Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99
By Ray Bradbury
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
A journalist bearing terrible news leaps from a still-moving train into a small town of wonderful, impossible secrets . . .
The doomed crew of a starship follows their blind, mad captain on a quest into deepest space to joust with destiny, eternity, and God Himself . . .
Now and Forever is a bold new work from an incomparable artist whose stories have reshaped America's literary landscape. Two bewitching novellas—each distinctly different, yet uniquely Bradbury—demonstrate the breathtaking range of his undimmed talent and the irrepressible vitality of the mind, spirit, and heart of America's preeminent storyteller.
Ray Bradbury
In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. An Emmy Award winner for his teleplay The Halloween Tree and an Academy Award nominee, he was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.
Read more from Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Illustrated Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Wicked This Way Comes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fahrenheit 451: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dandelion Wine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The October Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zen in the Art of Writing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Sing the Body Electric: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quicker Than the Eye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From the Dust Returned Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Now and Forever
21 ratings18 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Being a Bradbury fan I was dissapointed. Somewhere was 3.5 and I saw the carnivals and mirrors and lawns noted do often in Bradbury. The secocond story was not prodiced for a reason and it dragged the small collection down to a 3.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This volume consists of two novellas “Somewhere a Band Is Playing” and “Leviathan ’99.” The first story is about a dream like desert town with a secret. This story is more rewarding that the later. Bradbury muses about life and death and seems to revisit the same youthful nostalgic settings that made “Dandelion Wine” such a classic. The second story is “Moby Dick” in space. Bradbury wrote it around the time he wrote his fantastic screen play for the John Huston movie. It was originally a BBC radio play production starring Christopher Lee. The character of Quell, an alien Queequeg, is interesting, but the dialog is to Shakespearian. Some of the science fiction aspects don’t work. The changes in time and space seem contrived. “Somewhere a Band Is Playing” is a better written novella with nostalgic imagery and more simplistic narrative and dialog.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bradbury is pure poetry. I usually gobble up a book, so I can get to the end, and go on to something else. Not so with Bradbury. He must be read slowly, letting each word form an image in your mind. Read: "There was a desert prairie filled with wind and sun.." That's the opening sentence of Somewhere a Band Is Playing. One of my favorite words is "prairie"--why? It would take pages to describe the images that single word conjures up in my mind. But Bradbury opens his story with a desert prairie and suddenly, two different imagines meet and make perfect sense.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This volume showcases two beautiful novellas that have apparently been in the works for years and are now finally making an appearance in their full and perhaps final form. Right off the bat, I will say that the time spent on this has been well worth it. Along with the stories are very short introductions gleaming a little light on to their genesis and making them all the more savory. The first, "Somewhere a Band is Playing", is another of Bradbury's poetic odes to small western towns and the joys they contain, but that is only a thin veneer on the surface of a deeper and more moving work. Its quality may have been increased by the fact that I read it sitting in the sun in front of the general store in my own little village, and was touched by the feelings of love and belonging felt by Summerton's inhabitants. It is, however, the secret they all share that brings the story home.'Leviathan '99' is based around one of the many apparent focuses of Bradbury's career. Born out of his famous screenplay adaptation for 'Moby Dick', 'Leviathan' is a re-imagining of Melville if the Pequot was a space ship, Quequeg an alien, and the great white whale something far more massive and powerful. Amazingly, Bradbury manages to tell the entire story of 'Moby Dick' in fewer than a hundred well-spaced pages, and yet took longer to finish it than Herman's oft hefted, but rarely finished novel. Most fascinating is the way Bradbury finds a place for God in the deep vastness of outer space, just as he has done in 'The Martian Chronicles' and numerous other stories. There are a few times when a plot point or object feels a little contrived, but the spirit of the original is preserved and enhanced.Though both very different, these two short works revolve around themes Bradbury returns to time and time again: the shortness of youth, the love of writing, and the vast expanses of Space to name just a few. It is a sad truth that there is not that much of Ray these days, but even in these advanced years he still shines with wonder, virtuosity, and that simple joy that draws me so to his writings. Stay strong, sir, and peace.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In 2007, his novella collection "Now and Forever" was released, offering two new tales from the master writer. The first story -- "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" -- revolves around James Cardiff, an adventurer, if you will, who while sleeping one night hears a strange music when his eyes close. The words of a poem fitting the music etch themselves in his inner vision, and he's drawn to the middle of nowhere in Arizona. There he discovers the town of Summerton, population uncertain, but the residents harbor a great secret, one to which forces James to make a life-changing decision.The story is an effective fantasy spin on what it means to be a writer. Not simply the process of writing, but how it affects the writer and what writing means to the writer.The second novella -- "Leviathan '99" -- is Bradbury's re-telling of the classic Melville novel Moby Dick. He moves the action from the seas of Earth to the more vast sea of stars and space. Ishmael spins his tale of a ship's captain, determined to find the bright white comet that blinded him, no matter the cost to himself or to his crew.I can't think of a better writer to transpose the tale into the expanse of outer space. That sense of wonder and adventure remains intact while still managing to have the spirit of Melville attached to it with how the characters speak and act. (It doesn't hurt that he co-wrote the script for the 1958 film version or re-counted his time spent with the writing in his novel "Green Shadows, White Whale".)"Now and Forever" offers two prime examples of why Bradbury is considered one of the foremost writers. If you've yet to read anything from him, I suggest checking out this one.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If the whole book was the nouvella SOMEWHERE THE BAND WAS PLAYING, it would be a five year. I kept saying to myself as I read alooooooowly "this, now, is truly a writer." Bradbury makes me salivate with his prose paintings.. And I do not care if neither story is terribly original (the first modelled after BRIGADOON and the second, of course, Melville's MOBY DICK, they shone with Ray's originality.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Somewhere a Band is Playing wasn't really my thing. Bradbury's prose is too saccharine and the ending is a muddle, a poor attempt at some sort of dramatic tension.Surprisingly I preferred Leviathan 99. The prose is a little less sweet this time around, there's more of an edge and Bradbury does a good job of transposing Moby Dick to space. It still has its weak moments but overall it was a fun yarn.If the first tale was two stars, I think the second is probably worth three; so 2.5 overall.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two novellas in one volume: a format that has, recently, driven me to cynical mutterings about publishers letting under-par or under-length pieces to do the financial legwork of a decent novel. I’m pleased to say that not only are both these offerings perfect for the novella format, they are easily of the expected standard of the author, and both have short introductions which make interesting additional reading.I have read perhaps only a third of Bradbury's stories, but I have read enough to know to expect intriguing and quirky sci-fi. What I wasn’t expecting was the almost indescribably sweet sadness of Somewhere a Band is Playing. Told in brief, visually strong chapters, it describes the discovery by a young journalist of a town where nobody ages or dies, and the affinity he feels for the place and the people. In the introduction, Bradbury tells us all the elements that came together to form, if not the plot, then the atmosphere of Somewhere a Band…; elements that combine to provoke just the right sense of yearning and jeopardy. In comparison Leviathan ‘99 is almost predictable Bradbury; that’s not to say it isn’t clever, moving, interesting or well-written sci-fi – just that those things could have been predicted before I began reading it. I say ‘almost’… a science-fiction retelling of Moby Dick isn’t precisely something I would have foretold (but it does answer the expectation of ‘quirk’). Bradbury’s introduction, wherein he tells us that he’d tried the story – repeatedly – as a radio-play script, speaks to his delight with the idea of relocating and revisiting the epic, obsessive battle. Oddly enough, while Moby Dick is a hefty tome even in its abridged-all-to-hell state, Leviathan ‘99 carries off the same feel in a comparative nutshell. It’s my favourite of the two, and one of my favourite Bradbury tales, although I felt the climax could have been stronger.So, a couple of must-read stories for Bradbury fans, pieces that work well together for their equally emotive poetry. Would I prefer to see them in a longer collection? Of course – but I’m going to make the rare condescension and say that this volume is a worthy addition in itself… I’m not even biased by the nice rough-guillotined edges, one of those nice tactile touches that nearly always push me over the edge of any prevaricating when it comes to book purchases. While I might buy on a whim, I only recommend what I love… and I loved these two tales.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Overall I wasn't impressed. Each story has high points and very nice prose, but there's better Bradbury out there.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“Take two Bradbury and call me in the morning.” Face it; that is a prescription that can be used in any situation. And, accordingly, this book fills that prescription perfectly.This is actually two novellas collected in a single book. The second is okay, the first is a joy. So we will start with the second first (and save the best – the first – for last. Following so far? Good.) “Leviathan ‘99” is a retelling of Moby Dick in outer space. As Bradbury notes in his introduction, it has come to us through a circuitous path including being written as a radio play, doubling its length to a two-hour radio play, whittling back the material that wasn’t really needed, and finally production of this novella. The result is not okay. Bradbury cannot write badly, and it is evidenced here because the final story is so-so. But it is still a fun (if not overly fulfilling) read.But now, to the main course. The first novella is titled “Somewhere a Band is Playing” and it is vintage Bradbury. A man steps off a train into small-town America (this time in Arizona.) He finds there is magic there, a magic he wants to be a part of. The magic is threatened. With that, you can tell that Bradbury is telling a story he has told before. And the story itself leads to an incredibly logical conclusion that is seen long before that end arrives. But that is the skill and talent and wonder that is Bradbury. Every page and every line of this story draws us in with its warmth. Every piece comes together to make us feel glad to be on the voyage. This is Bradbury helping us relive why he thinks life is worth living, and we are all glad to join in his sharing.One story that is good. One that is excellent. Take both and you won’t even have to wait until the morning to feel better about yourself.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There are two novella in this collection. The first, Somewhere A Band is Playing is vintage Bradbury; the stuff of his early short stories. I have run across the second, Leviathan in it's previous forms and have never been able to warm up to it. This version is no exception. The language is over the top Melvillian (is that a word?). Think Moby Dick in space...
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The book is comprised of two novellas, “Somewhere a Band is Playing” and “Leviathan ’99,” both of which Bradbury appears to have been working on, in one format or another, for some decades, thus fitting with his recent trend of expanding shorter works or finishing incomplete ideas. If he didn’t still possess some laudable skill, a reader might be forgiven for assuming he’s putting his affairs in order. Both novellas, though unconnected, are ruminations on Time and, ultimately, Death, and you can really see Bradbury’s flair for the poetic shining through in each. “Somewhere a Band is Playing” really isn’t all that remarkable: it reads like a lighter episode of “The Twilight Zone,” or maybe even “Amazing Stories,” and there’s no surprise that it was intended as a film or TV piece. It picks up on aspects of a lot of Bradbury’s early short stories but doesn’t really offer anything new. “Leviathan ’99,” on the other hand, is a tighter piece, apparently adapted from a radio play, with some wonderful images in the dialogue. It’s a futuristic take on “Moby Dick,” yet it remains essentially Bradbury, concerned with aspects of God in the stars and love in the bravery of men. It’s well worth the read, and if Bradbury has any more ‘leftovers’ along these lines, I’d love to read those, too.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5These 2 novellas are typical Ray Bradbury. His language is so evocative it often sounds like poetry. I recently heard Neil Gaiman speak and he said the best way to experience Poe was to hear him. I've felt the same way about Bradbury for quite some time.He was one of the few sf authors in our library when I was young, but his tales were too touchy feely for me then. Heinlein was more the thing for a teenage boy. Now, the opposite holds true. I appreciate the wistfulness and emotionality of Bradbury.A problem I always had with Bradbury was that I'd get caught up in the music of his narration and suddenly there would be a plot clunker and the magic was gone.Sometimes it seemed forever before the plot surfaced and by then I had my own conceptions of where it should go. I saw that as a problem. Now I see it as a gift. He got my imagination to soar. I was creating my own stories in my head but I didn't appreciate it. I wanted him to do his job and realize them for me. Reviews? Oh, if you insist."Somewhere a Band is Playing" It seemed like the clunkers were just around the bend but they never came. There were a few bumps but they smoothed out quickly. The magic grew and remained. Heavy on the wistful."Leviathan 2099"I really expected to hate this adaptation of his movie adaptation of "Moby Dick" and the foreword increased my misgivings. I loved it! A dash of Heinlein.There are only 4 CDs to this edition. The stories are over too quickly.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5These 2 novellas are typical Ray Bradbury. His language is so evocative it often sounds like poetry. I recently heard Neil Gaiman speak and he said the best way to experience Poe was to hear him. I've felt the same way about Bradbury for quite some time.He was one of the few sf authors in our library when I was young, but his tales were too touchy feely for me then. Heinlein was more the thing for a teenage boy. Now, the opposite holds true. I appreciate the wistfulness and emotionality of Bradbury.A problem I always had with Bradbury was that I'd get caught up in the music of his narration and suddenly there would be a plot clunker and the magic was gone.Sometimes it seemed forever before the plot surfaced and by then I had my own conceptions of where it should go. I saw that as a problem. Now I see it as a gift. He got my imagination to soar. I was creating my own stories in my head but I didn't appreciate it. I wanted him to do his job and realize them for me. Reviews? Oh, if you insist."Somewhere a Band is Playing" It seemed like the clunkers were just around the bend but they never came. There were a few bumps but they smoothed out quickly. The magic grew and remained. Heavy on the wistful."Leviathan 2099"I really expected to hate this adaptation of his movie adaptation of "Moby Dick" and the foreword increased my misgivings. I loved it! A dash of Heinlein.There are only 4 CDs to this edition. The stories are over too quickly.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love Ray Bradbury's descriptive writing! These are two very different stories in one volume. SOMEWHERE A BAND IS PLAYING is a more ethereal story, set on Earth, while LEVIATHAN '99 is an updated version of a space story he wrote long ago.
~Stephanie - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the final book published by Ray Bradbury before his death. It contains two novellas, each based on well-known stories. The first, Somewhere a Band Is Playing, echoes Brigadoon’s love story. The second, Leviathan '99 is a direct retelling of Moby Dick. Somewhere a Band Is Playing explores a city of eternal youth. James Cardiff stops in a small town in Arizona where everything seems a bit too perfect. He discovers that every single person in the town is a writer. The story is sweet and it actually reminded me a bit of certain scenes from 11/22/63. Leviathan ‘99 is a much darker tale. It’s a futuristic retelling of Moby Dick. It’s told by the only survivor of a spaceship that was captained by a man obsessed with finding the Great White Comet, which blinded him years earlier. It’s important to note that Bradbury had a particular connection to the story of Moby Dick. He spent a year in Ireland writing the screenplay for Moby Dick. That passion and fanatical focus on the one thing that will probably destroy them all is translated beautifully to the future. BOTTOM LINE: Neither story is a new favorite, but both have Bradbury’s wonderful tone and writing. You can’t go wrong with any of his short stories. If you’re new to his work I’d recommend starting with one of his famous collections like The Martian Chronicles or The Illustrated Man. October Country is one of my personal favorites as well.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Somewhere a Band Is Playing was actually okay.
Leviathan '99 was Bradbury's admitted attempt at setting Moby Dick in space. It didn't work. At all. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Not a big Sci-Fi reader, if this falls into that category. Have read a little Bradbury. And now I remember why it was only a little. Not fond of his style.
Book preview
Now and Forever - Ray Bradbury
Bradbury is an authentic original.
Time
Acclaim for one of America’s finest storytellers
RAY BRADBURY
and
NOW AND FOREVER
"May be the most substantial new fantasy
work he's produced in years."
Locus
"[Now and Forever] eloquently displays two sides
of the venerated Bradbury with two highly
contrasting tales of the fantastic. [In] Somewhere a
Band Is Playing. . . . secrets unfold with Bradbury’s
hallmark pacing, gentle and inexorable, and the
plot arcs just as gently into the fantastical. . . .
Framed by engagingly wistful lyric verse, this
classically appealing Bradbury fantasy is at
distinct odds with the prickly and disturbing
Leviathan ’99, [a] space-faring homage to Melville,
[that] cogently packs Moby Dick’s psychological
complexity into a quarter of the space."
Publishers Weekly (* Starred Review *)
"There is no simpler, yet deeper, stylist
than Bradbury. Out of the plainest of words
he creates images and moods that readers
seem to carry with them forever."
San Francisco Chronicle
"Bradbury’s dual novellas shine. . . .
Full of emotion and intelligence . . .
Bradbury’s still got it."
Deserei Morning News (Salt Lake City)
The best author in the entire world.
Anchorage Daily News
"Admirers oí Dandelion Wine, Something
Wicked This Way Comes, and Bradbury’s most
recent novel, Farewell Summer, will find much
delightful nostalgia and fantasies of a sweeter
life. . . . Bradbury has never been afraid
to attack big stories, big themes. . . .
Now Bradbury has the audacity/chutzpah/lunacy
to rewrite Moby Dick in outer space. . . .
The complicated philosophical richness behind
Melville's story is explored more fully."
Baltimore Sun
"Anything new from master fantasist Bradbury's
enchanted pen is cause for celebration.
Here are two recently completed novellas that
simmered in his imagination for decades. . . .
Bradbury’s celebrated literary magic will
satisfy newcomers and dedicated fans alike."
Booklist
"Bradbury has a style all his own, much imitated
but never matched. . . . After writing for more
than fifty years, Bradbury has become more than
pretty good at it. He has become a master."
The Oregonian (Portland)
"Ray Bradbury has accomplished what very
few artists do. . . . He has changed us."
Boston Sunday Globe
"One of the few living geniuses
of American letters."
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Bradbury is the celebrated author of such
modern American classics as Fahrenheit 451,
The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man,
and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Sure to be added to that list is [his] new book."
Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
"What distinguishes Bradbury is a joy a lightness,
a wonder, a sense of magic and a childlike
celebration of being alive. . . . Somewhere a Band
Is Playing is . . . perfectly sweet . . . whimsical
fare . . . leviathan ’99 is a deliberate twinning
of two influences. Melville's white whale is
converted to an infamous comet, and Moby
Dick is transported to outer space—but with the
lilt of the Bard. . . . Bizarre and delightful."
Lionel Shriver, The Daily Telegraph (London)
"Bradbury continues to manipulate language
as well as any poet or fiction writer."
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
"I think it is safe to say: Yes, Ray, you will live in
the hearts and minds of readers such as me and the
children of my child. You will indeed live forever!"
Los Angeles Times
Contents
Somewhere a Band Is Playing
Somewhere
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Leviathan ’99
Radio Dream
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Novels
Short Fiction
Non-Fiction
About the Author
Books by Ray Bradbury
Copyright
About the Publisher
SOMEWHERE
A BAND
IS PLAYING
*
SOMEWHERE
Some stories—be they short stories, novellas, or novels—you may realize, are written as a result of a single, immediate, clear impulse. Others ricochet off various events over a lifetime and come together much later to make a whole.
When I was six years old my father, who had an urge to travel, took our family by train to Tucson, Arizona, for a year, where we lived in a burgeoning environment; for me, it was exhilarating. The town was very small and it was still growing. There’s nothing more exciting than to be part of the evolution of a place. I felt a sense of freedom there and I made many wonderful friends.
A year later, we moved back to Waukegan, Illinois, where I had been born and spent the first years of my life. But we returned to Tucson when I was twelve, and this time I experienced an even greater sense of exhilaration because we lived out on the edge of town and I walked to school every day, through the desert, past all the fantastic varieties of cacti, encountering lizards, spiders and, on occasion, snakes, on my way to seventh grade; that was the year I began to write.
Then, much later, when I lived in Ireland for almost a year, writing the screenplay of Moby Dick for John Huston, I encountered the works of Stephen Leacock, the Canadian humorist. Among them was a charming little book titled Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.
I was so taken with the book that I tried to get MGM to make a motion picture of it. I typed up a few preliminary pages to show the studio how I envisioned the book as a film. When MGM’s interest failed, I was left with the beginning of a screenplay that had the feeling of a small town. But at the same time I couldn’t help but remember the Tucson I had known and loved when I was six and when I was twelve, and began to write my own screenplay and short story about a town somewhere in the desert.
During those same years I kept encountering Katharine Hepburn, either in person or on the screen, and I was terribly attracted by the fact that she remained so youthful in appearance through the years.
Sometime in 1956, when she was in her late forties, she made the film Summertime. This caused me somehow to put her at the center of a story for which I had no title yet, but Somewhere a Band Is Playing was obviously evolving.
Some thirty years ago I saw a film called The Wind and the Lion, starring Sean Connery and with a fabulous score by Jerry Goldsmith. I was so taken with the score that I sat down, played it, and wrote a long poem based on the enchanting music.
This became another element of Somewhere a Band Is Playing as I progressed through the beginnings of a story which I had not yet fully comprehended, but it seemed as if finally all the elements were coming together: the year I spent in Tucson, age six, the year I spent there when I was twelve, the various encounters with Katharine Hepburn, including her magical appearance in Summertime, and my long poem based on the score of The Wind and the Lion. All of these ran together and inspired me to begin a long prologue to the novella that ultimately followed.
Today, looking back, I realize how fortunate I am to have collected such elements, to have held them ready, and then put them together to make this final product, Somewhere a Band Is Playing. I have been fortunate to have many helpers
along the way. One of those, in the case of this story, is my dear friend Anne Hardin, who has offered me strong encouragement over the past few years to see this novella published. For that she shares in the dedication of this work.
Of course, I had hoped to finish the novella, over the years, in order to have it ready in time for Katharine Hepburn, no matter how old she got, to play the lead in a theater or film adaptation. Katie waited patiently, but the years passed, she became tired, and finally left this world. I cannot help but feel she deserves the dedication I have placed on this story.
SOMEWHERE A BAND IS PLAYING . . .
for Anne Hardin and Katharine Hepburn, with love
CHAPTER 1
There was a desert prairie filled with wind and sun and sagebrush and a silence that grew sweetly up in wildflowers. There was a rail track laid across this silence and now the rail track shuddered.
Soon a dark train charged out of the east with fire and steam and thundered through the station. On its way it slowed at a platform littered with confetti, the tatters of ancient tickets punched by transient conductors.
The locomotive slowed just enough for one piece of luggage to catapult out, and a young man in a summer dishrag suit to leap after and land running as the train, with a roar, charged on as if the station did not exist, nor the luggage, nor its owner who now stopped his jolting run to stare around as the dust settled around him and, in the distance, the dim outlines of small houses were revealed.
Damn,
he whispered. "There is something here, after all."
More dust blew away, revealing more roofs, spires, and trees.
Why?
he whispered. Why did I come here?
He answered himself even more quietly, Because.
CHAPTER 2
Because.
In his half-sleep last night he had felt something writing on the insides of his eyelids.
Without opening his eyes he read the words as they scrolled:
Somewhere a band is playing,
Playing the strangest tunes,
Of sunflower seeds and sailors
Somewhere a drummer simmers
And trembles with times forlorn,
Remembering days of summer
In futures yet unborn.
Hold on,
he heard himself say.
He opened his eyes and the writing stopped.
He half-raised his head from the pillow and then, thinking better of it, lay back down.
With his eyes closed the writing began again on the inside of his lids.
Futures so far they are ancient
And filled with Egyptian dust,
That smell of the tomb and the lilac,
And seed that is spent from lust,
And peach that is hung on a tree branch
Far out in the sky from one’s reach,
There mummies as lovely as lobsters
Remember old futures and teach.
For a moment he felt his eyes tremble and shut tight, as if to change the lines or make them fade.
Then, as he watched in the darkness, they formed again in the inner twilight of his head, and the words were these:
And children sit by on the stone floor
And draw out their lives in the sands,
Remembering deaths that won’t happen
In futures unseen in far lands.
Somewhere a band is playing
Where the moon never sets in the sky
And nobody sleeps in the summer
And nobody puts down to die;
And Time then just goes on forever
And hearts then continue to beat
To the sound of the old moon-drum drumming
And the glide of Eternity’s feet;
Too much,
he heard himself whisper. Too much. I can’t. Is this the way poems happen? And where does it come from? Is it done?
he wondered.
And not sure, he put his head back down and closed his eyes and there were these words:
Somewhere the old people wander
And linger themselves into noon
And sleep in the wheat fields yonder
To rise as fresh children with moon.
Somewhere the children, old, maunder
And know what it is to be dead
And turn in their weeping to ponder
Oblivious filed ’neath their bed.
And sit at the long dining table
Where Life makes a banquet of flesh,
Where dis-able makes itself able
And spoiled puts on new masks of fresh.
Somewhere a band is playing
Oh listen, oh