Faust

The Saturday Night Special: “Faust” by Phil Slattery

Phil Slattery portrait — Phil Slattery
March, 2015

I have been negligent over the last few weeks regarding posting the Saturday Night Special as I like to do. Tonight, I would like to resurrect it, if only for the night, with one of my own creations: the poem “Faust”. This is one of the first works, poem or fiction, that I ever wrote. I wrote in in probably 1991. I remember it was a summer’s day and the weather was beautiful, but I had a drive to write poetry in those days and I decided to stay in until I wrote a poem. I decided to write on the German legend of Faust as it had always fascinated me.

So I stayed in my living room that beautiful day for eight hours until I had this finished. What I did after that, I am not certain, I probably searched the Poet’s Market (no Internet back then) for that year until I found a possible publisher. I did not have a personal computer then, so I typed it up and submitted it by USPS, which was the only option then. I do not recall how many times I submitted it before it was accepted, but it wasn’t many. I may have even got it on the first attempt, which is rare. “Faust” was first published in February, 1992 by The Hollins Critic (for which I was paid $25, the only money I ever made from a single poem). It was reprinted by Blood Moon Rising Magazine on July 10, 2013 and by Literary Hatchet on December 22, 2015.

If you are not familiar with the legend, Faust was a German alchemist/scientist in the middle ages-Renaissance who sold his soul for knowledge. The legend was most famously made into a long play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and many consider it to be his magnum opus and the greatest work of German literature. Goethe published part I in 1806 and finished part II in 1831, but part II was not published until after Goethe’s death.

“Faust” is probably my favorite poem of all the ones I ever wrote.

Quiet.
All is damnably quiet.
I can hear the spiders spinning in the darkness,
the breath of a rat against the stone walls,
a cockroach crawling through the sulphur-laden air.
The roaring silence fills the air like the grumble of the sea.

Pitiless Eternity.

But a second ago he was here,
he whose eyes glowed like falling stars in bottomless pools,
he with the comforting voice of the practiced whore.
My wounds still bleed, my sleeves are still wet.
The rats have yet to smell the droplets on the floor.

For what have I been sold?
Square roots? Sines? Sums?
Will I profit knowing winds are not the breath of God
knowing the sun is not a chariot of fire?
knowing mountains are not the bones of giants?
knowing why the sound of pouring wine tickles the ear?
why lovers’ eyes sparkle as purest silver?
why cool grass and shade bring easy sleep?

Did Da Vinci paint with a carpenter’s angle?
Michaelangelo sculpt with a plumb?

I will be reduced to monotonous lectures and boring sums.
And should I escape eternal hell
I nonetheless lose my soul.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the Roman countryside by J.H.W. Tischbein

Literary Hatchet Issue #13, containing “Faust”, is now on line.

150x150Self I just learned that issue #13 of the Literary Hatchet, containing my poem “Faust”, is on line. Please feel free to drop by at Literary Hatchet Issues and download a free copy. “Faust” is located on page 248.

Once again, many thanks to poetry editor Michael Birnbaum and the staff of The Literary Hatchet for re-printing this dramatic poem.

Issue #13 of The Literary Hatchet will be late.

Faust--detail of an illustration by Friedrich Gustav Schlick — Faust–detail of an illustration by Friedrich Gustav Schlick

I found out yesterday that Issue #13 of The Literary Hatchet, containing my poem “Faust”, will be late by a few days because of the holidays. That staff knows how to build suspense. I will post an announcement when Issue #13 is up. In the meantime, check out their Issues page. They have consistently beautiful cover art. I also like the way they came up with their publication’s name. The Literary Hatchet is located in Fall River, Massachusetts, the hometown of Lizzie Borden.

Publication Announcement: “Faust” to appear in The Literary Hatchet

My horror poem “Faust” has been accepted by The Literary Hatchet and will appear in their next issue, which is slated for December 15.

“Faust” is my take on a moment in the story of Faust, the legendary professor and scientist of medieval Germany, who sold his soul to the devil in return for all knowledge. I examine Faust’s feelings in that moment just after he has sold his soul and the devil (Mephisto) has vanished, when he is left to contemplate in solitude the consequences of his decision.

I would like to thank Stefani Koorey, Michael Brimbau, and the staff of The Literary Hatchet, for reprinting this, my favorite of all the poems I have written to date. “Faust” has previously appeared in The Hollins Critic (1992) and Blood Moon Rising (2013).

Please feel free to visit The Literary Hatchet on December 15 or purchase a hard copy and check out “Faust” on December 15, or at any time for that matter.

Thoughts? Comments?

My Poem “Faust” Has Been Reprinted

I am happy to announce that as of today, July 10, 2013, my poem “Faust” has been reprinted in Blood Moon Rising Magazine. Please follow the link to view my favorite of all the poems I have written and to visit their excellent magazine.

My Poem “Faust” Will Be Reprinted

I just received word that my poem “Faust” will be reprinted in the July issue (#53) of Blood Moon Rising Magazine. My many heartfelt thanks go out to Daniel Jones and the staff at Blood Moon Rising for publishing one of my favorite works. Please visit their website whenever you have the opportunity.

Ginsberg’s Breath Units

Allen Ginsberg, 1978

Photo by Ludwig Urning

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection

to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…

So run the opening lines of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl“, considered by many to be one greatest works of American literature. One aspect of the poem that has always fascinated me is that Ginsberg wrote it in what are often called “breath units”, i.e. each line comprises the amount of words that should be spoken with one breath. I have experimented with breath units or something similar in both prose and poetry. One example is my poem “Faust“, which was published by the Hollins Critic in 1992.

I have found that when used in prose, breath units can be effective in breaking up rhythm in order to emphasize a point. For example, imagine a sentence as equivalent to a breath unit. Write a very long sentence and try saying it in one breath. It is as if you are trying to say something in a hurry. Use that long sentence to describe fast-moving but extended action, such as a martial arts masters exchanging blows in a match. To me, it seems as if I am in the fight while trying to describe it. Now use three to four of these sentences to describe the entire match. Then use a very short, indicative sentence to describe the final blow dropping the defeated master to the mat.

Here is an example of the use of my use of breath units in my story “A Tale of Hell” (published by Midnighttimes.com in 2006). Note that here I start with two short sentences, then follow them with three long sentences, and then conclude with one short one for emphasis.

He wanted to make love. He did not want just sex. He was not interested in his own orgasm as much as he felt an overpowering desire for the smooth texture of Theresa’s skin; the velvety brush of her nipples across his face; the sight of the light playing upon the delicate, minute hair covering the back of her neck; the tickle of her breath as it flowed around the contours of his ear. Above all else, he wanted to hear her voice, that voice that sometimes changed into a shrill nag when he wasn’t paying attention to what she said, or when he forgot to pick up something at the store, or when he neglected to call and tell her he would be late for supper. Now it dawned on him: over the years she had put up with a lot more crap than she should have. He wanted to apologize.

I have no doubt there are other technical names for this technique when used in prose, but I do not know them. It is a technique use occasionally. To my mind, prose breath units should be used sparingly or they lose their impact. I think they have a great potential in horror literature if used properly, because they can lead a reader very fast to a point that is suddenly emphasized by an unexpectedly abrupt hall–sort of like sprinting around a corner only to run face first into a brick wall.

So, I guess the question for tonight is: are you familiar with this technique and do you know it by another name?

By the way, I had never thought of it before, but isn’t that first line of “Howl” very much in the horror vein? I am wondering if “Howl” couldn’t be used as an example of horror in many ways, though it was almost certainly never intended to be viewed as a work of horror.