One

I cast my soul into the deep, dark well
       of the night sky
It leaps with the thought of you, jumps
       past the stars
And rummages in the space beyond
       as through a cluttered closet

But its activity is from joy,
       not for need
For there is no place
       it does not find you
There is no sound that is not
       an echo of your name.

       When you know a person, you know them in sections, in bits, Delphy told him later. You assemble them from the first impressions, before you learn about them.

       In Analyssa’s case, Matt knew her as beautiful before he spoke a word to her. Then, in the first speaking, she expressed a heart and mind of unfamiliar harmony. With these parts, the first parts, the first colors of the woman, he created the rest.

       She was waiting for the bus at the end of the day on the sidewalk in front of the café where Matt worked. She turned and pretended to read the menu posted on the window as she checked her face in the glass. The same lighting which caused the window to be so useful for reflection concealed Matt. The same event occurred the next day. The same eye checked the glass, a dispassionate eye, an assayer’s eye, an agent’s eye. A lonely eye. Not clouded or distracted by a need to find something flattering or a fear of finding something unpleasant. An eye only open to see what exactly was there. A judge’s eye. No debate.

Analyssa
the seduction of a woman on the spiritual path
By Alan Harvey

An accident of reflection in the window of a restaurant joins the eyes of Matt and Analyssa. They fulfill each other's dreams. Or do they only reflect to each other their own desires?

But they exist in a real world, a world of money and politics and protest. Here is Brandon Cockburn driven to violent dissent. Here is Leslie Emerson, New York Times reporter extraordinaire. And the worlds of Jack and Delphy, and others beyond and outside them. Real, heroic, craven, tragic, noble, and some deeply internal and spiritual worlds. The perfect becomes the poignant becomes the painful becomes again the perfect.

These lives and those others in the spaces between them are clear and convincing one moment, then like a reflection, they reform with a change of light. Analyssa is told in poetry and prose and prayers. It is charming, romantic and spiritually and politically aware.


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