Liberating Form

BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 15 | Issue 1 Article 3 1-1-1975 Liberating Form Marden J. Clark Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Recommended Citation Clark, Marden J. (1975) "Liberating Form," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 15 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol15/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact , . Clark: Liberating Form liberating form marden J oark clark dark last summer 1I had the opportunity of speaking at a most unusual fireside beside an actual fire the place was a campground in hobble creek canyon east of springville Spring ville the group was professor warren wilson s class in primitive pottery the students were widely varied in background and experience but all were at some stage in the process of gathering clay from the many clay banks nearby washing it letting it settle forming it with primitive tools into significant forms drying it as pots and other forms and preparing klins in which to fire it about half were members of the church obviously they had developed a fine esprit de corps 1I could hardly resist brother wilson s suggestion that my talk develop some kind of analogy between the process they were involved in and the gospel of jesus christ it was easy enough to do given the remarkable beauty of the setting the receptivity of creative people to ideas about creativity and the fact that I1 had for years been pondering the relations between creativity the freedom it implies and the church which sometimes has not seemed to encourage creati vity for me it was a deeply meaningful experience and ativity for the group too judging from various kinds of responses what 1I said to them and what 1I say here 1I would hope will have special significance to those who wonder about even chafe under the restrictions the rituals the thou shalt nots bots of the church earlier that summer my son and 1I had participated in a fathers and sons outing in that same canyon in most rethis article is the first in a projected series of personal essays intended to demonstrate how mormon scholars have correlated their religious beliefs with their academic disciplines originally cast as a sermon liberating form is an impressive example of the informal essay and a splendid beginning for a continuing studies feature oark is professor of english at brigham young university dark dr clark 29 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1975 1 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 15, Iss. 1 [1975], Art. 3 30 aspects spects it was quite a usual outing a chance to get away to par- ticipate with harlow in cooking games an evening fireside program again by a genuine fire and so on but it had one unusual feature about ten 0 clock of that lovely saturday morning each father was given a sealed envelope and told to walk with his son in any direction for ten minutes or so then to find a pleasant spot under a tree and open the envelope we did so harlow and 1I found ourselves under a small tree on the north side of the canyon where we caught the full effects of one of those perfect sunny mornings in utah hills A storm the previous day had freshened the area the sun was warm but not uncomfortable in the shade of our tree our walk uphill had been vigorous enough to make us ready for a little sitting we sat and opened the envelope the instructions were simple perhaps even predictable among other things the father was to tell the son about a time when he had been important in someone else s life and about a time when someone else had been important in his the son ile lle he had or relate was to tell about some favorite goal or dream lie some experience he had had that was especially significant to him and that the father had not known about and so we sat for an hour or so essentially alone with each other and talked about important things things that may have been important only to us and important only because we were father and son there talking or maybe things that were of cosmic importance and for the same reason it was a remarkable experience one that we should have every day or so but seldom do have I1 told my fireside group about the outing but I1 also told them about a poem and a short story 1I want to share both here the poem is brief I1 NOTHING IN HEAVEN FUNCTIONS AS IT OUGHT nothing in heaven functions as it ought peter s bifocals blindly sat on crack his gates lurch wide with the cackle of a cock not with a hush of gold as milton had thought gangs of the slaughtered innocents keep buffing huffing the nimbus off the venerable bede like that of a dandelion gone to seed the beatific choir keep breaking up coughing but hell sweet hell hath no freewheeling part none takes his own sweet time nor quickens pace https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol15/iss1/3 2 Clark: Liberating Form liberating FORM 31 ask anyone how come you here poor heart and he will slot a quarter through his face there ll be an instant click a tear will start 11 imprinted with an abstract of his case it s a simple enough poem at least on the surface most readers will recognize it as a sonnet and that particular kind of petrarch sonnet that came to us from the italian poet petrarca Petr arch it has a abba abba a cdcdcd abb a abd abb rime scheme students of literature scan as abla the rime scheme divides the poem neatly into two parts the octet eight lines and the sestet six lines the octet traditionally sets up some kind of problem or question or situation the sestet somehow answers or responds to or plays against the octet in this poem the picture of hell in the sestet plays against that of heaven in the octet we may be struck by the unusual qualities of heaven and hell and the images used to make us see each we may even be struck by the unusual subject matter for a sonnet but we recognize the traditional sonnet form used without too much variation the short story entitled parker s back is much longer and more complex it is a strange story but a most meaningful one its hero 0 E for obadiah elihue parker has a predilection for tattoos As a boy he had visited a side show and seen the tattooed man his body completely covered with tattoos it had been almost a mystic experience for parker he stood and stared entranced by the motion of the tattooed figures when the man would move he stared long after the man had left still seeing the figures and their motion before long he finds himself going to tattoo artists especially when he is in trouble having a new figure tattooed on him and watching it either directly or through a mirror restores his spirits and makes him a new man but the effect does not last more than a week or so at each new emergency he must go to the tattoo artist until now his whole body is covered with tattoos jus (...truncated)