An Alchemist With One Eye on Fire Author:Clayton Eshleman Concerning an "Alchemist with One Eye on Fire" Eshleman has written: "I continue to regard poetry as a form in which the realities of the spirit can be tested by critical intelligence, a form in which the blackness of the heart of man can be confronted, in which affirmation is only viable when it survives repeated immersion in negation--in short... more », a form that can be made responsible for all the poet knows about himself and the world...Unlike poets in China, Iran, and Nigeria, I can still say anything I want to say (for awhile at least). This is not only suspect freedom--it renders my situation absurd. I am like a maniac allowed to wander about screaming 'fire' in a theater of the deaf. Am I a traitor? Certainly not. I am not committed to the overthrow of anyone or anything. I remind myself of a late 19th century alchemist mixing and cooking my potions in a Prague apartment--an alchemist with one eye on fire from what he knows is going on outside his laboratory."« less