Gay Ouija Board wins Pulitzer Prize

The Changing Light At Sandover is a 560-page epic poem by James Merrill (1926-1995). Sometimes described as a postmodern apocalyptic epic, the poem was published in three separate installments between 1976 and 1980, and in its entirety in 1982.

With his partner David Jackson, Merrill spent more than 20 years transcribing supernatural communications during séances using a ouija board. Already established in the 1970s among the finest poets of his generation, Merrill made a surprising detour when he began incorporating occult messages into his work. In 1976, Merrill published his first ouija board narrative cycle, with a poem for each of the letters A through Z, calling it The Book of Ephraim. (The Book of Ephraim appeared as part of the 1976 collection Divine Comedies, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1977.)

An excerpt from THE CHANGING LIGHT AT SANDOVER:

WELL WE HAVE GIVEN FEATHERS B4, OR LEFT THEM BEHIND
IN OUR HASTE TO LEAVE & LEFT ALSO MANY A MIRROR
SHATTERD & MIND WRECKD DULLD WIT THE CHEAP NOTORIETY
BUT WE & YOU WE & YOU MOVE IN OUR FIELD TOGETHER
(THERE! STITCHES OUT WHERE THE SCAR'S LIPS MEET INVISIBLY) AH
WITH WHAT REGRET THAT WE CAN NEVER SAY: CAREFUL DEAR FRIENDS
DO NOT TAKE THAT FALSE STEP! OR IN ANY WAY PROTECT U
WHO ARE OUR LOVED ONES WD THAT WE CD LEAD U TO THAT LOST
VERMEER THAT MANUSCRIPT OF MOZART OR LEAVE U SIMPLY
A LITTLE GLOWING MEDAL STRUCK IN HEAVEN SAYING: TRUE

Dear Mirabell, words fail us. How banal
Our lives would be, how shunken, but for you.