Transmigration Suite by Gary Allen
“Across the dynamically rich and varied terrain of the three distinct books of Transmigration Suite, the poet-mind of Gary Allen registers strong, precise enactments of the turbulence within human living—body, world, and mind—in mutuality with all who ride or resist its rollicking, fantastic, and terrifying undertows. Ordinary situations find a somehow naturally mythic scale, and you will see yourself as eternally in process, now one, now another, expanding and contracting within endless confusion and with the eternal possibility of knowing it.”
—Reed Bye
REVIEW OF TRANSMIGRATION SUITE—BEN BERTINO, bDharma
“Transmigration Suite is exactly what its title describes – a first class journey through the manifold states of living and dying. Gary takes the reader on a journey through a vast array of situations – some gruesome and terrifying, others beatific and divine – whilst maintaining a clear, panoramic perspective of each. At times the reader is hurled into uncertainty of whether they are coming or going, as the scenes blend into each other in a hectic fervor which titrates rapidly between stability and groundlessness. It is like experiencing all of the bardo states on fast forward. Gary directs this wild journey with remarkable artistry, combining limitless vocabulary with elegant syntax and creative arrangement.”
–Ben Bertino, bDharma: The Practitioner’s Quandry
“Gary Allen is a great Buddhist American Heart.”
–Allen Ginsberg
Transmigration Suite presents an extended poetic contemplation that dives into the whirlpool of birth, death, bardo, rebirth, and the spirit world. Continually shifting forms, it explores myriad dimensions of time, space, and consciousness. Unusually, it examines in depth the dualistic fascination between subject and object, and questions the identity of both. With humor, horror, splendor, and intrepid playfulness, it invokes existential quandaries and holds them up to the ever-changing light.
Read an Interview with Gary Allen
It’s divided into three sections:
I Gods & Suicides. This collects the same material as the chapbook but with additional poems.
II Maze of Birth & Death. A long, intensive adventure in consciousness wandering through the bardos.
III The Helen Mysteries. An extended meditation on Helen of Troy—who she was, wasn’t, or could have been, & the labyrinth men wandered to possess her.
Contents
I. Gods & Suicides
A Brief Report on the Gods 5
& Meanwhile 6
Ayre for Wendelin 7
Fingerprint 8
Jaws 10
Boxes 11
Pyramids & Assorted Locations 13
Yes & No 16
Merry Christmas 17
Loyal to the Habit 18
Dangling Man 19
Antarabhava 20
Advice to a Suicide 24
Old Indian 26
Ghost of a Suicide 27
Asleep at the Bottom 28
Best-Case Scenario 29
II. Maze of Birth & Death 31
III. The Helen Mysteries 229
Notes 249
Excerpts
1) Fingerprint
2) Jaws
3) “It seems simple enough….”
4) “But regardless the direction headed….”
5) The Helen Mysteries, 1. & 4.