textfiles.com: /politics/SPUNK/sp000354.txt
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        o                                                   o
        o              WHAT FOLLOWS EVENING                 o
        o                                                   o
        o                by BARBARA EINZIG                  o
        o                                                   o
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        Night suspends color in its turning away, in its
        bringing up of whiteness in darkness. Daisies
        are iridescent in moonlight. This heightening
        is not rising of blood or an expression to a face.
        This is the way dream people become sensible.

        Sleep suspends a daytime body, giving the weightless
        weight, by stealing from a daytime body its daytime
        gravity. This is not the enlivening of ghosts.
        A shadow moves this way with a hand over paper,
        with a body over pavement. This is a dream house
        with clear wide windows. If these windows are
        opened, they open into bright day. A dreamer
        becomes a sensation of falling, and having entered
        day by mistake, awakes suddenly.

        Now I remember the Memling portraits -- face of
        a woman or a man close up, study in steady character
        occurring as a flower in the face -- and, framed
        by a window without glass, in a space equal, or
        existing equally through proportion, fields roads
        hills beyond. This is not a memory going backwards.
        This is a painting you may or may not know.
     
        Night paints the face of a dreamer the way a loved
        one sleeping looks. Night turns away from that
        which the sleeper turns, as she turns her head
        on a pillow. This is the way dream people become
        sensible. In busy streets, noticing, they brush
        past each other, and may or may not recognize each
        other. A dreamer becomes a sensation of falling,
        and having entered day by accident, awakes suddenly.
        In one stroke, spell or die is cast and broken.
        This is a painting you may or may not know.



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        o                                                   o
        o   Copyright (C) 1979 and 1994 by Barbara Einzig   o
        o                                                   o
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an excerpt from an essay, “What Follows Evening,” about the nature of dreams. essay: What follows evening, what is it that falls on people when they sleep? a poem by Barbara Einzig on a dreamer's experience of dreaming, with elements of memory, nature, paintings, sleep, night poem: what follows evening - poem by barbara einzig about a painting, “Now I remember the Memling portraits”