TO FERLINGHETTI

TO FERLINGHETTI

The forest fires of the Kali Yuga

about to consume us

and Smokey the Bear

in his broad Park Rangers hat

in his raging fury

to save planet earth

still swings his vajra-shovel

to douse the fires of greed and war

          –Time Of Useful Consciousness, IX

          by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

Lawrence, I think Smokey’s hangin’ out

down at the Disney lot

and ain’t gonna be no help to us

in the Age of the Bad Ace

Age of the demon

here on Apocalypse Field

in the global arena of consciousness

on the charred and cindery planet earth

You also wrote – in Poetry As Insurgent Art –

in Populist Manifesto:

Time now to open your mouths

with a new open speech…

Where are Whitman’s wild children,

where the great voices speaking out

with a sense of sweetness and sublimity,

where the great new vision,

the great world-view,

the high prophetic song

of the immense earth

and all that sings in it

And our relation to it

Neither will Walt come to our aid

nor what wild children may have risen

in his line, for poems of buffalo strength and terrible

                                                                   eyes

are no match for what casts the shadow of Mordor

in our time

and the singer of himself is now bellowing

in the bardos of the damned

for dissing “the high prophetic song”

of the Prophet

– of whom to speak

in this dark soul dark age

is to elicit venom

from the sting of death –

so his spirit ought not be summoned

to quicken our art

being unable to dispel the heart of the Shadow

There is only one spirit able

to stand in the storm of fury

(satanic fury it is)

and not be overwhelmed

a spirit unafraid of death

(knowing to die is to live

and after the resurrection

be rejoined to the body

forever glorious and free of death)

In the dark shadow storming

globe wonderland made hell

those Light-Bearers who speak forth

whose Christ-filled hearts shine forth

the truth of what is

and is to come

calling multitudes into the Ark

of His saving love and power

as the waters of death slowly rise

These do so knowing they go against the grain

of the world, of the Babylonian System of empire

of wealth of money of gold of love of what it can buy

of pleasure of entertainment of technology’s joys

of fantasy’s science fiction’s sword and sorcery’s epics

anything to drown out the noise and horror of the

                                                           shadow

of the boredom of living in the shadow of him

who cast Death-Spell into the deeps of being

(but we let him in)

so we have no river of life flowing within

to illumine all our being and banish death and evil

no river of joy sparkling streams of shalom

– well-being and inner glory to the n^th.

The high prophetic song is the ancient one

we sing it without fear of the killer

the suppressor the censor the jailor the strong-arm

the well-poisoner of the mind

thug who likes to break bones and kick the life

out of people rape at will

– without fear we sing

The high prophetic song is the one who shows

the darkness will get darker

before the end of Kali Yuga, the Sanskrit

Age of the Bad Ace, the rise of that one

long foretold would have his evil day

so to crucible-clean the gold

a fiery cleansing off of dross

the self-love, self-aggrandizing, self-seeking

so the Light-Bearers would be like their chief

Jesus Himself

at least when the cleansing is done

and the glorified body given

So we see a deepening of the dark shadow

the vision of Tolkien called Mordor

but we call (the one who should not be named) Satan

and his bane influence, where evil is called good

and good evil, where the righteous are punished

and the wicked rewarded

And there is more

to the high prophetic song

the great world-view

the great new vision,

for the headquarters nation

of Empire Babylon

shall be visited with famine

with pestilence, with death

riots of the starving, the maddened

with despair and rage

the government strong in martial law

raving citizens slaughtered

in their rampaging hordes

the electric grid down

money down

comforts down

food delivery down

water (clean water) down

and the great whore empire who seduced the nations

or intimidated them

with the prospect of money

or muscle

by whose sorceries were all nations deceived

our psychedelic drugs of Woodstock

and the sixties and seventies

the potions from grass to acid, dust to meth

scattered across the world in a psychic blast

stronger than nuclear blast

energy which blew minds of rational thought

to make way for something darker

for a duende not human

and full of power

and the nations said

we see the source of power now

it is not from God

for we are the gods

it is from us

as we realize the great goodness within

and the power within

and the nations fell prey

to strong delusion

and the dwindling Light-Bearers shone

till the new laws said they must be extinguished

and many were, their houses of light emptied

and destroyed

This nation – so it is Apocalypse-written – will in one

                                                                  hour

go up in smoke in a vast desolation

such that those at sea who sought to trade

stayed afar off for fear of her torment

nuke smoke arising for the world to see

the remaining world then summoned to attention

to do good?  No, to finish the job the final solution

of the lovers of Jesus, who would not stand down

from saying the Law of His God is to be obeyed

and His mercy availed of

– given at such great cost

for love

of the lost

those who did not keep the Law, the great Ten

but desired forgiveness

and while many came to seek Christ’s rest and peace

(for He yet lives to dispense them from the throne of Heaven)

even more were outraged to hear from that Law

the penalty of rebellion against Heaven’s King

and who then world-wide executed the Great Silencing.

When this shall be almost accomplished

guess who will show up

as lightning shines across the heavens

from one end to the other?

None other than the Son of God come

to avenge His people

whose blood cried from the ground

against the slayers

This the great new vision, Lawrence,

though it is old, ancient, long foretold

yet anew given to every generation

and the word of mercy to every nation.

Smokey won’t cut it, nor Walt

only the Warrior who can stand

against the armies of the Dog

with power to parry nuclear spears

deflect their force and heat

unscathed undaunted

at all the earth’s armies can hurl His way

You gotta love Him

or hate Him

no middle ground.