FAST MAINTAINS THE no-notes-in-the-back policy of the preceding two volumes, so when “Cryo” included phrases like “this peine driede uppe all the lively spirities of flesh" and “I saw in him a doubille thurst one bodely and another gostly,” which sounded like quotations, I checked the internet and learned that they were from Julian of Norwich’s Showings (a.k.a. Revelations of Divine Love).
As a longtime reader and admirer of Julian’s book, this pleased me for several reasons. Besides just the plain fact that I appreciate any evidence that contemporary poets are reading Julian, the quotation also established another underground passage between Graham and T. S. Eliot (Julian is a key presence in “Little Gidding”), who often seems a crucial precursor.
The quotations are from Julian's 8th showing, chapters 16-21 in the longer version, a vision of dryness pivoting on the crucified Jesus' words, "I thirst." Julian has prayed to know and understand what Jesus experienced on the cross, so the 8th showing is part of fulfilling that prayer. As she contemplates Jesus' thirst, she comes to a larger understanding of the love he had for humankind.
The speaker of "Cryo" is not exactly Graham, I suppose, since Graham has not had herself frozen. If the speaker is considering cryogenics, she must be on the threshold of dying, as Julian was, but the object of the speaker's attention at this fearful juncture is not on a crucifix but on astonishing machinery and a team of professionals. And, of course, on a prospect of eternal (frozen) existence quite different from anything that might have occurred to Julian.
The body is stiffened by something happening far away--> though the curious bag
inside beats like a heart still --> like a line repeated --> an opinion from the
future --> low, repeating some science --> looking back at that prayer that was not
received [...]
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