Poems by P.D. Newman.

Art illustrations Mitchell Pluto

Anamnesis

Barley or mead or wine or corn

Pour out from my goatskin

And into my bull’s horn!

To pieces by the Titans was Dionysus torn!

Lo! A man must die

For him to be twice-born!

For P.K., a Poem

Close the doors of your virgin ears.

Shut in your mute wits, mortal.

Down we go to Hell, past nine arches fell–dell, deep well–portal.

Gates of bronze, unlock at my knock.

Greet me goddess, immortal.

Receive me kindly, O Nestis, that we may share a chortle.

Capot

Tell us.

Tell us what happens
‘Tween sunrise and noon
When the aged oak snaps
‘Neath the weight of the moon

Tell us.

Tell us what makes
An awakening so frail
Close its webbed eyes
To Infinity’s vale

Tell us.

Tell us what comes
Of the sad one who goes
To the old raven maid
For to learn what she knows

Tell us.

Tell us what wonders
Dare lurk here in the deep
Shielded from all but those
Who fall prey to sleep

Tell us.

P.D. Newman is an independent researcher located in the southern US, specializing in the history of the use of entheogenic substances in religious rituals and initiatory rites. He is the author of the books, Alchemically Stoned: The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry, Angels in Vermilion: The Philosophers’ Stone from Dee to DMT, and the forthcoming title, Day Trips and Night Flights: Anabasis, Katabasis, and Entheogenic Ekstasis in Myth and Rite.