presences among us

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To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold — brothers who know now they are truly brothers.

–Archibald MacLeish

MacLeish’s evocation of liberal hope, as moon missions of the 1960s began to exert their influence on popular culture, was first published in The New York Times on December 25, 1968 and is now iconic. I don’t think its hope is tarnished by the fact that realization remains “halfway to the moon” or further out of reach in the post 9/11 world.

Thinking about today’s anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing sent me in search of memorabilia. For years I used the famous whole earth image as a screen saver. But here are a couple of images I like better now, downloaded from the NASA website. The first images of earth from space (including these two) were created in 1968, before the first moon landing, by the astronauts of Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon. I like the first I show for its composition and for what looks like a tiny, far-off planet just beneath the blue earth as it hangs in the black sky.

The second image is one of many to have been given the somewhat problematic title, Earthrise. But I think it must have been a photograph like this one that inspired MacLeish’s famous New York Times poem, published to coincide with the landing of Apollo 11 but written earlier.

VOYAGE TO THE MOON
Archibald MacLeish
(1892-1982)

Presence among us,

wanderer in the skies,
dazzle of silver in our leaves and on our
waters silver,
O silver evasion in our farthest thought–
“the visiting moon” . . . “the glimpses of the moon” . . .
and we have touched you!

From the first of time,
before the first of time, before the
first men tasted time, we thought of you.
You were a wonder to us, unattainable,
a longing past the reach of longing,
a light beyond our light, our lives–perhaps
a meaning to us.

Now our hands have touched you in your depth of night.

Three days and three nights we journeyed,
steered by farthest stars, climbed outward,
crossed the invisible tide-rip where the floating dust
falls one way or the other in the void between,
followed that other dawn, encountered
cold, faced death–unfathomable emptiness . . .
Then, the fourth day evening, we descended,
made fast, set foot at dawn upon your beaches,
sifted between our fingers your cold sand,

We stand here in the dusk, the cold, the silence . . .
and here, as at the first of time, we lift our heads.
Over us, more beautiful than the moon, a
moon, a wonder to us, unattainable,
a longing past the reach of longing,
a light beyond our light, our lives–perhaps
a meaning to us . . .

O, a meaning!

Over us on these silent beaches the bright earth,
presence among us.

And speaking of presences among us, My beloved and I went to hear Joan Baez sing last evening at The Pageant on the Delmar loop. For me, she was as magical as ever. Though her voice lacks some of its former power, particularly the strong upper register, it’s sweeter now, and the fast vibrato that used to bother me sometimes has smoothed out. She has a terrific band, but she did about a third of the show by herself, including her last encore, when she sang “Diamonds and Rust.” Lots of memorable lines and licks in the show: “When first I came to Louisville,” “Come back Woodie Guthrie,” “I believe in God, and God ain’t us.” Here’s the chorus of an Elvis Costello song I liked a lot.

We’ll rise above the scarlet tide
That trickles down through the mountain
And separates the widow from the bride . . .

For the truly nostalgic she sang “Silver Dagger,” “Forever Young,” “Old Dixie Down,” “Farewell, Angelina,” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” For the community organizers in the audience she delivered a rousing rendition of “Joe Hill,” as well as John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and Steve Earle’s “Jerusalem.” She threw in a spot-on impression of Dylan for the last verse of “Don’t think Twice” that brought the audience to its feet. But my favorite thing was an unaccompanied performance of “Angel Band” (which the Riverfront Times reviewer apparently didn’t know). With the other musicians singing along, that lovely old gospel song sounded for all the world like it might in a country church somewhere in eastern North Carolina . . . “O bear me away on your snow white wings to my immortal home.”

bogoroditse devo

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Not having posted for a while, again, I think of music as a way to reenter. Tonight I began thinking of Rachmaninoff, and the beautiful all night vigil, better known as the Vespers. Here’s a fine performance of the Hail Mary from that piece, perhaps everyone’s favorite. It’s short, and it doesn’t reveal all the many virtues of the long choral liturgy of which it is a part. But it’s tonally and melodically spectacular. I can’t identify the performance. You can find it at YouTube.

One of the nice things about YouTube these days is that at the end of a given selection one finds links to other listening. You can likely find some other performances of this piece by following links at the end of this one, if you’re interested.

snakes alive

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Banks win again: The banks have beaten us all in the senate yet another time, having succeeded in gutting legislation to ease bankruptcy of its central measure that would have allowed judges to lower the amounts owed on home mortgages. It would appear that the administration, in failing to push for the provision, has concluded that its economic strategy is succeeding on a macro level and is willing to sacrifice the interest of individual homeowners in order to keep the bankers, and their lobbyists, happy. Yesterday’s New York Times had the story.

Grieving for Dr. Tiller: Not all Christians and Christian groups are opposed to abortion — not all even to late term abortion. Last Monday my church hosted a local memorial for Dr. George Tiller sponsored by Faith Aloud. Well over 200 attended, and we learned later that many more did not attend because they were fearful about security. The Rev. Rebecca Turner, Faith Aloud Executive Director, remarked truly, I thought, that the presentation of Randall Terry’s statement by CBS News, was like asking the head of the Ku Klux Klan to comment on a lynching. Media Matters comments on the Randall Terry polemic by remembering a Leslie Stahl piece that links Terry directly to violence. Judith Warner’s column in yesterday’s New York Times is moving indeed.

Answered: A question I asked a couple of posts back has now been answered. The Obama administration is considering proposing legislation to allow five Guantanamo detainees to plead guilty to capital crimes. These five were allegedly involved in the 9/11 plot and have been extensively tortured and held without trial for many years. Today’s New York Times quotes David Glazier, who has written critically about the commission system in the past as saying: “This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility.” But according to Maj. David J. R. Frakt of the Air Force, a Guantanamo defense lawyer, the government is “trying to give the 9/11 guys what they want: let them plead guilty and get the death penalty and not have to have a trial.” These five detainees “have seemed to be daring the United States to put them to death,” according to New York Times reporter, William Glaberson.

Here’s the most interesting paragraph in Glaberson’s piece about this.

The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention.

Interesting, because it suggests a program of leaks designed to contextualize whatever decision the administration finally takes about the Guantanamo detainees. There seem to be no good choices open. The matter of Guantanamo and the fates of the prisoners there is so seriously compromised by the depredations of the former administration that no actions remain that are simple, legal, or just.