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DoorWay Canto 5: Waters of the Crab

From Canto 4 in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, the poet
has been led by Michael, the Seraph, to the sign of Cancer, the
Crab, a water sign and ruled by the Moon. Water is a sign of
emotion and new life: here the poet is in the heaven of
friendship and here he initially meets 3 famous examples of it,
which is where this extract breaks off … he is about to meet
thereafter some of his actual friends as well as a goddess!

Who can explain the ‘how’ of how I was
So suddenly from out the Bull to Crab?
And how Bull’s fierce charge changed to some fresh wash,

As through its water’s surface my head stabbed,
And breaking through could breathe again that air
Supernal that no death can ever rob?

I felt the grip of Michael lessen here
As if his tutelage—for here at least—
Need not attend me, or provoke his care.

From Taurus, (strongest perhaps of the beasts
Who rule the heavens—though Leo most brave—
And one all did, and whom I feared the most),

To waters, turbulent on Earth, now waved
Their own serene and placid markers where
I know for sure each soul found love, was saved.

I stood—and let my eyes strain, and then peer
Forward, as if I—they—could not believe
What seeing saw: a sea, completely clear,

Upon which my feet trod in relief,
And yet upheld as once in Galilee
Before, the Rock whom Christ named his chief

Apostle also strode free, seemingly,
From gravity and all the downward laws
Besetting us, till stumbling in the sea

Poor Peter bared his—yes, and all—our flaws,
Which drown and overwhelm the human soul.
But now the power of some higher cause

Sustained me, kept me buoyant, light and whole—
Magnetic, as compressing the whole Earth
Within its compass, filing pole to pole;

For such is faith’s true hold and where we berth.
And as I stood on water that held up,
Beneath me rising like bubbles to surface,

Two figures laughing, yet sharing one cup
Of wine appeared—one comely, but one wild;
Though such love between them, each other gripped,

As if to wrestle, but playing as children.
I heard one call the other, ‘Gilgamesh!’
Then ‘Enkidu’; no gods of old defiled

Their pleasure, nor did past remote dead flesh.
Before I could greet them and speak some words,
Two more rose up, their spirits manifest,

As well their joy. Then, ‘Jonathan’, I heard,
And ‘David’, responding in choral chant:
A spoken name in flight—a magic bird

Alighting on the branch of souls who pant
For that mere touch of spiritual breath
Reviving, restoring all that’s important.

Incredible, beyond the veil of death
Present to me, these ancients who had loved,
And I to question secrets from beneath.

But even as within my soul I strove
To speak, another vision into view,
Distant at first, shimmering, but hove

My way. A man whose character I knew
From books of old that told of Mamre’s tent;
But such as was, was in no desert now.

Instead, upon the undulating tint
Of light that sparkled in the water’s swell,
Towards him—Abraham—three Beings bent

Their way. So slow, it seemed, from some deep well
Beneath the very ocean we stood on,
Quite fathomless, and deeper than deep hell;

And one in front who seemed just like a man,
Only His majesty tilted the cosmos
And still as lightning ahead of Him ran.

I gawped, all stupefied, and at a loss:
What could I say? I knelt down, like to pray,
As in me fear and awe and love criss-crossed

In apprehensive trinities, delayed
Forever from resolving into set,
Because I saw… what had never been made!

But He–who truth to tell—I’d never met,
Yet always known in my heart of true hearts,
Stepped forward, as one man might, who to greet

Another says, with one word’s prime alert:
‘Friend’. Yes—had called him ‘friend’, who had been dust,
And made from dust, and buried in the dirt;

So long ago—lost history, grimed with rust,
That what we see is merely blotted brass:
No image clear of what it cost to trust.

But now, I saw it, as through clearest glass:
How one before the Other fell in awe:
Had not the One the other’s knife surpassed?

From distant skies I heard harmony’s store
Of resonating hum and holy sound:
Sweet Beehive, Tarf, most wondrous of the stars

In Cancer’s orbit and where Herakles’ wound
Had hurt, but now repairs, forever healed,
As starlight’s energy is here unbound.

I turned—from water’s depths to love’s new field;
The Moon’s tight pull constant to pacify
Those waves in tides that once could never yield,

But now are held, their restlessness put by.
Appearing then in images of dear friends,
I saw them rise from depths—descend from sky—

As whether living or from long dead blends
Of souls solidifying into shapes
I recognised—their joy fresh burst to mind.

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Poet’s Notes

The Rock: St Peter on whom Christ built his church and who attempted to walk on water

Gilgamesh and Enkidu: two famous friends from the Babylonian epic: it was because of Enkidu’s premature death that Gilgamesh set off on his futile quest for immortality

Jonathan and David: 1 Samuel 18:1-4, ‘…Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself…’

The oaks of Mamre and Abraham: Genesis 18:1-15. Who were these three ‘men’ or ‘Beings’ as I describe them? ‘Apprehensive trinities’ is perhaps one way of expressing it; but incredibly Abraham is described as a friend of God: ‘But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend’ (Isaiah 41:8)

‘Had not the One the other’s knife surpassed?’: an allusion to the fact that Christ’s sacrifice far surpassed the sacrifice that Abraham intended with his own son. Indeed, Abraham prophetically comments to his son on the way to the place of sacrifice: ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ (Genesis 22:7-8)

‘Sweet Beehive, Tarf, most wondrous of the stars’: Cancer contains the well-known star cluster called Praesepe, or the Beehive. Its brightest star, Al Tarf (Arabic for “the end” [of one of the crab’s legs]), also called Beta Cancri. It is located about 290 light-years from Earth.

‘In Cancer’s orbit and where Herakles’ wound / Had hurt …’: In Greek mythology, while Herakles was fighting the Hydra, Hera, the queen of heaven, directed the crab to attack Herakles from behind. He pinched Heracles, but was crushed by him—but as a reward for his faithful service, Hera (Herakles’ enemy and after whom he is ironically named), placed the crab in the heavens as the constellation, Cancer.

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James Sale has had over 50 books published, most recently, “Mapping Motivation for Top Performing Teams” (Routledge, 2021). He has been nominated by The Hong Kong Review for the 2022 Pushcart Prize for poetry, has won first prize in The Society of Classical Poets 2017 annual competition, and performed in New York in 2019. He is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. His most recent poetry collection is “StairWell.” For more information about the author, and about his Dante project, visit https://englishcantos.home.blog. To subscribe to his brief, free and monthly poetry newsletter, contact him at [email protected]

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19 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    I continue to be amazed and astonished by the depth of your knowledge both biblically and mythologically as well as your ability to transmit that knowledge creatively to us both in fascinating classical poetry binding them together in an epic story, and thankfully, by providing me the notes to aid in my understanding. I conclude your abilities are Homeresque.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Roy for this – I have just used your comment on being ‘Homeresque’ in a LinkedIn and Facebook post, citing you as LTC and somebody who therefore might possibly know something about the battlefields that Homer clearly knew a lot about. Really kind of you to be so generous in your praise of my work. It was the American poet and critic, Donald Hall, who said: “I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems. An ambitious project—but sensible, I think. … If our goal is to write poetry, the only way we are likely to be any good is to try to be as great as the best.” We may or may not fail, but it must not be through lack of ambition! Greetings.

      Reply
  2. Margaret Coats

    James, this is a most attractive canto for the panorama made up of too many portions to contemplate easily–and what we have here is only an extract! The water motif alone is important. The heaven of friendship is worth yet more meditation, with the varied figures introduced here, and those we can think of from our own experiences, as you will do later for some of your own. You call to mind a friend from graduate school, now a professional artist and illustrator. When we were students, she wrote a fantasy narrative following Enkidu into the other world. Both of us have met many friends since then, and I think I may try to to get back in touch, recalling significant days we shared. The moon’s “tight pull” and the absolutely astonishing friendship with God are other worthy considerations. That must be why we hope for eternal heaven to do them justice.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks for this Margaret. I like your account of your friend following Enkidu into the underworld. Of course, it is why the dead need not die if we can resurrect them through the power of the imagination; and in God’s mind, as it were, there are no dead because all live to Him, although to ‘live’ but to be cut off from His light is quite something else – and it is called, of course, hell.

      Reply
  3. ABB

    There is a sense of propulsion here as we approach the end of this epic trilogy, with themes of friendship and love being explored. Regarding the cameos, I am always wondering ‘who am I going to encounter next?’ Like a highbrow version of that ‘masked singer’ celebrity show, but infinitely more interesting and profound, obviously. Great to see the “ancients who had loved,” Gilgamesh /Enkidu and David/Jonathan making appearances. Unexpected rhymes, as always. Also love the notes: the Mambre and Tarf asides were especially helpful for clarification.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      As always, I appreciate your deeply perceptive comments Andrew, though sometimes it is not some technical nicety (eg rhyme) that is really the main point: I like the fact that you pick up on the pace and, most importantly, who next? In this kind of work, it is easy to get bogged down in pseudo-pretentious-fatuity: whether we are writing a dime-store novel, a Shakespearean 5-act play, or a Dantean-imitation, pace is of the essence, as is the question: what next? The sense of anticipation in the reader is essential for the long-term readability of a text. Johnson noted it in Shakespeare’s works. So if DoorWay has these qualities, then I am well pleased. Thank you.

      Reply
  4. Linda Alice Fowler

    This extract, James, is exquisite. The rhythm and cadence carries the reader into the worlds of myth and christianity, and joins the two seamlessly. Very enjoyable.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Linda – Dante is the great model, since he does it so brilliantly: he is the sun, but if I can be a moon that would be good! FYI DoorWay is my take on Dante’s Paradiso and it is in progress. But both my Inferno (HellWard) and Purgatorio (StairWell) are available on Amazon if you want more!

      Reply
  5. Joseph S. Salemi

    I have always learned something from reading Jim Sale’s work, not the least of which is the capacity of terza rima to carry narrative easily and fluently, in a seemingly effortless manner. Every one of these tercets flows over into the movement of the next without a hitch. Sale has already made himself immortal in poetry, and will be read as long as English lives.

    I’m glad he has appended notes to this selection. Since the SCP is a teaching site as well as a place to showcase finished work, such notes are of great use to students, or to those of us who are not familiar with details about constellations, or with certain biblical or mythological references. Gilgamesh and Enkidu and Jonathan and David are exemplars of close friendship, but under modern post-literate conditions we cannot suppose that even educated readers know about them.

    About Sale’s words “The Moon’s tight pull” (which Margaret has mentioned) — I wonder if these are an echo of the Yeats poem where he writes “…we are caught between the pull / Of the dark moon and the full”?

    One final observation — if there is a renaissance of classical poetry taking place today, it is taking place right here. I am in awe of James Sale’s capacity for sustained excellence.

    Reply
  6. James Sale

    What can I say but that I am humbled by Joseph Salemi’s warm and erudite appreciation of my work, especially since he is such a fine poet, and outstanding technically himself. I am so pleased that, as with Benson Brown, the flow of these verses has been noted: flow is not everything, but without it, verse becomes dead. And as to the question of Yeats – and I am amazed at Joe’s range of reading – I am not going to answer directly except to say: I am now wandering in Sagittarius amidst the great teachers (Chiron) and educators of my past. Lo! And Behold, when I was 13 one teacher introduced me to poetry and here is one stanza from that encounter:

    Or more exactly, giving my first taste
    Of Owen, Thomas, William Butler Yeats
    And language sweeter, stronger than chocolate.

    This is what I hope, in marketing, they call teaser copy! Yeats is one of my great favourite poets, and always for me the greatest of the English language poets of the C20th. Thank you Joe – really appreciate your strong words and will be quoting you.

    Reply
  7. Francis Etheredge

    Perhaps this question is of more general interest in that I wondered if “filing” was a misspelling of “filling”, given the context of ‘filing pole to pole’ as, I thought, what if the water is meant to be filling, as it were, from pole to pole. James’ reply is both very interesting, involving a very close and striking use of words and so I will let his answer speak for itself:

    ‘Thank you for looking at the extract. Indeed, you may well have posted your question on the site as others enjoy queries that they themselves may not feel confident enough to post.

    It is an interesting question. The answer is:

    Filing

    This is because to file has several meanings, not least as Shakespeare used it: Precious phrase by all the Muses filed … to smooth, to polish (as well as an opposite meaning: to accuse), and then also to string upon a thread, to place in consecutive order

    Plus, it is also not only a verb but filing is a noun: especially as in iron filings. So the meaning of the line is – with the word ‘magnetic’ in the preceding line (and compass in the line in question), pointing to the idea that the higher power (God) sustained me on the water in the way that the whole earth, from pole to pole, is magnetically aligned (filed) by his power which causes magnetic coherence, alignment, order etc. This water, in other words, was magnetised by God’s power and so I was upheld on it.

    Hope that makes sense – if it doesn’t, then I am not such a good poet, but I am doing my best via the inspiration from Him that I am granted.

    God bless – James’

    Thank you and God bless you too, Francis.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks for doing this Francis – though I am slightly embarrassed to be explaining my own poetry, since I generally take the view that a. poets can’t explain their own poems and b. poets shouldn’t explain their own poems! But you did approach me privately and about a very specific matter: did I mean filling or filing? And so, so far as I was able, I explained my rationale for this kind of usage. If it’s found to be useful, all well and good, but I wouldn’t want to impede the flow of reading the lines with too many technical questions!!! Thanks again.

      Reply
  8. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    James, this sneak peek at a treat of a canto from DoorWay brings the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” to mind. You have tapped into the wonder of timeless literary magnificence and conjured a magic trilogy that will appeal to readers who love to be lifted to realms beyond the sparse library shelves of our cancel-culture era. Great stuff! Thank you for your continued support and inspiration.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      I am glad this is a ‘magic trilogy’ – magic is what I like and believe in. And thank you for your support – it means a lot. There are some truly great poets working here on SCP and you are one of them.

      Reply
  9. Brian A. Yapko

    I really love this excerpt from your magnificent and ambitious work, James. Your use of terza rima is smooth, accessible and keeps the reader anxious to move forward through this amazing story. The friendships that you bring up are slightly unexpected — Gilgamesh and Enkidu is a pair I’ve not hear of before. I’ve read excerpts of Gilgamesh but this is new to me. Another poet might have highlighted Damon and Pythias as a non-biblical pair but your choice allows your work to go ALL the way back to the start of recorded civilization and to expand your vision beyond Western culture only. This is enriched, however, by your bringing in David and Jonathan from First Samuel and First Kings, and this leads us forcefully towards Christ who is, of course, the direct lineal descendent of David. You also bring in Abraham and the Three Angels, which leads to contemplation of his sacrifice of Isaac. I think you are creating a geneology of friendship and relationships with leads directly to intimacy with God Himself. And this now makes the water theme and water imagery far more meaningful because it also progresses from the pagan Crab towards (at least thematically) baptism. You’ve offered so very much here to ponder.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Brian – and keep pondering! And of all things, ‘keeps the reader anxious to move forward’ is perhaps the key, as I have outlined also above: the energy of the verse moving us ever forward to new and newer revelations. Appreciate your support – thanks so much.

      Reply
  10. Daniel Kemper

    James,

    “I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems. An ambitious project—but sensible, I think. … If our goal is to write poetry, the only way we are likely to be any good is to try to be as great as the best.””

    I’d like to comment on that comment, since little could be added to the commentary already in place.

    Yes, yes, yes: THAT’S the thing: Relentlessly trying to be great, every morning, facing the shugyo, the kufu of greatness. Polish the mind, polish the mirror, total war on imperfection, but not to make a box out of perfection, but to … as Stanley Crouch wrote, “… to strike your match to the mighty wick that will illuminate yet another portion of the darkness.”

    Reply
  11. James Sale

    Well done Daniel, you sound sensible and mad at the same time; a perfect recipe for poetry! The sanity in your madness is contained in the phrase ‘not to make a box out of perfection’. To become obsessed with perfection is a form of doubt, which is itself a form of disbelief: without faith nothing great can ever be achieved.

    Reply

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