An Introduction
to the Readings...
By Stephen Berer
The texts available on this web site span over 25 years of writing.
They document the long evolution of my thinking. I would guess that
the earlier pieces are more accessible than the later poetry, since
my poetry was visioned step by step, with each succeeding piece built
on earlier concepts and explorations.
For the fearless, my poetry
is meant to take you on a journey that will reshape your world-view.
It is not light reading, but I certainly
hope it is not oppressive or ponderous either. My early teachers
and guides were Shelley, Blake, Milton, Nietzsche, and the Prophetic
Writings of the Hebrew Bible. I have learned from, and loved Greek
and Sumerian literature, and Dante, as well. Further down the road
I found new life and pleasure in the writings of Chaim Bialik, John
Neihardt and Fred Turner. As for Pound and Eliot, may they rot in
oblivion.
Ottoman Beachcombings
Ottoman Beachcombings is
a prose work, easy to read. It is a travelogue of my live adventures,
beginning in the former Yugoslavia, and proceeding around the eastern
Mediterranean. Mostly, it describes scenes far from the beaten tourist
paths, at a time (the early 1980's) when travel in this region was
safe, easy, and cheap. I was in high spirits on this five month trip,
and my tales are told with wide eyes and many a grin.
A Pilgrimmage to Mecca
The only other prose writing in the Reading Room is a slightly more
challenging piece. My wife and I spent two months in Turkey in 1977.
She was doing groundwork for her graduate degree in Islamic Art History,
and I was her mostly-fearless travel guide, and occasional nemesis.
In 1977 Turkey was still off the edge of the world for most Western
travelers. Like the Bible-belt of the US, the interior of Turkey
was, and is, deeply devout, but of course, it is Muslim, not Christian.
I had never really come across religious fundamentalism before, so
what I found in Turkey was fascinating, but hard to understand.
My
story, A
Pilgrimmage to Mecca is an attempt to explore the issues
of faith, experience, and scepticism, without committing to any position.
It is written in a style I would liken to Gerard de Nerval’s:
lush and personal. I have deeply religious friends who have criticized
the piece for falling clearly to the skeptic’s side. Other
friends, who are rationalists, have criticized it for falling clearly
to the religious side. From that I have concluded that I have done
my job well. I believe it’s a memorable story.
In the Harvest ov Nations
Although not my first long poem, by
any means, In
the Harvest ov Nations is the poem with the earliest
origins on this web site. It’s the best place to begin if you’re
not familiar with my poetry. It is a narrative in three books, about
a nuclear war and the building of a new society. Book One is named
Old Wirld; Book Two is Passaj; and Book Three is Nu Wirld.
As you
can see from the subtitles above, I have already embarked on my journey
of transforming English (for more on that subject, see my little
essay, "Wy I Rite So Funnee").
I confess with some happiness, that upon preparing this poem for
the Shivvetee Reading Room, I reread it for the first time in many
years, and it brought me great pleasure and amazement. I hope it
does the same for you.
The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming
From 1982 to 1986 I worked on a long
mythic poem that remains largely unexcavated from my notebooks. It
morphed
into The
Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, a poem in six books. This
is a historical poem, in a manner of speaking. It is the story of
a Divine Messenger (Elmallah) who is sent to Ertha to spiritualize
her. Each book is a particular historical moment.
Book 1 is Elmallah’s
first impression. Book 2 is a prehistoric moment. In Book 3 Elmallah
takes the form of Dumuzi, of Sumerian myth. He is the husband/worshipper
of the goddess Innana. I have rewritten that myth, holding closely
to the original narrative, but giving it a new intention. Book 4
is set in Constantinople, as a retelling of the story of Justinian
and Theodora, rulers of Byzantium at its pinnacle. From my extended
stays in Istanbul I gleaned the detailed backdrops for many of the
scenes in this book.
In Book 5 I move to medieval France and the
remarkable story of Heloise and Abalard. It is a very cinematographic
retelling of their history, the penultimate scene in Elmallah’s
awakening of Ertha. Finally Book 6 is set in the Shoah (the Holocaust).
A female "disciple" of Kalonimus Kalman, the great sage
and rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto, escapes from the nazi death grip
to carry a Torah scroll to Palestine. This book is still incomplete
and must be read in its rough copy version (a formidable task, I
daresay). And this brings us to the current state of Elmallah’s
awakening of the human Soul.
This long poem is a richly textured
and visual historical-spiritual journey. I have reread it many times,
and yet it still astonishes me. I often wonder if I was the author,
or merely the stenographer.
Ammung the Ruwenz ov the Temple, I Herd...
Ammung
the Ruwenz ov the Tempel, I Herd... is the first manuscript
in which my poetry takes on, not just a Jewish flavor, but a
devotedly Jewish voice.
It is
a collection of gleanings from the corners of fields that have been
planted and harvested by my many teachers. In these times, the sages
harvest in such abundance, that even gleaners like me come away with
visionary wisdom. You will hear the songs and prayers and revelations
of a profound Jewish renewal that is reshaping the world, in spite
of everything. These poems have no overt narrative connecting them
as a single story. The narrative instead stands as backdrop: the
Shoah (Holocaust), the restoration of Israel, and the Divine subtext
that drives all history.
The Focal Point of My Poetry
The focal point in my poetry moves progressively
to more rarified levels of consciousness. In
the Harvest ov Nations is grounded in a personal and
psychological perspective. I wrote The
Song ov Elmallahz Kumming over a 15 year period. I began
it more or less on the same plane as Harvest, with a fairly linear
and continuous narrative. But by Book 3, the Innana story, the narrative
begins to fragment, as the focal point starts oscillating between
the human and transmigrant (a phrase I'm coining here to convey
a very literal transpersonal state). That becomes the dominant mode
for the rest of Elmallahz Kumming. With the poem Ammung
the Ruwenz ov the Tempel, I Herd... physical reality
fades into a metaphor for higher states, including the transmigrant,
and the Prophetic (in which one approaches the Divine Imperative).
In the poem I am currently composing (which is not yet available
to read), the dream state is the closest I come to the physical world.
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