William Carlos Williams / Dorothea Lange: The Descent

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Untitled (garden steps. Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

The descent beckons
 

.............as the ascent beckoned.

.............................

 .............................Memory is a kind

of accomplishment,

.............a  sort of renewal

 ............................ even

an initiation, since the spaces it opens are new places
               
.............inhabited by hordes

.............................heretofore unrealized,
of new kinds --

.............since their movements  

 ...........                     are toward new objectives

(even though formerly they were abandoned).

 

Untitled (garden steps, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

No defeat is made up entirely of defeat -- since

the world it opens is always a place
 
................formerly
 
............................unsuspected. A
world lost,     

................a world unsuspected,

............................beckons to new places

and no whiteness (lost) is so white as the memory

of whiteness.......

Untitled (garden steps, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

With evening, love wakens

                though its shadows                          

............................which are alive by reason

of the sun shining --              

.............grow sleepy now and drop away

                            .....from desire........

Untitled (garden steps, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Love without shadows stirs now

...............beginning to awaken

...........................as night

advances.

Untitled (garden, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

The descent

...............made up of despairs                    

............................and without accomplishment

realizes a new awakening:                          

 ...........................which is a reversal
of despair.               

.............. For what we cannot accomplish, what

is denied to love,               

...............what we have lost in the anticipation --                           

............................a descent follows,

endless and indestructible..............             

 

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): The Descent, first published in Paterson II (1948); included as the opening poem in The Desert Music (1954)

Untitled (path, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (window, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)


 

 Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oak tree, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

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