Editorial
THE ALCHYMICAL FLEA
The sprightly human Spirit springs poetically ever upward into the lofty Empyrean; it hops high, & hopes ever higher; or leaps & plunges recklessly downward, down through the long rank insect-swarming grass, down to plumb the most profound dark Stygian; & again nimbly inwards, pricking into the Fell & Flesh & very Blood of sublunary Phenomena, to bite & suck a sanguinary Sustenance therefrom, projecting thence a hard nugget of rare Philosophy.
So the poetic Mind resembles the energetic Flea, leaping and plunging distances many times its own girth as it follows the Signs of the metaphysickal Quest. In THE FIFTH FLEA we may perceive these tropickal & emblematic Signs; as of the Plaguy Village, or of the Harmonics of Lux Redux, of the circling circles of the amnesiac Goldfish, of the fair Star engendered in the frothy swirl of a Java-cup; or of the Starving Poet feeding on mere Air; or the noble Star-crossed Lovers; or it might be a sudden illumination of a flight of Swallows, or the lusty strut of rude, blunt Priapus; we descry these Signs, & many such more Wonders; yes, even to a vision of the Blessèd Virgin & Holy Infant radiant in a glory.
For THE FLEA embraces all Essences within its spherical jar-belly; which shifts in Hue from base Nigredo; thence to a potent pale lunar Albedo, blossoming now to bright Citrinitas, whence the happy Chymical Wedding; & soon to glow as a rounded Union of deepest Rubedo, from which ensueth infallibly the wingèd Roseate Heart of the Valentine.
To which End, Your Editor wisheth the Well-wishing Reader all Happiness in Setting Forth.