May 22, 2004

• A Form

  
  

  John Leonard in the June 10, 2004, New York Review of Books, on E. L. Doctorow:

  
  

  “… he’s got urgent things to say and seeks some form to say them in, or a form that will tease and torture secret meanings out of what he thinks he already knows, or a form, like a wishing well, down which to dream, scream, or drown.”

  
  

  48. The Well

  
  

  The Judgment

  
  

  
  

  The Well. The town may be changed,
  But the well cannot be changed.
  It neither decreases nor increases.
  They come and go and draw from the well.
  If one gets down almost to the water
  And the rope does not go all the way,
  Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.

  
  

  From the Book of Ecclesiastes 12:6—

  
  

  or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern

  
  

  From Chuck Polisher’s I Ching Lexicon:

  
  

  

  
  

  See also the following form, discussed in

  
  

  

  
  

  Balanchine’s Birthday
  (1/9/03) and in

  
  

  

  
  

  Art Theory
  for Yom Kippur
  (10/5/03)
  
  

  • 3:00 pm
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