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WHAT IS A BEING?
This teaspoon once
belonged to you, Mick, now
living in a care home in Canada, unaware
that this spoon once
touched by your fingers is now
touched by mine – and Anthony's
jumper – Anthony whose
wearing of my father's dressing gown once
shocked me – do these objects bear
the imprint of the many
eyes that have looked on them,
minds in which they once
were lodged – as the minds
bear their imprint still (perhaps) – do I
remember my Soviet-made
Redondo Calypso
record player? So that it
lives as a phantom as long as I
remember it (or maybe even longer this
disembodied image
floats somewhere, all
ready to reappear – every one
of the objects that surround us multiplied
(maybe) by a thousand
images in as many
heads – each with its own
emotional resonance – not forgetting
God, in whom the
teaspoon, pullover, dressing gown and
record player with all their
relevant resonances exist
eternally and probably
more than as an 'image' – Blake
saw Newton's particles of light, all
streaming from the Sun, and all
as people – people being
the highest sort of being
people can, normally, know. Well!
The teaspoon, the pullover, the dressing gown
– even the Soviet-made
Redondo Calypso record player exist
and only ever existed
in minds. What was outside of mind was only
(if anything) a meaningless
bunch of molecules – and even so
what is a molecule
outside of a mind?
And Richard Youngquist thinks Blake really saw
Ololon descend at Felpham, but maybe
doesn't think he saw
the particles of light as people
– the sands upon the Dead Sea shore
and Israel's tents
shining bright.