Gas Pump Epic

G * *

What in me is dark / Illumine, what is low raise and support; / That to the height of this great argument / I may assert eternal providence, / And justify the ways of God to men.
(Book I, 22 - 26)

21 May 2021, Dayton, Ohio

. . . yet from those flames / No light, but rather darkness visible…
(Book I, 62 - 63)

28 June 2022, San Felipe, New Mexico

Is this the Region, this the soil, the clime, / Said then the lost archangel, this the seat / That we must change for Heaven, this mournful gloom / For that celestial light?
( Book I, 242 - 245)

21 March 2022, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
(Book I, 254 - 255)

10 February 2022, Rancho Mirage, California

… nor aught availed him now / To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he escape / By all his engines, but was headlong sent / With his industrious crew to build in Hell.
(Book I, 748 – 751)

18 November 2019, Palm Springs, California

… for who would lose, / Though full of pain, this intellectual being, / Those thoughts that wander through eternity, / To perish rather, swallowed up and lost / In the wide womb of uncreated night, / Devoid of sense and motion?
(Book II, 146 - 151)

16 February 2022, Chandler, Arizona

How wearisome / Eternity so spent in worship paid / To whom we hate!
(Book II, 247 - 249)

Pinwheel

Of good and evil much they argued then, / Of happiness and final misery, / Passion and apathy, and glory and shame: / Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.
(Book II, 557 - 565)

17 May 2022, Williamsburg, New Mexico

…all mist from thence / Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell / Of things invisible to mortal sight.
(Book III, 53 - 55)

10 June 2022, Belen, New Mexico

…I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
(Book III, 98 - 99)

13 January 2022, Socorro, New Mexico

For neither man nor angel can discern / Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks / Invisible, except to God alone….
(Book III, 682 - 684)

31 October 2021, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Oh, had his powerful destiny ordained / Me some inferior angel, I had stood / Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised / Ambition.
(Book IV, 58 - 61)

Matched Pair

Can it be sin to know? / Can it be death? And do they only stand / By ignorance? Is that their happy state, / The proof of their obedience and their faith?
(Book IV, 517 - 520)

30 January 2022, Socorro, New Mexico

Live while ye may, / Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return, / Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed!
(Book IV, 533 – 535)

19 May 2021, Casey, Illinois

Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend / The supple knee?
(Book V, 787 - 788)

31 May 2021, Eastland, Texas

This is servitude, / To serve the unwise…
(Book VI, 178 - 179)

25 July 2020, Isleta, New Mexico

But to convince the proud what signs avail, / Or wonders move the obdurate to relent?
(Book VI, 789 - 790)

Tanker

…to recount almighty works / What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice, / Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?
(Book VII, 112 - 114)

7 December 2020, Albuquerque, New Mexico

But knowledge is as food, and needs no less / Her temperance over appetite, to know / In measure what the mind may well contain; / Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns / Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
(Book VII, 126 - 130)

28 July 2021, San Ildefonso, New Mexico

…the Earth / Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small, / Nor glistering, may of solid good contain / More plenty than the sun that barren shines.
(Book VIII, 91 - 94)

26 May 2022, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Oh sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant, / Mother of science, now I feel thy power / Within me clear…
(Book IX, 679 - 681)

Titans

And what are Gods that man may not become / As they, participating God-like food? / The Gods are first, and that advantage use / On our belief, that all from them proceeds: / I question it...
(Book IX, 716 - 720)

1 June 2022, Las Cruces, New Mexico

But past who can recall, or done undo? / Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate…
(Book IX, 926 - 927)

Yin / Yang

Our state cannot be severed; we are one, / One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.
(Book IX, 958 - 959)

13 September 2019, Socorro, New Mexico

As with new wine intoxicated both, / They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel / Divinity within them breeding wings, / Wherewith to scorn the earth.
(Book IX, 1008 - 1011)

18 April 2022, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

The serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.
(Book X, 162)

12 December 2021, Carrizozo, New Mexico

I found / The new created world, which fame in Heaven / Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful / Of absolute perfection.
(Book X, 480 - 483)

3 December 2021, Lemitar, New Mexico

To me, who with eternal famine pine, / Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven.
(Book X, 597 - 598)

22 June 2022, Pojoaque, New Mexico

These changes in the Heavens, though slow, produced / Like change on sea and land; sidereal blast, / Vapor, and mist, and exhalation hot….
(Book X, 692 - 694)

22 February 2022, Socorro, New Mexico

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me Man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me, or here place / In this delicious garden?
(Book X, 743 - 746)

17 August 2021, Los Alamos, New Mexico

How gladly would I meet/ Mortality, my sentence, and be earth / Insensible! how glad would lay me down / As in my mother's lap. There I should rest, / And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more / Would thunder in my ears....
(Book X, 775 - 780)

27 May 2022, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Oh Conscience, into what abyss of fears / And horrors hast thou driven me; out of which / I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!
(Book X, 842 - 844)

22 May 2021, Charlotte, North Carolina

While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, / Between us two let there be peace; both joining, / As joined in injuries…
(Book X, 923 - 925)

29 March 2021, Belen, New Mexico

But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame / Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive / In offices of love…
(Book X, 958 - 961)

7 January 2021, Fabens, Texas

…how shall we breathe in other air / Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?
(Book XI, 284 - 285)

7 May 2022, Abuquerque, New Mexico

To overcome in battle, and subdue / Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite / Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch / Of human glory….
(Book XI, 691 - 694)

2 May 2022, Caballo, New Mexico

…all dwellings else / Flood overwhelmed, and them with all their pomp / Deep under water rolled…
(Book XI, 747 - 749)

4 January 2021, Socorro, Texas

Thus thou hast seen one world begin, and end…
(Book XII, 6)

4 April 2022, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Beyond is all abyss, / Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.
(Book XII, 555 - 556)

1 June 2021, Roswell, New Mexico

Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon; / The world was all before them, where to choose / Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
(Book XII, 645 - 647)