Metempsychosis: A second attempt at epic poetry (In Progress)
Metempsychosis
i.
We live
One life
To the next,
Oblivious of our past Pasts,
Without knowing our united Identity.
We die
Time after time;
Life after life;
Foreseeing only an end,
Never a beginning.
I was born in a past life
A Mongol warlord,
Living by death and sword,
Ushering the world to future greatness.
I died to be a tortured soul,
Locked in the deepest dungeons
Of a Victorian London sanatorium.
My soul crossed the Irish sea
In order to be a modernist writer
Streaming my consciousness onto a page,
My Daedalian wings outstretched I flew
Freed only in body from the chains of insanity
I insist you remember me!
Remember my name, for it is thine own
The name
One name
One life
One time
One hope
One truth
So now, bring yourself to being
And walk onwards and lead yourself
Free from the shades of the oppressor
Wade
Deep into the hollow sea
Meet me
And all, he
Who had seen the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness, he transcended sadness;
Who had insisted we hurry up please, it’s time, he had taught me to know mine mind;
Who had admired that Grecian urn; a lover’s yearning so observed;
Who could not stop for death, she now has her rest in me;
Who found himself within a forest dark, had hearkened to the words and is now free;
Who held with those who favored fire is freed now from that deathly mire;
Whose life immense in passion, who leads me in such a fashion;
whose sweet et cetera rings and praises i not sing;
Bring now, to our eternal gathering
Your voice, and your word
For it is ours.
And mine is yours.
And mine is ours.
Do not then, silence the speech of
One
For
One
Is all.
Is all there is
And ever was.
ii.
So now I do call to thee
I bring you out of the darkness;
Out of the oblivion in which
The Many Parts
Of our One Whole
Reside.
I call you now
Out from the depths of the mine
And summon you to the depths of the mind.
I bring across the rift of time
To analyze my line.
I call you now
From the blackness of night
Make right
That which was torn asunder
By the destroyer these eight years.
Bring us now out
From the shadow of the valley of death
Be not deaf to the call of your brethren
Rather; listen.
Listen to their words;
Make them your own.
They are your own.
Inscribe them upon your heart
So you may start
To usher in the postwar century.
Bring the age of peace,
So that after may arise the culmination
Of Samsara.
At this point lays the end of the circle.
At this point resides our freedom from:
Straw houses,
Cat and mouse games with hidden men in robes trying vainly to free their world;
Interregnum politics with our own Oliver Cromwell, embodied in a burning Bush.
This Bush is not WHO AM, but AM NOT.
BE. Do not BE NOT.
iii.
Sesquipedalian and Daedalian,
Filled with corpsegas and grandiloquent phrase
I stand,
To address the crowds
The crowd now wearied
Of psychological torture;
Of postnatal abortion.
UNITED WE STAND.
WE STAND AS ONE
WE STAND AGAINST THE TIDE
WE STAND FOR ONE
WE ARE ONE.
I reject your flag.
I will not pledge my being
To a cloth emblem of fascism.
I reject your ideals.
"Patriotism" is glorified xenophobia;
The assertion that one’s home is superior
Is IGNORANCE.
I pledge allegiance to my brothers and sisters,
Now here before me.
I pledge allegiance to peaceful coexistence,
Now out of my reach.
I will unite the cross with crescent,
Hexagram with pentagram.
Marduk will resurrect Tiamat,
Osiris will reconcile with Seth,
And on the banks of the Jordan and Nile
Great banquets will reign.
Over the lands of the disenfranchised natives
Will rain great pestilence
Until their home is restored
To its collective beauty.
iv.
Restoration and reparation
Is a lie.
Why must we fool ourselves?
The sins of the father are not inherited by the son.
The Sun asserts that
History is a nightmare from which we must awake.
Awake!
Bring yourselves to life, my friends!
Your chains and locks are not bound!
It is an illusion!
Shrug your shoulders like Great Atlas is wont to do,
And the past is gone!
The past is present in another life
The now is then, and then is now,
Forget. Be free.
Be to me.
v.
Be your own God,
Now and forever
For I am your God and you mine.
This is no turn of phrase,
No clever subtlety.
I use not subtlety in these words,
For truth is truth and truth.
Awake and rise!
You are my father and mother and child and uncle and aunt and neice and neighbor and benefactor and beneficiary and persecutor and persecuted and prosecutor and defendant and victim and rapist and murderer and mugger and robber and philanthropist.
We rape, kill, exploit, maim, deform, defame, lie, cheat, steal, molest, solicit, abuse, use, and obey in our own waste.
We give, benefit, aid, protest, elect, question, care, and coexist in our marble halls.
We are one in our opposition of ourselves.
vi.
Bring divergence full circle.
Come back to thineself.
i.
We live
One life
To the next,
Oblivious of our past Pasts,
Without knowing our united Identity.
We die
Time after time;
Life after life;
Foreseeing only an end,
Never a beginning.
I was born in a past life
A Mongol warlord,
Living by death and sword,
Ushering the world to future greatness.
I died to be a tortured soul,
Locked in the deepest dungeons
Of a Victorian London sanatorium.
My soul crossed the Irish sea
In order to be a modernist writer
Streaming my consciousness onto a page,
My Daedalian wings outstretched I flew
Freed only in body from the chains of insanity
I insist you remember me!
Remember my name, for it is thine own
The name
One name
One life
One time
One hope
One truth
So now, bring yourself to being
And walk onwards and lead yourself
Free from the shades of the oppressor
Wade
Deep into the hollow sea
Meet me
And all, he
Who had seen the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness, he transcended sadness;
Who had insisted we hurry up please, it’s time, he had taught me to know mine mind;
Who had admired that Grecian urn; a lover’s yearning so observed;
Who could not stop for death, she now has her rest in me;
Who found himself within a forest dark, had hearkened to the words and is now free;
Who held with those who favored fire is freed now from that deathly mire;
Whose life immense in passion, who leads me in such a fashion;
whose sweet et cetera rings and praises i not sing;
Bring now, to our eternal gathering
Your voice, and your word
For it is ours.
And mine is yours.
And mine is ours.
Do not then, silence the speech of
One
For
One
Is all.
Is all there is
And ever was.
ii.
So now I do call to thee
I bring you out of the darkness;
Out of the oblivion in which
The Many Parts
Of our One Whole
Reside.
I call you now
Out from the depths of the mine
And summon you to the depths of the mind.
I bring across the rift of time
To analyze my line.
I call you now
From the blackness of night
Make right
That which was torn asunder
By the destroyer these eight years.
Bring us now out
From the shadow of the valley of death
Be not deaf to the call of your brethren
Rather; listen.
Listen to their words;
Make them your own.
They are your own.
Inscribe them upon your heart
So you may start
To usher in the postwar century.
Bring the age of peace,
So that after may arise the culmination
Of Samsara.
At this point lays the end of the circle.
At this point resides our freedom from:
Straw houses,
Cat and mouse games with hidden men in robes trying vainly to free their world;
Interregnum politics with our own Oliver Cromwell, embodied in a burning Bush.
This Bush is not WHO AM, but AM NOT.
BE. Do not BE NOT.
iii.
Sesquipedalian and Daedalian,
Filled with corpsegas and grandiloquent phrase
I stand,
To address the crowds
The crowd now wearied
Of psychological torture;
Of postnatal abortion.
UNITED WE STAND.
WE STAND AS ONE
WE STAND AGAINST THE TIDE
WE STAND FOR ONE
WE ARE ONE.
I reject your flag.
I will not pledge my being
To a cloth emblem of fascism.
I reject your ideals.
"Patriotism" is glorified xenophobia;
The assertion that one’s home is superior
Is IGNORANCE.
I pledge allegiance to my brothers and sisters,
Now here before me.
I pledge allegiance to peaceful coexistence,
Now out of my reach.
I will unite the cross with crescent,
Hexagram with pentagram.
Marduk will resurrect Tiamat,
Osiris will reconcile with Seth,
And on the banks of the Jordan and Nile
Great banquets will reign.
Over the lands of the disenfranchised natives
Will rain great pestilence
Until their home is restored
To its collective beauty.
iv.
Restoration and reparation
Is a lie.
Why must we fool ourselves?
The sins of the father are not inherited by the son.
The Sun asserts that
History is a nightmare from which we must awake.
Awake!
Bring yourselves to life, my friends!
Your chains and locks are not bound!
It is an illusion!
Shrug your shoulders like Great Atlas is wont to do,
And the past is gone!
The past is present in another life
The now is then, and then is now,
Forget. Be free.
Be to me.
v.
Be your own God,
Now and forever
For I am your God and you mine.
This is no turn of phrase,
No clever subtlety.
I use not subtlety in these words,
For truth is truth and truth.
Awake and rise!
You are my father and mother and child and uncle and aunt and neice and neighbor and benefactor and beneficiary and persecutor and persecuted and prosecutor and defendant and victim and rapist and murderer and mugger and robber and philanthropist.
We rape, kill, exploit, maim, deform, defame, lie, cheat, steal, molest, solicit, abuse, use, and obey in our own waste.
We give, benefit, aid, protest, elect, question, care, and coexist in our marble halls.
We are one in our opposition of ourselves.
vi.
Bring divergence full circle.
Come back to thineself.
