDepersonalizedIdenticaiInto the terrific NirvanaMe you -- you

XIV

Toda_v

Everlasting passing apparent imperceptibleTo youI bring the nascent virginity of

-Myself for the moment

L-

No love or the other thing

Only the impat--t of lighted bodies

Knocking sparks o{f each other

In chaos

XV

Seldom Trying for Love

Fantasy dealt them out as gods

Two or three men looked onlY human

But you alone

Superhuman apparentlY

I had to be caught in the weak eddY

0f your drivelling humanitY

To love you most

XVI

We might have lived together

In the lights of the Arno

Or gone apple stealing under the sea

Or playedHide and seek in love and cob-webs

And a lullaby on a tin-pan

And talked till there were no more tongues

To talk withAnd never have known any better

XVII

I don't care

Where the legs of the legs of the furniture are walking toOr what is hidden in the shadows they stride

Or what would look at me

If the shutters were not shut

Red a warm r:olour orr

Heavl' on my knees as athe battle-fieldcountefpane

Count counterI counted the fringe oJ'the towelTill trvo tassels clinging togetherl,et the square room fall awavFrom a round vacuumDilating with mv breath

Out of the severing

Of hill from hillThe interim0f star from starThe nascentStatic0f night

XIX

Nothing so conservingAs cool cleavingNote of the Q H UClear carvingRreath-givinePollen smeiiingSpace

White teliing0f siakingDrinkableThrough fingersIlunning; water(,rass hauims(]row to

Leading astrayOf firefliesAerial quadrilleBourrcingOff one another

Again conjoiningIn recaptured pulses

Of light

You too

Had somethingAt that timeOf a green-iit glow-worm

Yet slowlv drenchedTo raylessnessIn rain

XX

Let Joy go solace-wingedTo flutter whorn she mav concern

XXI

I store up nights against you

Heavy with shut-flower:'s nightmares

Stack nt-,ons

Curled to the solitaireCore of theSun

XXII

Green things growSalads

For lhe cerebralForager's revivalUpon bossed belliesOf mountainsRolling in the sun

And flowered flummeryBreaksTo my silly shoes

In ways without you

IgoGracelesslyAs things go

XXIII

Laughter in solutionStars in a stare

Irredeemable pledges

O{ pubescent consummations

RotTo the recurrent moon

BleachTo the pure whiteWickedness of pain

XXIV

The procreative truth of Me

Petered outIn pestiientTear dropsLittle lusts and luciditiesAnd prayerful liesMuddled with the heinous acerbityOf your street-corner smile

XXV

Licking the ArnoThe little rosy

Tongue of Dawn

Inter{eres with our eyelashes

S/e trciddle to itRound and round

FasterAnd turn into machines

Till the sunSubsides in shiningMelts some of us

Into abysmal pigeon-holesPassion has boredIn warmth

Some few of us

Crow to the level of cool plainsCutting our foot-holdWith steel eyes

XXVI

Shedding our petty pruderiesFrom slit eyes

We sidle upTo Nature

that irate pornographist

XXVII

Nucleus NothingInconc.- i vable concept

Insentient reposeThe hands of racesDrop off fromImmodifiable plastic

The contentsOf our ephemeraJ conjunctionIn aloofness from \luchFlowed to approachment ofNOTHINGThere was a man and a womanIn the wayWhiie the IrresolvableRubbed wirh our daily deathsImpossible eyes

XXVIII

The steps go up ibr everAnd they are whireAnd the first step is theForever

Coloured conclusionsSmelt to svntheticWhitenessOf myEmergenceAnd I am burnt quite whiteIn the climactericWithdrawal of your sunAnd rvills and words ali whiteSuffuseIllirnitable monotone

S hite where there is nothing to seeBut a white towelWipes the cvmophanous sweat

-Mist risr of livirrg--

From yourEtiolate bodyAnd the white dawnOf your New DayShuts down on me

Unthinkable that white over thereIs smoke from vour house

XXIX

Evolution fall foul ofSexual equalityPrettily miscalculateSimilitude

Unnatural selectionBreed such sons arrd daughtersAs shall jibber at eaeh otherUninterpretable cryptonvmsUnder the moon

Cive them some way of braying brassilyFor caressive callingOr to homophonous hiccoughsTranspose the laughLet them suppose that tearsAre snowdrops or molasses

Or anythingThan human insufficieneiesBegging dorsal vertebrae

f.et meetirrg be the turningTo the antipodeanAnd Form a blurrAnything

Than seduce themTo the oneAs simple satisfactionFor the other

Let them clash togetherFrom their incognitoesIn seismic orgasm

For far furtherDifferentiationRather than watchOwn-self distortionWince in the alien ego

XXX

In some

Prenatai plagiarismFcetal buffoonsCaught tricks

From archetypal pantomimeStringing emotionsLooped aloft

For the blind eyesThat Nature knows us withAnd the most of Nature is green

What guarantyFor the proto-formWe fumble

Our souvenir ethics to

XXXI

CrucifixionOf a busy-bodyLonging to interfere so

With the intimaciesOf your insolent isolation

Crucifixion0f an illegal ego's

EclosionOn your equilibriumCaryatid of an idea

CrucifixionWracked armsIndex extremitiesIn vacuumTo the unbroken fall

XXXII

The moon is cold

JoannesWhere the Mediterranean --

XXXIII

The prig of passion

To your professorial paucity

Proto-plasm was raving madEvolving

X XXiV

Love --- the preeminent iitterateurc@RsPsm$

{P@ru$&&

g&K

ANM 6NHMWSHS

r91S-BeSS)

ll ,lt . \.1

fernove, of viewing her first battle in the sex war as both a personal defeat

and a nroral victor-y, and carr .:oncede that the complicity. il not duplicity, ofher status as an "excepted" n'oman \ras a irap which left her with only one,:horce. i rlo not wish to transpose too much biography onto this poem, butthere is also tlie suggestion that she rnav have fantasized-if not actuall'r' pe-

titioned-tier lover-. to father (another) illegitimate child, just as there are

hints elservhere that she may have miscarried or aborted a chiici by SH.

It seems just to give Ml, the last worrl in this particular chapter of her literarystruggles on the hom(m)e lt'oni:

"Now dear Carlo-If ;rou iike vou can sa'y that Marinetti nfluenced 6s-merelv hy waking me up-I am in nr,, way con,sid,ered a Futurist bv futurists-& as for Papini he has in nn way influenced--m! a-orkl! so don't say a word

ahout it--he's very passatist-r"aily" t.ML to CVV. 1914: CVVP).

II. ,Songs to Joannes(19t7)

15. SONGS TO .IOANNES. By early 1917 ML had compieted this se-

gLrerrce. She had drafted most of it hy August 1915, and made frequent refer-

ences to the work'in-progress in letters she wrote to CVV that year. Initially,she expressed hesitation about the work (". . . no interest to the public . . ^ for'rour e./es only") ano concern about eircrrlating it at all: "I I'eel rnv family on

torr o{ me--tile'i want to read some of rnv pretiy poems!. , . . one friend...has dubbeti my rvork pure pornographv-". When SH rvarned her that she was

ruining her reputation b1,'ruriting as she did, she was annoyed and discourased.

But as the ;rear and sequence matured, it was clear that the poem had intro-

1e,:teti itself deeply withrn her psyche: "ll this book of mine is no good it settles

nre--l am the book and I hav" that esoteric sensation ol creatingt" By the time

shr: had completed the project. she couid hardiy contain her eagerness to make

rt prrbiic: "l send heren'ith-the second palt of Songs to Joanne,.-rhe best

-"ince Sappho-the,r' are interestrng. . . - if you wanted me to be a happv woman

for five mrnutes or more, vou would get lthem] published. . . . My book is won-.lerfui-it frightens me."

In Julv 1915. the 6rst four sections of what was eventually to become a

thirty-four-song cvcie appeared under the title "l,ove Songs" in the inaugurai

is,"ue of other:: A trfagozine of the Neu Verse (I:I, July 191.5, pp. 6-8). The

s,.andal created by the debut o{ Others quicki',. earned the magazine "a repu-

tation bordering on infamy." AK re,ralied two decades iater in Troubadou.r: An,

tlutobiograoln (Nev,'York: I-iveright, 1925). He proudly described the "small-sized riot'" that broke out rvhen Othcrs frrst hit the stands. ML's "Love Songs"

werp the favorite victim of the attacks: "Detractor-s shuddereC at Mina Loy's

subiect rnatter anci derided her eliinination of punctuation marks and the au-

dacious spacing of her iines," not to mention her expiicit examination ofintereourse, orgasm, bodily {irnction, and sexual desire. Although ihe \rzis ver

to mak€ her firsi trip to America, ML had alreadv securecl her reputatron inthe New York avant-garcie literary conrmunit.,'. In hrs famous surve,v ol Arner,ican poeiql, Our Shging Stresrgt.h (Nev; York: Corvarrj-NIr:Cann, 1929), AIiagarn described the "',,iolent sensation" ihat ML's "Love Songs" created: her"clinical frankness [andJ sardonic ronclusions, wedciecl to a madl1, ellipticalstyie scornlul oI lhe regulation ttrammar, svntax antl pun<:tuation . . . tlrove ourtrritics into iurious despair. . . .'fhe utter nonchalanc.: in {evealing the ser:rets

o{ sex was denounced as nothrng less than lewd. It took a strong digestivcapparatus to read Mina Loy. . , .To reduce eroticisrn to the stv u/as dn outra€{e,

and to do so without.,'erbs, sentetrce structure.. . irvasjrven rn{:,re ollensive."AK was referring io the stv of the limicoious "Pig Cupid" in MI.'s all-busrnessopening stanza to "Love Songs," the mosl ibmous of ali hel lirre,..

In rerailing the outrage of "ihe average critic . . . here in enlightcned Man-hattan" toward "Love Songs" iri general anci its hrsr stanza in oarticuiar, AKalso made referencr to lineai qualities ofanother lature. He iiescrited the poei.

as the "exotic and beautifui . . . English Jewess, Mina Luy, an ariist as rvell as

a poet," theri degcribed hel avant-garde r:redentiais: "She irnbibeti the prer:episol Apollinaire and Marinetti arxl became a Futurist with all the earnestness

and irony of a woman possesseC and ubsessed with the sense of humarr expe-rience and disillusion." AK was the first -rvriter to erplicitly acknorvledge NIL'.debt tu !-TIVi's Futurrst manifestus, or to comrnent directly on her svntar andsubiect malter in terms ol liuturist ter:hnique. Her replacerrrent of "the tboiishpauses made by conrnras and periods" with the more intuitional biank spacesand dashes, her mixing ol upper- and iower-case ietteis, lrer..arly,use ol collageanci disjunction, and the charged sexuai energy of her lxrerns re{iect the influ-ence of FTM anri are r:orrsistenr with thc principie, he a.lrocated in his rnan-ifesto "'lhe l)estnrr:tion ni'Syntax" (19131. That Ni[, uset] these techniques i1seruice of aims direetiy snathematical tc, FTM's makes thr culturai irnpact olher appropriation all the more signilicant. When her Lrver l;ecame the "other."she turned his toois into her weapons.

"Had :r man wntten these poerns"" AK recaileci ol "l,ur'. Songs," thev mighthave been tolcrated. "But a r,;oman rvrote therr, a rvonian l{ho dre"sed like a

lady and painteti charmirrg iamp-shaties." Her titie promisetl rorrdn.-. Bui hersongs delivered unmelodic se'-. Chansons .sans chanson

AK's comment rvas the first to acknorciedge a deepiy genciered. largelv un-spoken bias on the part of thc r:.tica1 establishmer.rt's rnrtral reacrion io thesetransgressive lyrics. AK ler:alled that thc uarly reviewri of "l,ove Songs" puzzledML as much as they injured her. This was aiso true ol the eari1,rejections,which ML referred to in a letter arddressed to CV V in.d.. l915). CVV haci beenencouraging her to rvrite "something rvithout a iexual urr(lercurrent." Her re-sponse: "I know nothing but lilt-and that is generallv reducible to sex. " . .

ra$ ls9

Apro-po of Joannes Songs-rvhv won't the pubs publish [?]. This is very sad.And ishv did Arn'i l,owell hote mv things? . . . l)ear Carlo. I'm trving to thinkof a subje,.'t tha.t's not sexv to rvrite about . . . & I can't in life."

Bv 1920, free love -vas the toast of free verse; E. E. Cummings and EdnaSt.Vincent Millav were considered the ultra-sexual poets of the hour. ML's ex-perirnents harl helped clear a path for both. but she was already heing trimmeclout cf modern poetn''s bodr. as if she rvas a prernature grorvth.

If critics reacted quickll to the pubJication of "Love Songs." Ml, dici. too.V"ithin weeks. she rvrote to CVV that she likerl "the tendencv of'Others, andthe ri.av it iook[ed but was] rather sorry that some uords nere misprinted suchas . . . 'Sitting the appraisable' []. I.2] insread of silting the appraisable-.and'there are'instead o{'1hese are suspect places'[. I.13]." Compar:ing the l9I5Others texi to the only kno,,vn MS of this poern (a signed and dated ilgl5] HVof l-lV). it is evident that the errors she reierred to .r{.ere not present in thehandwritten text (CVVP). But it is also possible ro see hov.the words in questioncouid be misread bv less than astute surveyors of her ca,"ual cursive script.Fragmentarr- drali-* of other "Love Songs" exist at YCAL, but not in sufficientlyrvhole or finished states tc' sen,e as copv-texts.

Tu'o years later the complete sequence appeared, iaking up an entire issueof Others (3:6, April 1917, pp. 3-20). The above-mentioned errors had beencorrected, btit certain other changes inconsistent with the HV and the l9l5printing were introduced. Some of thent clearly bore ML's signature. l'or ex-ample. the last four linesr of IV in 1915:

l-or I had guessed mineThat iJ I shouldfind \'0tiAnd bring iou u ith me

The brood t:ould, he su:ept, clean outbecarne two in l9l7:. Be.jbre I guessed

-Sneeping the brood clean oul

Other charrges were more questionable (e.g., "white anri star-topped" re-placeci "white star-topperi" in 1. I.6: "sewn" replaced "sown" in l. L7; "spill't"replaced "spilled" in l. III.5). ML had not indir:ated that these lines containederrors in her i9l5 complaint. More important, she reverted to the original HVoflines I.6 and 1.7 rvhen she reformuiated the sequence in 1923 (ZB), seemingiyconfirming her original textual intent.

But L8 preserued other changes made in 1917, such as the ending of IV. Atthis remove, in the absence ol proofs bearing her corrections, it is impossible to

distinguish printer's errors from editorial change,s from ML's own alterations or

to know what "repairs" she might have made in 1q17, then reconsidered in1923. My assLrmption, finally, is that the l9l7 reniiering of l. I. 6-7 is eithernon-authorial or an authorial revision that rvas iater recantedl that it does not

stand. The only evidence that i have ever found indicating that proofs of LB ex'

istei is RM's casual statement quoted in Robert E. Kr-'oll" ed.,I[cAlm'tn and. the

Inst Ceneration (Lincoln: Universrty ol'Nebraska Press. 19fi2, p.226), rnrhere lte

merltions checking prool.s of IB in Rapallo" ltali', err route lioni Spain to Fratic,r.For the l9lT publit:ation, Ml, made sure trr (:orreot the errors that bothered

her most in 1915, substituting ''silting" Ibr "sitting" (1. tr.2) and "Tlres.:" {'or

"There" 0. I.l3) in the opening se(,'iiun. Bevonci lhat. she made a few rre'r'

letisions (e.g., the ending of IV) before publishing, the sequence tn Others.l'|rcsurprising appearancc ol "siliing" (i. 1.2) in LB in place of l'hat had l.ieer,

wrungly printeJ as "sittirig" {19f5) and corre(.'te(i to "silting" (HV, }917) is apossible late revision, liut nrore likeh a printer's error. C)r. as Januzzi has

suggested. this could reflect ML's attempt to rectii'v rvhat she knerv had beetr

a problernatic line in 191S-having forgotten her earlier solution.I do not vieu.the L9 rendition of "Love Sonlas" as an attempi to put the 191 7

cycle into finai order hut rather as a sepal'ate nanative invoiving many ol thesanle strategies. fhe result is an altc,gether dif{erent-and arguabiv less suc-

cessiui-effort. Therelirre I present the lB versir.rn in Appendix D.'llie text of ''Songs tu Joannes" presented here necessarill reiies orr the l9i7

Orlrers version as its copv-tert. and varies from it in relatively l'ew instar',cr:s.

The 1917 text, after all, is the source 1br thirty t,f the thirtv-four original parts.I relv on ML's letters, and variants in the earlier (HV) and later (IB) .,'ersioris,

only to mediate discrepancies in I-IV, as mentioned above. In most instances,first and final intentiolrs converge. V,i here thev do r,ot, the cop\'-te\t or..tlit,,rraljudgment prevails.

In the present edition" I have not prefaced this sequenc:e l'ith the dedicatorl'p()em, "To You" (Otlrers Uutv 1916, pp. 27-2Bl). as I did in LLBB2. Januzzihas persuaded me that tlespite ML's plea to C\iV [(n.d., 1915) to "get Songslbr Joannes publisheci lbr rne-all together-printed on one sicle of each pageonlv-& a large round in the middle of each page-& one whole entirel,v blarrkpage with nothing on it betweeir the first and secorrd parts-(pause in betweenrnoods)-the dedication-"fo YOU"')], I mav have taken this request tooliterally in LLB82. I believe her caution is correct. I nor.r'finci it difficult to read"To You" as a prelude to "Songs to Joannes," either thematicali-l or structuralll,.It has therefore been left out of the present etlition altogether.

I erplain these issucs in detail for several reasorrs. This is arnong the nu,stfrequentlv discussed, exr;erpteci, and anthologized ol'l{L's poems; "l-ove Songs"and its often lbrgotten predeciessor. "Songs to Joanrres," have a padiculariycornplicated textual and editorial histor_v; r:ertain lirres, especialiy in the cipen-ing section which I have just beerr dist--ussing, have bcen the subject of nrolespeculation and uncertaintv than any other lines she produceti. Mv decisionsshould be subjer:t to question, but my reasons shoulcl not.

I have made the lbllowing emendations to the 1917 te-xi, and reiraineil liornrnaking others, as explained belotv. Dashes here (-

- - -) colresponrl to

dashes in Lorrs l9l7 text, and are counted as lirrt:s ol tlpe rvhen tirev occupv

a complete line. for exampie XXX.S. This is important onlv for the purpose 6ft:ross-referencing lines with emendations helow. The LLB96 version is to theieft of the j. The 191 7 Orheru version is to the right:

I.6: white star-topperi (follorving H\r, ZB)] white and star-ropped)(Editor's Note: The HV version reads "white star-toppeci," as does the first

apDearanee in 1915 Others antl iater printings. rncluding LB.)L7: sovrn (following HV. LB)l sewn

iEd.i.tor's Aote: The HV rearjs "sown." as ijoes 1915 Others and later print_ings. includins IB.)

I.8: Bengai (foilorving HV anrl frED)l bengal

\Ed,itor's Note: A Bengai light. in nineteenth-century usage, was a fireworkor ffare used for signais. producing a stead_v and vivrd biue light.)

III.5: spill'd (foiiorvrng HV and OED)I spill'r(Editor's Note: In 199-3. Angeia Coon ariapteci this sectinn {III) for perfor-

mance by the spoken-word banrt Biocdlest [San Francisco].)IILT: riail.,' nervs (following HV)l ciailv-nervsIV.l l: salsenetl sarsanet

\'. trzl: don't] dontIX.6: spermatozoal spermatazoa

X.l: (Edi.torli ,Noter "shuttlecock and battlerjore" would be the correct OEDspellings, but i assume t.hat ML is deiiberateiy punning here. Her spellingstands. i

XIX.3: (Ed.itorlr .\rote.. "QHU" remains the most successful poser in ML'sentire ierrcon. Its meaning. ii anv. has so far resisted exiraction. I oncesuspected it was an acronym" or a pun disguised as one. along the linesoi Marcel Duchamp's L.H.tl.O.Q. (1920). But no apposrtive word or trans-lation has vet occtrrred that convincingiy deconstructs the anagram, hom-ograph, or rune that stands behind the upper-case construction. -QHU"ma1' allude to an enchoric name ol retron]/m rhat was once familiar buthas since passed {iom currency. lf so. perhaps some iuture reacier willone dav open the lettre de cachet and report its contents. Until then, itremains pure vocabie or snnant. a precali6us precursor of Lettrisme.

We ,:an also imagine it as an unbr^ken cryptogram or encipheredmessage lo .ioannes or one of his representatives. In this case, we can

onil' hope that GP graspe<l its esoteric meaning. It is al,"o possibie, moreprosai cally. that QHU was a printer's error. the first half of an uncorrectedetaoin shrdlu [sic]" or an ersatz euphemrsm designed to escape the cen-sor's sevthe. This pre-digital encryption recentl,v attarned electronicstatus. In t995 "Qiltl" was posted as a query to the poetry ca!6 oftheInternet community. As of nou'. QHIJ remains simpiy an unsolved meta-plasrn. 'fhe virtual cai6 remains open to any latecomers bearing solrrtions:conover@mit.edu. i

XXVIII. 18: cvmophanousj cymophonous

XXIX. 1l: caressivel carressiveXXIX.2B: (Editor's Abte: The correct spelling wouid be "int'ognittis"" but I

have choscn not to emend in Iavor of Jarruzzi's eirchunting sug,g,c*tir'n

that this may echo thc "philosophers toes" passage itt another pcerl {ea-

turing GP [see rr. 8]. It is also prssil,le that a l)un is inlended here: i e '

a low-dourr. loe-lo-iur ur8asni.l

XXX.6: archetvpall architypaiXXXIV.I: litterateur (ibllowing OEDI iiterateurPage breaks irr 191? Others occrr at these iines, sotrretitnes making stanza

breaks ambiguous. Based on sertse, HV, and iB, I havr: dc,'iried thai 1917

page breaks do not always coincrde rr'ith stanza irreaks. but r.lo in these in-

stances (marked lry *). anci have lineated the plesent tert acrlortiirrgll:

II:5/6 (man i'l'o)*IV:B/9 (hair i UnelXIll 25/26: rme / 0r)XVIII: 2/3: (hill I The)*\lX: 22123: tlight / Yuut\Xll: 4/5: lrevivai I UoonlXXIV: 6/7: llies / Muddled)XXVI: 2/3: (eyes / We)XXVIII: 4/5: ('Forever / Coloured)*XXIX: 4/5: iSimilitude / Unnaturai)*XXIX: 29l3U: (orgasm / For)XXXI: 2/3: (busy-body I Longrngs

Ir, imaginative terms "Joannes" is probabiv a hgure ,roliaged out .rf illl.'stailed relationships with severai tnale iovers. Itt biographical terms he is most

closely patrerneC after one-GP ("Joarrnes" trarrslates to "(liovarrni'' rri Italianl.

Follorving her {allout wrth GP (see n. B) alier atr enthralirrrent that lasteci over

a year, ML confessed tr, CV\/ [n.d., l9i5i that ''love has '-'alnred dott'n t, the

thing that erists-'Joannes'is the most astourtding creature that e'ier liveti-in the light ol my imagination. . . . I believe he's reall.v trieC to ii-rrgrve nre . .

& I think he's a ]ittle jeaious oi Songs to Jt,annes-an uttexper:te.l ellect-''.The iast page ol the HV (I915) contains a noie to CVV irrdicatrng that "l-ovr

Songs" (l-IV) rnay also have been written with an earliel lover in rnind: "M.v

dear Cario thcse . . . are subconscious inrpression s oi' B ', eor.s u gt, . . . assoc iated

rvith my weeping wiiiow man." This spe,:ulation ib supported bv irer indicationelsewhere (CVVP) thar "Love Songs" (I-IV1 were iregun iIt a state o{ dysthenria("the first were writtcn in red-hot agony").

Irr 1907, eight years bef<rre ML wrote this iettcr ttr CVV, she gave birth tt,

her .econd chiid. Burke's biography iRecomin,g !,'loclern: The I'rfe oJ llinu Lo',

[New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996]) contains impofartt infornration on Slland the filiation of this child. Its patrilineage nrav explatn Ml.'s agorrv and

disilh:sion vrith tlP.

r92

IRecent ML schola.ship has greatlr.enhanceri both the tertual arrrl contextual

readi'golthispoern Seeespe,riailylhervorko[Burke,LincraKennahan"Koui-dis" and Ra.hei Blau f)uPlessis cited in Januzzi,s bibiiography of ML in MinaLcy: V'oman and Poet (\,lae^ra Schreiber and Keith 'l.uma. eds. [Orono, ME:Nalior.ral Poetry F ounrlation, I9961).

I[1. Corpses and Genittses(Poem-s 1919*1930)

I f;. () HFll,L, ca. 1919. I'irst publishetl in (,on.tact i (Decemher I9ZO,p.7).Reprinted in l,B" u'ith ont' substantive changr:: "the clursts of a traditionl' re-ola<'':" "the tatters o{ traditicn'" (1. 7). 'fhe present text follo*,s the first publishedappeararcel *'hich in turn follo*.s the only surviving h,ls (ycAL) in altr sub-stantives. I hai'e marie one emencjlation lo the Contnct al)pearance:

9: Caressl CarressEditor.s tVote: \\'hen this poem was publishecl in Con.t"a.ct, eclited bv RM andS'C\\. it markcd ihe thirC tirne (follorving appearances tn Rogue and OrAers)that l\'lL's n-ork irad appeareri in the inaugural issue o{ an Arneri,:an magazinedeclic':rted 1p erperimental writing. t'ollowing the demise or others in 1919.E Cli' launched conta,:t in ortier to continue tire fight that AK's rnaga,zine hadbegun. \\ICW sought u,ork that coulci not be puhlisherl elsewhere, that was notderi'trtive, and that was not trving to appeal to good taste or win posthumouspraise: "\!'e wish above all things to speak for the present." The first issuecontained two contributions bv ML; ',0 Fleil', and a prose vignette i,.SummerNight in a Florenti'e slum").'lhe prose contribution is not inr:luderl in thisedition (but nas reprinted in LLBB2). A var.iation of l. 6 (,.our person is acovered entrance to infinity") occunetl in ML,s pamphlet psycho-Democracy

{Florence: Tipogra{ia Peri & Rossi, l9z0) as "'Selt'is the covered entrance toInfinity." 'l'his prcrse anslrer to FTN{'s W'ar, the World.'s On!."i. Hi-giene ant) re-nunciation of l''uturisnr's militarrt tenets rva-q later.reprintecl in The Little Reuiew7 (..{uturnn l92l). pp. 1,1--i9.

17. 'lHE DUAD, ca. 1919. NOMS. First published in OthersJbr 19t9: AnAntlrclogy of the lteu, I,er-sa (\qr,v Yorir: Nicholas L. Brown. 1920, pp. 1.12-114). 1'his text is based on the first published appearan{:e.

3:,*hrivabie] shrivvable30: O{ ol43: Hasl has

Editor'.s 'Tote.' A r,ea.r alier the appearance of AK's i9l9 anthoiogy. John Rodker

wrote an opinion piece in The Little Rerien 1:3 (pp. 53-56), r:onsisting largeiyof sarca-otic remarks about the writing of ihe "Others" group. Of ML's coniri-bution Rodker quipped. "It is painful tr:r notice that since the last .Others'she

appears to have lost her grip." ML responcls thrrrst for thrust in the same issue.

The exchange t:ontinues in the nert issue (l/i ?:41. FIanit:t llorroe, rel'ieu'ingthis anthologv in Poetrr (17:3 fi)er:ernber 1920. pp. ]5{)-1581) calls liill "anextreme otherist, as introcent ,rf arll innocerices as of cornnras. neriirds. st:n-

tences. A knorvirrg one. irut l'e u'oultl rather have sorne otlrer other's polislr our

stars."Trverrty--fire iears iater. Kenncth Rexroth reprilrted this f)oern in lull in the

second of his "recovery" essays on negler:tecl poets (Cirr:lr 1:4 l1!r4,4, pp tr9--

721). Ml. had not Lreen publishetl anywhere for thirteen vears. anti he rvanter:l

something done about it: "It is hard tc, sav u'h-r' she has been ignored. Perhaps

it is due to her extrenre erceptionalism. Iirotic prictrv is usualll' lyric. Ftrers is

eiegiac and satirical. lt is usuallv fast-pace,l. IIers is -.low and cleliberatt,lr

trvisting." Rexroth u'ent or) to obsene that she "has been singularlv isoiaterl

historically, v,,ith lerv an(iestors ancl less influence." He narned HerontJas, Me-

rrander. Lucretius, I-ucian, llarinrinian. Nlarston. f)or,ne, Jonsor,. and Roch-

ester as possible precursors; he then listed Jack Wheelrvright, Laura Riding,Carl Rakosi, Louis Zukofskv. ancl t{anr' Roskolerrko as possible heirs. Ac-cording to Rexroth, that was the complete genealogy of influence. At least, he

concludecl, ''no others occur to nte."

tB. il{EXICAN DESIIRT, ca. l9l9-1920. Firsr publ;shed in ?fte Diat,iO:6 ("lune 1921, p. 672).'lhere are two MSS of this poem at YtiAL.'l'his versiorift,llorss the first publishild tert. rvhich in turn fcrllorv,* the [4SS in all substan-t i ves.

Editor's lVote: This poern is a collaged recoller:tion of ML's tralerse oi the

parched Mericarr desert irr 19lU *'ith her second husbarrd. AC (nE FahianAvenarir-rs Lloyd, lB87*/). It was also her first p{)em ro appear rn The L)iai.,

although her anti-Futurist play, 7'lre Parnperers" had inaugurated its ''Modeln

F-orms" ser:tion the -vear beibre (69:1. .lulv i920, pp. 65-78). Some of Ml,'sirrtwork was also published in The Dia.l as T'to lVotercolours (70:4, i\pril 1921,rr.p.) ancl Babi's Head (72:2, Februarv 1922, n.p.).

The Diul durirrg this period ivas nominally edited bv Scofielcl 'fhayer and

Gilbert Seldes, hut Scofield's ,ro-owner, Siblev Watson, and his lcrreign editor.Ezra Pound, l'ere both rrurre eciitorialh irrfluential than Sekies. It is likely thatFound directeci ML's first rvork to ?As Dia,l.Thaye, firsi rnet FIl, in New York.When he encountered her again in Vienna. he rer:ognizetl horv valuable herknor.,,leclge of the conienrporary Fiuropean art scene couici be tti the developmentof the "lnternational Art Portfolio," a project that was never 1ully realized butled to the publication oS Liui.ng Art (1923i. In a letter daterl March 5,7922, to

Sibiey Watson, 'l'hayer relerreti to ML as his "assrstant" iri the porlfoiio project,

therebv associating her with r>ne ol The llial's rnost arnbitious projects (WalterSution. ecl.. Potntl, T'hayer, Vatson & T'he Diol:,{ Stor_i rrr l-etters [Gainesville:University Pr"ss of Flori,la, 19941, o. 234).

The Di,u,L was one of tlre ntost prominent literan' magazines ever publishetl

l9.t