A POEM AND COMMENTARY
BY JANE ROBERTS

WITH COMMENTARY BY
ROBERT F. BUTTS

I offer each one of these poems with a brief commentary. [...]

[...] The 15 three-ring binders containing her poems, all neatly typed, for example; her essays and journals; other blocks of unpublished Seth material, one of which I mentioned in the Introduction; an unfinished autobiography that perhaps I could put into publishable shape; likewise, passages from an unfinished fourth Oversoul Seven novel, in which Jane dealt with Seven’s childhood; a book of her paintings, with commentary; several early novels that I still believe merit publishing. [...]

(To Arnold.) The dream was an exquisite creative production, you see, and in a way a commentary from other layers of yourself, not only on the present state of civilization as you see it, but a commentary upon civilizations in the past so that both past and present images were transposed, one upon the other. [...]

[...] But Jane had written some chapter headings, which were very good, and half a page of commentary for Seth’s hypothetical book. [...]

Comments and commentaries.

[...] The poems were of a humorous, social commentary nature, and highly polished. [...]

In any case, I feel that the entire production, Seth’s dictated work and my running commentaries and references, adds up to extra dimensions of creativity that can be sensed, if not described. [...]

(I might add that Seth’s capsule commentary on the reasons for her symptoms is just what I wanted, and that we ought to keep copies of it available for easy reference. [...]

[...] But within bounds shoddy physical constructions are a poor commentary upon psychic health. [...]

(Now for two concluding paragraphs of commentary and reference: Jane’s statement that the four-fronted counterpart self persists outside of space and time implies a contradiction, of course — but this situation is one that we, as physical creatures, will in some manner always have to contend with when we encounter certain of Jane’s and Seth’s concepts [including that of the four-fronted counterpart self]. [...]

[...] She promised me that he would discuss it soon—but we have yet to receive any such commentary. [...]

[...] Part of my paragraph of commentary following the 724th session, in Volume 2, fits in here: “As he [Seth] quite humorously commented in the 14th session for January 8, 1964, ‘… for you have no idea of the difficulties involved in explaining time to someone who must take time to understand the explanation.’ Yet Seth’s simultaneous time isn’t an absolute, for, as he also told us in that session: ‘While I am not affected by time on your plane, I am affected by something resembling time on my plane … To me time can be manipulated, used at leisure and examined. [...]