You can't catch me snake-eyes zombie,
night-side assassins, blood-mask demon,
black water beasts, haunted hungry ghosts
First stanza contains 11 Oates book titles—



You can't catch me is a dare children yell at playmates in the game of tag. It is the name of a Chuck Berry song: "Now you can't catch me, baby you can't catch me / 'Cause if you get too close, you know I'm gone like a cool breeze" (referring to his brand-new air-mobile). It is also a children's picture book You Can't Catch Me! (1996) by Michael Rosen & Quentin Blake.
Zombie is a supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into and reanimate a dead body. Such beliefs are predominant in Haiti and Afro-Carribean culture.
Night-side assassins are ninjas, covet Japanese night-time assassins. Ninja Assassin is a 2009 action film starring Raizo (Rain), one of the world's deadliest Special Forces Ninja assassins.
Demon is a supernatural being that is usually a malevolent spirit. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus casts out many demons, or evil spirits, from those who are afflicted with various ailments.
Black water beasts may refer to water moccasin or black moccasin, a venomous snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus), a species of pit viper, found in the eastern United States.
Hungry ghosts (Sanskrit: pretas) have their own realm depicted on Tibetan Bhavacakra (Wheel of Becoming) and are represented as teardrop or paisley-shaped with bloated stomachs and necks too thin to pass food so that eating is incredibly painful. Some are described as having "mouth the size of a needle's eye and a stomach the size of a mountain"— metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires.

for I'm the time traveler invisible woman,
the tattooed girl, the gravedigger's daughter
by the north gate upon the sweeping flood.

Click on cover for details on the six books in this stanza (left). "Time Traveler" is a poem from same-titled book (1989). First stanza: "By degrees, days / and years, / another voice / intrudes. / Another presence. / the facial skin betrayed / by old smiles. / Death's-head nostrils, too deep." "Invisible Woman" is first poem from same-titled book (1982). What are the legends we invent,     what are the tales spun of us     in rooms we leave too quickly— What is our transparency but the fact     of flesh, the angry ache in the loins,     that old betrayal— "A face is a poor guarantee," says Montaigne,     but bodies must be entered. Because you know me, we have never met. Because you see me, you cannot hear. Tattooed Girl is a 2003 novel about a celebrated reclusive author in failing health hiring an attractive assistant. She is a sensuous, young woman with bizarre tattoos covering much of her body. The novel clashes in a tragedy of thwarted erotic desire. Gravedigger's Daughter is a 2007 novel, an epic of a young woman's struggle for identity and survival in post-World War II America. By the North Gate is Oates' first collection of short stories (1963). Title is from Rihaku's 8th century poem: "By the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand, / Lonely from the beginning of time until now!" Upon the Sweeping Flood is the last story in same-titled book (1966). Title is from a 1683 poem by Edward Taylor used as epigraph: "Oh! that I'd had a tear to've quencht that flame / Which did dissolve the Heavens above / Into those liquid drops that Came / To drown our Carnall love."

Time traveler is someone who can move between different moments in time similar to moving between different points in space. While GPS (Global Positioning System) gadgets can locate a person's whereabouts on earth, there is no instrument that can locate a time traveler at present. Fictional time travelers appeared in Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" (1819), where a man takes a nap and wakes up twenty years in the future. Another is H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895) where one can travel back to the past as well as into the future. It was made into a film twice (1960, 2002). Here's Einstein's idea of time traveler (NOVA 1996). More recently, John Titor posted messages on the Internet claiming that he is a time traveler from the year 2036.
Invisible Woman (Susan Storm Richards) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superheroine created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Fantastic Four #1, November 1961). Sue received her powers after being exposed to a cosmic storm. Her primary power deals with light waves, allowing her to render herself and others invisible. She can also project powerful fields of invisible psionic energy as offensive and defensive weapons. An earlier 1940 movie The Invisible Woman directed by A. Edward Sutherland was the third film in The Invisible Man series based on H.G. Wells' science fiction novel The Invisible Man (1897). The earliest idea of invisibility appeared in Plato's Republic, II.359 where Ring of Gyges made a person wearing it invisible. In his book Physics of the Impossible (2008), Michio Kaku explores time travel, invisibility, and teleportation as becoming realities in the next century. If you're a "time traveler invisible woman", you can boast to those zombie assassins, demon beasts, and hungry ghosts "You can't catch me!"
By the North Gate is Oates' first collection of short stories (1963). "The man standing at the North Gate— the boundary between civilization and wilderness, both borne in his heart— and striving toward the victory which he is capable." North Gate at the Great Stupa of Sanchi in India, shows a monkey offering a bowl of honey to the Buddha. Elephants face the four directions, support the archtraves above the columns. Numerous scenes from the Buddha's life are shown at the Northern Gateway.
Upon the Sweeping Flood is the title of Oates' book of short stories (1966). There is a Wordsworth's poem "When Severn's Sweeping Flood Had Overthrown" (1842). However, in the context of this poem, north gate is the crown chakra (sahasrara) on top of the head where one experiences enlightenment (thousand-petaled lotus). This is done when the lower cravings and desires are cleansed mentally (sweeping flood). Thus if you can't make yourself invisible or time travel, the next best thing to do in escaping those evil spirits is to enter a temple or shrine and be pure in heart. Then no zombies, demons, assassins, beasts, or hungry ghosts can attack you.

You must remember this— blonde broke heart blues,
perfectionist Dr. Magic, collector of hearts,
the poisoned kiss seduction, son of morning
"You must remember this" is from the song "As Times Goes By" with music and words by Herman Hupfeld. It was sang by Dooley Wilson (Sam) in Casablanca, a 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman: "You must remember this / A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by."
Blonde is Oates' longest novel (2000) on Marilyn Monroe. Oates reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker— the child, the woman, the fated celebrity.
Broke Heart Blues is an Oates novel (1999) exploring our never-ending hunger for heroes. It is John Reddy Heart who will arouse the desire of New York Willowsville's teenage girls and the worship of its boys; the fear and envy of its men, and the yearning of its women.
The Perfectionist is an Oates comedy play in two acts (1994) set in Mount Orion, New Jersey about a theatrical family. Dr. Magic is an Oates one-act play (2004) where a Zapper runs voltage over persons to test their integrity.
The Collector of Hearts is a short story (pp. 113-121) from an Oates book of the same title (1998) with 27 Tales of the Grotesque. Fifty-year old Judge Whosis invites a female juvenile delinquent to his house and shows her his collection of hearts. He had her wrap her fingers around the wood handle of a cane— "it was warm, and there was a weak pulsebeat. A heart. An actual heart. There is an actual heart trapped inside here."
The Poisoned Kiss is a short story (pp. 119-120) from an Oates book of the same title (1975) with 22 stories from the Portugese (whom Oates claimed to have come from Fernandes out of nowhere). Strangers lurch at the woman as she pushes them away while running toward her lover— "Running, soaring to you— to your kiss... I dream again and again of your kiss."
The Seduction is a short story (pp. 107-128) from book of the same title (1975) with 17 stories.
Son of the Morning is an Oates novel (1978) about Nathanael Vickery conceived in sin but blessed with evangelical purpose. As his congregation grows, so does the evil seed of pride.
Son of morning in this poem refers to the morning star or Venus that is cited in Isaiah XIV:12: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" As the Love Goddess Venus, she is the "perfectionist Dr. Magic, collector of hearts" with her "poisoned kiss seduction".

high lonesome, triumph of the spider monkey,
the rise of life on earth, lives of the twins
nemesis, falls of fair maiden's stolen heart.
High Lonesome is a song on The Gaslight Anthem album "The '59 Sound" (YouTube, lyrics). It is also the film title High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music (1994). High-Lonesome Books (founded 1986) publishes books on Western Americana, the Great Outdoors and Natural History. High Lonesome Ranch (started 1993) in Birch River, West Virginia, is a self-sufficient homestead. High Lonesome Hut is a Colorado Rocky Mountain Backcountry Retreat, near Meadow Creek Reservoir, 65 miles west of Denver. The High Lonesome: Epic Solo Climbing Stories (1999) by John Long tells about solo mountain climbing. Finally, Joyce Carol Oates's "High Lonesome" (2006) is a short story about Daryl reminiscing his Dad Pop Olafsson's suicide, ending with "This lonesome feeling I'd make a song of, if I knew how." However "high lonesome" in this poem is not connected with the above seven links. It may be connected to "triumph of the spider monkey" that swings high in the rainforest trees of the Amazon, or to the previous stanza's "son of morning" or Lucifer, the morning star. In Power of Myth (1988), Joseph Campbell gave an Islamic reading of Lucifer's fall from heaven: "One of the most amazing images of love that I know is in Persian— a mystical Persian representation as Satan as the most loyal lover of God. You will have heard the old legend of how, when God created the angels, he commanded them to pay worship to no one but himself; but then, creating man, he commanded them to bow in reverence to this most noble of his works, and Lucifer refused— because, we are told, of his pride. However, according to this Muslim reading of his case, it was rather because he loved and adored God so deeply and intensely that he could not bring himself to bow before anything else, and because he refused to bow down to something inferior to him (since he was made of fire, and man from clay). And it was for that that he was flung into Hell, condemned to exist there forever, apart from his love. Now it has been said that of all the pains of Hell, the worst is neither fire nor stench but the deprivation forever of the beatific sight of God. How infinitely painful, then, must the exile of this great lover be, who could not bring himself, even on God's own word, to bow before any other beings! The Persian poets have asked, "By what power is Satan sustained?" And the answer that they have found is this: "By his memory of the sound of God's voice when he said, 'Be gone!'" What an image of that exquisite spiritual agony which is at once the rapture and the anguish of love!" This Islamic version of Lucifer's fall from Heaven to Hell surely conjures up the image of "high lonesome"
spider monkey is a New World monkey of the genus Ateles and found in tropical forests of Central and South America. The disproportionately long limbs and tail gave rise to their common name. Spider monkeys live in the upper layers of the rainforest and forage in the high canopy (82 to 98 feet). Spider monkeys are the most intelligent New World monkeys.
the rise of life on earth refers to the primordial soup or abiogenesis where amino acids, the building blocks of life are formed as simulated in the Miller-Urey experiment (1952) on chemical evolution of early Earth. Hence amino acids that form proteins are the precursors to life and "the triumph of the spider monkey" that evolves onward to homo sapiens.
lives of the twins nemesis refers to the twin star to our Sun— Nemesis, a hypothetical red dwarf star orbiting the Sun at a distance of 50,000-100,000 AU, beyond the Oort cloud. Since the average time intervals of extinction events on earth was determined as 26 million years, it was hypothesized that Nemesis was the cause of these catastrophes when it orbits closer to our solar system. Now that twin stars have been observed in the universe, some have postulated that Nemesis as the twin of our Sun.

I lock my door upon myself because
it is bitter and because it is my heart,
all the good people I've left behind.

This stanza is from three of Joyce Carol Oates' book titles, two novels published in 1990, and a short stories collection in 1979. However, these very words could have come from the Buddha: "I lock my door upon myself" was his period of silence when he became a monk meditating under the Bodhi Tree in the forest. "Because it is bitter and because it is my heart" was his realization after enlightenment that life is suffering due to the cravings and desires in his heart. "All the good people I've left behind" refers to his wife, son, and father he left behind in the palace when he left surreptitiously at night, renouncing his kingdom to become a monk.

Bellefleur, soul mate, will you always love me?
My sister, my love, black girl, white girl—
where are you going, where have you been?

This stanza is from six of Oates' book titles (left). Click on book cover for more details on each book. Bellefleur is a magic realist novel (1980) by Oates about the generations of an upstate New York family. Bellefleur is French for "lovely flower" with nicknames Belle, Bella, Fleur. Soul/Mate is an Oates psychothriller novel (1989) about killer Colin Asch who has chosen beautiful Dorothea Deverell as his soul mate. Will she be his next victim? Will You Always Love Me? is a collection of 22 Oates short stories (1996). My Sister, My Love is an Oates novel (2008) about nineteen-year-old Skyler Rampike, the only surviving child of an "infamous" American family. Black Girl / White Girl is an Oates novel (2006) about an elite white girl, Genna Hewett-Meade, and her college roommate, Minette Swift, a black girl who died a mysterious, violent, terrible death. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is an Oates collection of early stories (1993). Since Apollo (sun god) and Diana (moon goddess) were twin brother & sister, the Sun could say to the Moon— "soul mate, will you always love me? My sister, my love" (Amritzar's Song: "How Sun Loves Moon Rose"). Black girl, white girl may symbolize night & day, but also the dark & bright side of the Moon. "Where are you going, where have you been?" are questions the Sun asks the Moon in her phase transitions from crescent to fullness and her three days of darkness (disappearance from the sky).

Dear husband, the wheel of love tenderness,
man crazy, them wild Saturday last days—
where is here?— that's where I'm going!

This stanza is from nine of Oates' book titles (left). Click on book cover for more details on each book. In some Wiccan texts, Lucifer is a name used interchangeably for Diana's brother/husband Apollo. Hence, Diana may address Apollo as "Dear husband". Since the Sun circles the Earth with its warmth and light in its apparent motion from sunrise to sunset, is this not "the wheel of love tenderness"? Tagore writes in Fireflies (1928): "Let my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom." "Them wild Saturday last days" may refer to the wild parties on Saturday before Sunday or last days of God's creation (Genesis I.24-31) before resting on the seventh day (Sunday). "Where is here?" is for those restless on the move, until they realize "here' is everywhere". This Zen-like awakening to one's inner nature, makes us content right here and now, so we could say "that's where I'm going!" (to nowhere because heaven is being still!).

Miracle play— Cybele, missing mom goddess,
I am no one you know, faithless fabulous beast,
unholy loves the hostile sun solstice.
Miracle plays were vernacular dramas performed in medieval Europe (10th-15th century) presenting the life, miracles, or martyrdom of saints. Cybele was an ancient Anatolian and Phrygian Mother Earth Goddess worshipped since Neolithic times (circa 8500 BC). This human sized marble statue of Cybele (left) is found at the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selçuk, adjacent to Ephesus. The goddess was known among Greeks as Mētēr (Mother) or Mountain Mother. She is associated with her lion throne and chariot drawn by lions and addressed as "Mistress of the Animals". Cybele was akin to the later Greek goddess Artemis (Diana, Roman goddess of the Moon). Since Cybele is associated with Diana, goddess of the Moon, "missing mom goddess" refers to the three days of darkness before the New Moon's crescent appears in the night sky. Thus the moon may be said to be "missing" and the Lunar Goddess is beyond intellectual comprehension— "I am no one you know". Since lions draw Cybele's chariot, they may be the "faithless fabulous beast". There is a Faithless song "Lion Tamers die in pain" (bloody Video). Followers of Cybele engage in orgiastic ceremonies with wild music, drumming, dancing and drinking. Some of this Dionysian frenzy may lead to "unholy loves". If Cybele is related to Diana (Moon goddess) whose brother is Apollo (Sun god), we have a yin-yang relationship. In the old religion of Stregheria, Diana kept the darkness of creation and gave the light to Apollo. The summer solstice (June 21) when the sunlight is longest and darkness shortest may be referred as "hostile sun solstice".

Starr Bright will be with you soon— I'll take you there
to the edge of impossibility with shuddering fall
heat foxfire, angel fire, angel of light.
Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon is an Oates novel (1999) where Starr Bright is the tormented, murderous side of Sharon Donner, a model and exotic dancer turned avenging angel. This female serial killer later seeks refuge with her estranged twin sister in New York.
I'll Take You There is an Oates novel (2002) about a young female student who, though gifted with a penetrating intelligence, is drastically inclined to obsession.
The Edge of Impossibility is Oates' book of essays (1972) on the tragic forms in literature. She explores the tragedy of existence, imagination, and nihilism, covering writers as Shakespeare, Chekhov, Melville, Dostoevski, Yeats, Thomas Mann, and Ionesco.
With Shuddering Fall is Joyce Carol Oates' first novel (1964). It is the story of an obsessive love over which, from the beginning, hovers an atmosphere of inexorable destruction.
"Heat" is an Oates' short story (1991) of 11-year-old twin sisters murdered by a 19-year-old neighborhood boy told by a woman contemporary and also victim. The story begins: It was midsummer, the heat rippling above the macadam roads, cicadas screaming out of the trees... Then the sun is there, and the heat." Foxfire is an Oates short story (1993) about an outlaw gang of five girls whose secret proverbs are "Foxfire never looks back! Foxfire burns & burns. Foxfire never says sorry!" Foxfire is the phosphorescent light emitted by decaying timber. It is a natural phenomenon sometimes visible at night in forests. It's caused by bioluminescent fungi in special conditions, usually on rotting bark. Renaissance philosophers wrote of "Fungus igneus, which shines like stars with a bluish light." In folklore, "Fairy sparks" in decaying wood indicated the place where fairies held their nightly revels.
"Angel Fire" is an Oates poem (1973)— "the sun in a spasm... / the angels direct their fire to pierce / our eyelids... / angels struggling in the shapes of fire... / killing the old selves of us / the old shadows / in one radiance". Angel of Light is an Oates novel (1981) about Kirsten and Owen vowing to uncover he truth and avenge their father Maurice Halleck's death. The Hallecks are direct descendants of John Brown, who was hanged in 1859, a martyr in the struggle against slavery. "He is an Angel of Light," Thoreau said of him.

I stand before you naked, my heart laid bare—
take me, take me with you, do with me what you will,
what I live for— first love, double delight, wild nights!
The cult statue from Ephesus (left) is "Beautiful Artemis" (1st century AD) where the Greek virgin-huntress Artemis (Diana) is worshipped. Artemis of Ephesus is commonly regarded as a fertility goddess, primarily because of the multitude of 'breasts' that cover her cult image. Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, near present-day Selçuk, Turkey. It was the second largest city in the Roman Empire behind Rome. The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Since Ephesus is the worship place of the Great Mother Cybele, Artemis, Diana, it resonates with Eleusis, an ancient Greek city dating to 1700 BC. This was the site of the Eleusinaian Mysteries, or the Mysteries of Demeter (The Mother) and Kore (Persephone). These Mysteries revolved around a belief that there was a hope for life after death for those who were initiated. A detailed account of Eleusinia and its nine days of celebration every four years in ancient Greece is provided in Lemprière's Classical Dictionary (3rd Edition, 1984, pp. 220-222). "I stand before you naked, my heart laid bare— take me, take me with you, do with me what you will" are words the initiate would say to the High Priestess during the secret ceremonial ritual. Here one relinquishes the ego of personal desires for the greater good— "not my will but Thy will be done." In a lecture commentating on The Bhagavad Gita at MIT (circa 1975), Swami Chinmayananda said "Undress and embace!". Then he clarified his remark "I'm not telling you to strip yourself naked physically, but mentally discard your ego self and egocentric desires so you may embrace your higher spiritual self!" The phrase "what I live for— first love, double delight, wild nights!" may sound like some hedonistic Dionysian orgy, but it may refer to a mystical epiphany after spiritual initiation into the higher mysteries. "Wild Nights!" is Emily Dickinson's Poem #249":
Wild Nights— Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile— the Winds—
To a Heart in port—
Done with the Compass—
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden—
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor— Tonight—
In Thee!

When Emily says she's "Done with the Compass— / Done with the Chart!", she's through with navigation. There is no need for maps (chart) or directions (compass) "to a Heart in port". Even the winds are futile to a Heart that has found its home in Eden (Paradise). Emily's mooring in the Sea is an act of purification, since water symbolizes the Spirit, where life had its birth. The Sea is the medium for transformation, where Emily's beloved "Were I with thee becomes "Tonight— In Thee!" Emily is in union with the Spirit, and experienced Christ's "I and my Father are one" (John X.30). When Demeter's daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades into the Underworld, Demeter's grief brought drought to the world. She appealed to Zeus who granted that Persephone would remain with Hades for four months (winter) and return to her for eight months. The Eleusinian Mysteries included a celebration of Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. Persephone had gone into the underworld (underground, like seeds in the winter), then returned to the land of the living: her rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during Spring and, by extension, all life on earth. Hence we can say this as "double delight" when Persephone returns to Demeter (8 months vs. 4 months in Hades), for there is no stronger "first love" than a mother for her child.

Little bird of heaven crossing the border
on raven's wing— garden of earthly delights
to wonderland of new heaven, new earth.

This stanza is from six of Oates' book titles (left). Click on book cover for more details on each book at Celestial Timepiece. Little Bird of Heaven is a song by Reeltime Travelers that ends with "Keep it close, hold it while you can / There's a little bird of heaven right here in your hand." The Hoopoe plays a central role in Attar's Conference of the Birds (1177), a 12th century Persian poem, guiding thirty other birds in their pilgrimage to enlightenment. Thus it is the "little bird of heaven" who has flown to the celestial realms. Crossing the border refers to the mantra in The Heart Sutra— "Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha" ("Gone, gone, gone beyond to the other shore"), where Buddhist and Zen aspirants experience awakened consciousness or enlightenment. Rather than some physical crossing to a new territory, it is a mental leap to a higher dimension of consciousness. "Raven's Wing" is an Oates short story (1985) about a 3-year-old black colt that broke its leg at the Meadowlands race track. Max Rieser writes in "Language of Poetic and of Scientific Thought" (Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 40, #16, 421-435, August 5, 1943): “expression "hair like raven's wings" will not be equivalent to the factual "black"... the symbolism lies in the valuational transcendence of the sign meaning.” (p. 425). Raven symbolism: The raven is symbolic of mind, thought and wisdom according to Norse legend, as their god Odin was accompanied by two ravens. In Greco-Roman culture, the raven is a solar bird associated with both Athena and Apollo, linked to the sun and light of wisdom.

Native North American tribes (Hopi, Navajo, Zuni) saw the raven as the bringer of light, flying out from the dark womb of the cosmos, and with it brought the light of the sun (dawning of understanding). These positive raven symbols contrast with the Christian attributes of the raven as evil, Satanic, and harbinger of death. The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painting (1504) by Hieronyms Bosch (1450-1516) in Madrid's Prado Museum. The left panel shows God presenting Adam with Eve in the Garden of Eden (left). The central square panel is a panorama of sexually engaged nude figures, fantastical animals, oversized fruits, and hybrid stones. The dark right panel portrays hell and damnation.
Wonderland is an Oates novel (1971) where she dedicates "This book is for all of us who pursue the phantasmagoria of personality—" The novel follows the many guises and personalities of Jesse through boyhood shattered by murder, adolescence engulfed in science and mysticism, parenthood overwhelmed by the spiritual loss of his own child. Wonderland is the story of that land of wonder, human "personality" and the human soul. The book begins with three epigraphs— a poem by T.W. Monk titled "Wonderland" which opens "the spheres are whirling without sound inside / spheres"; quote from Borges Labryrinths: "We... have dreamt the world. We have dreamt it as firm, mysterious, visible, ubiquitous in space and durable in time; but in its architecture we have allowed tenuous and eternal crevices of unreason which tell us it is false."; quote from Yeats "Knowledge increases unreality.". This novel explores the questions— Do we exist? What is "personality"? Is it permanent, is it ephemeral? It plunges the reader into the vortex of being and non-being. It is interesting that Wonderland was published in 1971 after Joyce Carol Oates had her first mystical experience in London (December 1970) which she recounts in her Journal (January 19, 1973).
"New heaven, new earth" is cited in the Bible four times:
Isaiah 65.17: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isaiah 66.22: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain." 2 Peter 3.13: "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Revelation 21.1: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." While the Biblical "New heaven, new earth" refers to end times or the Apocalypse, Joyce Carol Oates' New Heaven, New Earth is subtitled "the visionary experience in literature" published in 1974 (Vanguard Press, New York). There are two epigraphs facing the Contents page—
"Ah, no, I cannot tell you what it is, the new world. I cannot tell you the mad, astounding rapture of its discovery. I shall be mad with delight before I have done, and whosoever comes after will find me in the new world a madman in rapture." — D.H. Lawrence, New Heaven and Earth
"Evil does not exist; once you have crossed the threshold, all is good. Once in another world, you must hold your tongue." — Franz Kafka, Diary (1922)
From these epigraph quotes, one can see that Oates is not talking about the doom and gloom of end times, but the visionary experience of poets and writers who have seen life from a new perspective, an angle of vision that is more profound than ordinary seeing. This seeing is what Dante calls the anagogical level of saints and sages whose cosmic consciousness enable them to see the inward nature of things. Though they live in this temporal finite world, their mind is in tune with the infinite and eternal. Thus a sage lives every moment in a wonderland of new heaven, new earth.