Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SW1
Enc:
STEEL CANTICLES
Maurice Rowdon


S t e elcantic les
b y
M a u r i
R W d n


First Canticle
In first love he or she is
looking through the face of the
other and beyond the symbols
of agnosticism scattered about
the city in the form of houses
cars alarm clocks
being in love is an exclusive-
ly christian state The modern
city's walls of secure steel
are dreamed away in this state
of ecatasy Which is never re-
peated in quite the same farm
because it is in the nature of
a revelation
the queen
at this time 'she' is a student
Powerful incubatory growth
takes place in her at night
Her present role is to be in
love wit th him
from the reservoir of night a
girl awakes ('have moved
across the sky my hooves on
the clouds In light I van
ish Must stretch to get/spend/
taket (alarm clock for seven))


'reservoir of night return to
night Promise to move me across
the sky again King help me get
and spend today for tonight I
C ome back She promises thatt
home again/'in lovet/the re
servoir of night is punctual black
the king
'her is a computer clerk not
yet nineteen
he on the other hand finds
only in light his meaning
His Worship yawns awake
his light lies in train win
dows dusty leaf on bright
brick 'am getting closert
(or what the philosophers
used to call immanent)
newspaper rustle is for him
the music of getting/spending
a number 17 steel
lights
the stage of life ga7 kim at
(a number 17 spot creates the
waterloo station It is cur
glitter of sunlight)
tainrise as he emerges from
the 7.32 'tonight I shall*
he and she drink elbows on
the clouds She waits to be
queen of the night but his te
deum is the clatter and the


boom of the 7.32 upline He
feels he is getting closer
through the music to the score
the being-in-love experience
secures the christian against
a relapse into savagery from
the state of barbarism


Secc congcanticle
Drotine k Socata
love is a runner sent
from the gods a glimpse
Sourates)
of what we could not
tolerably enact The
steps of love climb sudd
enly up to the light
Zke Heliopolis whose
stairs rose out_of chaos.
tethe E he tolp
she diseovers inner sleep
he in the 7.32 this
escalating stair of love
titania on receiving a runner
woke to love an ass And like
love opens our eyes to the
wise he awakes on mellow rail
resident light
way line The runner is act
ive he never forgets He is
the only time gods apeak to us
ass love mus t however break
(i e gods will not fome down
to the earth to play with us)
Sounlzs l Phaedmu
te Love could not be entirely'
here The world would roar with
(Socrates to Phaedrus)
it would burst our windows,Split
with joy the leaf, grow
beforent
the root thegel 17 gas "the sta
tion with celebration we would
dance off the 7.32, kiss the por
ters, waler the morning paper round
our necks,cest off our shoes.
the runners discreetly come touch
here and there ber iively hair
poke this oners sleep and that
one's warto help derange to plant
Our ass love theref ore grows ti


tanic belches babies dripping
napkins hot beds naked cities
nights of gazing decades of
yanting shiploads of condoms
that make ee-aw and later war.
pain is to the degree
of the pleasure
dnanyy


Third Canticle
war is an unfolding for
men who will not grow
They who will not grow
are already in war If
it breaks outside whin
ing spiralling to crash
land it is his Whine it
is the crash of his stage
lit by a number 17 gel
or it can happen without
a sound or a sign outside
Can pass behind still eyes
your war can either come
in hoards of the dead Who
rise like a hand from the
sheets of the land of the
night or else it can come
in your night not disturb
ing your neighbourts light
depending on your degree
of helplessness 1 e desire
but in either case outer
or lonely it is the same war
do you understand me? if
you won't grow the war has
begun though you may not hear
you may never know the day
it broke It may heve been
in you before you woke Or
else in something you nearly
spoke But the war is the same
in his case the war broke out
on a certain day in september
the clerk received his call
that being the month planned
up papers
for its peace some thousands of
memories ago and the arrival
of the sweetest fruit It broke
out then precisely in order to


achieve sharp contrast 1 e
number 52 gola plus number
(the number 52 spot adds
17 steel (sunlight on a sea
mellowness to the 17 glitter
son of mists) dashed suddenly
denoting autum)
by concussion of bomb behind
the dressing rooms where only
a moment before he and she
walked on their way to the play
his army number was 53847
53847 dug with his fingers in
the earth the night was rain
ing hand grenades and singing
mortar bombs After the bombard
ment he manicured his nails
that were full of black earth
and sat thinking about growth


Fourth Canticle
to reiterate So many millions
fallen in war mean that so many
grow into death are unfolded in
to it while others Whom it may
have spared are unfolded into
further aspects of the war i e
for some death is the unfolding
they may not speak of it may only
know where to look for it and
suddenly recognise the place the
whizz that is theirs the meeting
others are gripped by study of life
Theyfoannot leave it There is so
much to do no time to bother to hold
the head in place for the schrapnel
on its way They are on a journey in
the land of the ass So much to settle
they cannot even look up to see what
shrewd figure it was that passed (but
it does not matter he will pass again)
some like to study him so to speak
from this equine side preparing the
acquaintance slowly not rushing in
But some rush as if all their wish
had been since birth to fly to his
shrewd arms Dare I say that we are
free? And S ome stroll smiling to him
the time of death is
chosen as a step in
development


Fifth Canticle
choosing means 'What I have donet
My will is heaped up for all to see
it is vivid hehind me what I decid
ed These memories are your will
They are its pictures An event is
the will unfolded To read your will
read the event Item a fornication
item another one item a nightmare
item some pain unaccounted for item
a yearning item a burning item a
war item a wound item a happiness
i e imagine an endless display of
objects any of which you may choose
Now the items you choose will sure
ly display what your interests are
dare I say you are free repeat free?
you may notice also that an event
is a number of dots in the past which
is brought into composite picture by
the desiring mind Therefore in this too
the will is exercised unfolding itself
in what it snatches from the flood
first I have acted thus selecting
then I have remembered thus select
ing a second time Will is selection
When the force of circumstance is
great and we are all but crushed
our selection has been dire (deter
mined) a stark and absolute narrow
ing of the flood to the point of rage
This is none other than the rage of war


Sixth Canticle
the queen of the night said good
bye to her king now a number and
began to forget him the instant
the glasgow fog caressed his boat
and then expunged it from her light
thus showing that she too had chos
en her war For with her mind she
knew him still but no longer in her
night where war began to wage She
pro omptly took a downlines train ir
onically a 7.32 and from that time
she spoke of him as wast and 'did'
She made the mistake of thinking that
only his number had been wrong and
that somewhere lay a Bottom with a
different number on it or even a numb
er of Bottoms waiting for titania to
open her eyes and fall in love again
she realised she was
no longer in love
Titania now saw that
Bottom was an ass after
all
That was her war and she wegped it
night and day It was done with bull
etts of thought and schrapnel of de
sire The plan of campaign was cool
and number followed number in Bott
omless succession until titanic the


discharged sheets the shellholed
pillows the recce parties shot up


Seventh Canticle
53847 in battle
The black night he saw the blacker not
because of the blackness but men in theiv
nue
plaekness in their thousands waiting like
hinto tear the silence not with music but
screams the wail of projectile thump the
hillu splash the crash and none wanting it but
everyone enlivening it with bayonet flash
ho 3
with splash of foot with flesh with.schrap
nel flame with gasp, as ifrthes mere kearin
only now the-voiee they A spoken with
ugy
in-ellthese years the thunder/the shout
the crash of tho words to tret wadE to
thstr-mothers the splash of thong aims the
bombs tef the off sleep, the, choicesmede sil
entl ndlsatisriea,dros in too terrible 2
manner and all at the agel of twenty G2S0 .
gnin


yril
Eighth Canticle
The earth woke groaning its live
men moaning/the trees mourning/the
animals demb/the rivers stained/
the morning after
I the air
The new veils
his firs battle
7 of light/that /enteing came
morning
seemed notto wishtto knoy acknor tny
ledge the steel
the
night before/the eptate splash
gasp the
spurt the unbelief of the hit and
the unhit's terrible belief in black
dork,
bemn 2.
Dawn was his teacher It crept Homyr
trossa haystack A was leaning on
in golden veils, it came itmelged
with theawhit ane -russet mist/ /that
tose eame Afrom the blood/in the earth
of men/like hie whd unlike hiwahad
gone beyond to find new teachers,
Tleaving for some remembering timé/
their flesh to fester before/it
grew again in haystack mist/And ri
sing sun toteach the-othet/Flesh
that had askedto stay to h'ear/ What,
meesage might in-the light conveyed
itself to zive men groaning and
trees mourning andthe animals
gril.
Turyfi
LAL


Ninth Canticle
Tal
the origins of steel
Steel was indeed the new
million voices were
themselves
Psacecneelitrea
unsprung
from tight spirals In
wombs in the earth, deep.Ucncepts love
The air with s traightness formed new
platforms/going skywards supported ba
ianced/sustained taking the strain.
Steel was born I was hoped for,
dreamed about Steel cities shone
longebefore its birth in many minds L, fur - C ales
tentsand oaves and brick hall,
Nimter were secretly sung to sustain
ing, tp sstraightness-supperting to
taking the strain to surface gleam
smayjuse
steel was a concept
Atrnts
nursed in the mind
centuries before it
came to material
fruition
steel is a sight for the eye not to
forget,it is higher than dreams, its
surfacés hum/so tense seethey They
cer soar propel they can-drill It
oan-contain it holdsit shatterf, Mue
it makeg scream, ite the jagged' piecé
in the leg, the gasp tke end ofass


ndlel
steel can itself seream it can rush b
towards a steel or ifleshly objective
alwaye with/the-sane steel intent, It
can wail in-the-night causeWinds and
hearts tobeat and mouths torait It
can split the air and all' impedimenty
remove te its impeccable government,
steofis indeel the new dispensathon
it mas nôt formulated in a night ift
grew ras Aurthred suspended for a A
time /and taken up again Fresh minds
applied to jf yntil one daf the Klonet
Anthe hand/and daw/was
1on (e1/musiogfeel sphefes
steeheànbe terereato varigus de
grees of haranessfor putting spstain
ing At ETEW with the growth of hard
thought Bronze woula/noy have done
nof honest 17on Nor copter sonnding
yrass woplg/have
this bept of
hardnessHor would aetreoe hevre done


Tenth Canticle
tne
Tuhife
The dead have
YEMIBM
not, yet been brought
in/ They can be seen
through binodulery/by
the living .)
st tillness comes to the 1 eld Thedis
tant watoners sleep The trees drip
there being ra in,
IU A o EN II0u
as d
the mist rolls not preuming by
teh
5 a touch or a nudge oI
the
(sml
wire the f our men lyiag facefdown, Gaet
as the
tal conversation
10 e, cl ose to
gether for
F ve
aise *
Lie * leng
heese to remain,
WIC
thei ir rifles in no fighting position
- por their lanyards more than W ater con
clwy
auctors now, and the S iiiness adamant tui
the sleep complete the mist unhindered
the river in flow (not one drop was im
peded one gurgle suppres sed by war)
while those men are alive and asleep
who might be lying face down and those
face down whght still have been asleep
and both in stillness this adament night


Eleventh canticle
burly
barly there is militance he finding he
is not loved she finding it is not she
he loves though he loving and she lov
a glance back to when
ing yet love there is not itdoes-net
he and she werel nineteen
1ie-botweon-them and there in the gap
the military enters, the shocker, the
iron interferer stakes his camp despite
and although an d notwithstan ding the
love desired the love intended There
is early strategy early aforethought
Larly there is sorrow he finding that
something daid led to strong effects he
did not intend and she in her dreams a?
ware that roetsareblindly
ing down
- that growte entangling weeds altheugh
she-seidnot a sordrintendevr-nothing
Yho Jaid
hB They walked as always arm in arm and
the passers by said how young how bright
the love how it tints their hair and
lifts their feet and smiles in them
barly there is recognition he finding
lsue,
that what t he desires is not what_he
wills that what he desiresin her is
not what he wills her to be and she
finding that what she desires of herself
luut
is not what she is/what she wills
Early they rec ognise that some one else
is there at their side,an iron third,
a maker of verdicts théy dare not ex
press but which theyknow are theirow
lel uxx ve-pmyplur, a mm.


Twelfth Canticle
me Woe I Cul
and so new dreams begin new bodies
are conjured up the nights are full
they leave eagh other
of unexpected armies on the move to
before the physical
unknown landscapes Voices are soft
separation/ takes place
with new invitations sophistications
the flesh that seemed only yesterday
young is obsolete now discarded by
the dream that has advanced to other
camps and these in hard deployment
mud confusion alarm in the night
the kiss that not two days before
was fertile now gives dust it hints
of operations skirmishes The heart
is surrounded now the wires are cut
and no communication to the rear
the bed that gave its flowers fruit
is divited inta secret campments now
with undeciphered flashes muffled taps
of sappers underground It is cold the
flesh quivers The War has-begun
S au lerge
Spiv


Thirteen' th Canticle
to go back to the beginning did I say
that war was in precise degree to the
love? that ass love mounted its own con
ditions of aggression infiltration its
unsuspected propagandas heard in dreams
in thoughts quickened suddenly in the
bed? alarmed prostrate the panting heart
because caught out though party to?
did I say that the smack of kiss the
thud of the rump the nights of skir
mishing the hands the bellies the cries
of infants and the sky seen by lovers
at a windowsill like a jewelled cloth
and then the lonely one who is touched
by so much touching moved to cry by so
much crying did I say these are warnings?
did I say that detonations heard in the
dead of the night then forgotten in turn
ing back to the ass's side are the first
telling clink of metal on hip the move
ment of men the starting of trucks the
flares the muffled orders in the dark
the arrival of important leaders Whose
faces we do not like or recognise?
what connection# has been made What se
cret roads? what agents paid messages in
cipher diplomatic channels can conjoin
so opposite stations as love and war?
so different climates languages abodes
one to the exclusion of the other as
black to white? But do we not make war
on those we know? Is battle not a link?


I mean do we not understand each other's
smallest pass and stance do we not share
our weapons explosive powder type of
gun the uniform the colourful map do we
not need to know the enemy in ourselves
indeed to love him if we are to Win?
Is there not S ome intimacy oath between
the two that binds the loveworn ass to kill?


Fourteenth Canticle
did I also say that ass love augments in
times of division danger civil suspicion
that fear is its spouse that the man with
nudes on the wall is longeared with war
that the soldier's dream is heavy sad with
promised fornications that the enemy and
women are become the same that the sexes tie
lie in the grip of battle barbed their kisses
bristling their eyes with armament their bed
treeless under patrol disinfectant quicklime?
in times of ambition is ass love the irritant
comfort bane? Does ambition cut forge
make a straight line waken in the sleeping
does it shock spring surprises am
Sasnerdo Does it study the unexpected make
demands storm the house the bed? can it
stop gorging devouring what the quiet night
gives i e the si ighs of othersttheir art their
desiring? Does it only yield to S ickness
sleep and death which are its evil trinity?
is war ambition? ass love the fruit of am
bition? desire the body's ambition hate
the same? So let a moment of ambition enter
the child and there you have strategy the
battle lin es are set recce sections put out
the oceans sounded quiet nights explored for
enemy the paths wirematted mined the white
tapes laid for guidelines sentries out all
movement cautious fires damped the eyes a
forward observation post directing fire
Ambitious society is alays mibitary in the
end Make ambition the centre the mark of
the man and you bring forward captains ad
visers on deployment generals hungry to en
gage large forces get on the move NCOS re
sentful of higher command officers in their


nice gradations bent on getting to nicer
self-displaying grades You get the mur
der unheard in the middle of the night the
failure of hearts due to causes unknown
ambition loves what the other man requires
It requires his disruption sometimes his
dismemberment liquidation Its battles are
private its tactics to encircle what the
other will supply an embrace or a place or
a pair of dead shoes It aches to hold to
stake a flag its desires are operations
It is hate It is ceaseless war no entrench
ment satisfies no new line or breach can be
counted victory Its battles spawn new lines
it chooses a wife by her parts but on her
side too her parts have their planning staff
their quarters in the blackout heart Am
bition has its unseen maps its wild territ
orial claims its busy agents who work at night
for their aj ppointed parts they do not trust
they wake in the trusting marriage bed with
masked soft-footed commando thoughts that
do the sabotage and then are gone And when
they wake they ache to find no love is there


Fifteenth Canticle
when shells splash hollow out the
eerth t sc orch grass-the Wounded from
theif s tretchers abandoned by their
bearers cry stop please stop but
steel permits no courses but the
straight no incidental last minute
appeal to alter arrangements temper
the speed soften the arrival No
voice is enough to unmake the glor
ious crash dreamed once by ether smiliy
brains jand-even speken of TZ voioes
just 1 le these tae
y IE inthe
nignt/are not ashamed to address
the steel 1ike children crying stop
plpase stop but fiying steel eannet
when lighted bullets spray the night
in floating arcs their clatter knows
no obstacle their darts are not polite
they do not yield for persons trees
they only bow to walls of other steel
which being consanguineous they make
a peace and bullet spent tinkles down
app
to friendly earth put meeting men
it does not pause look back brain
a past a youth is easy for its passages,
It comes from men to men but is not
of them Steel s ambitio the cutting
thought the drehm that does net
for irose I dreemed itbeing of
fast straigl hter more eensistent
itsl parts han
areamers It
does not wither it does not bend a
sudden o-ompaeeienete ear to cries from
below It-measures It conveys
howls like men who dream of power rt
ise 1 vision It was ma de b men was fash
ioned
the
ande
unyielding
veT to thems ves
ame com ying
not
ieid
tne end of youth
It brooks no waywardness no whim Xo
kiss was ever known to capture it


Sixteenth Canticle
the
trial revolut-
senley
indus
fom,
too was/grom ft put down
It ger minated inds
Fetoel
propelled its seed Itskh
grew
by love attention thought ie
care like that for babies
nged
of foot
Tamer
the I which
except
red III a moment
J ellet steel Like words like
lullabies it came The earliest
steel dreams were) /wafted through
the fields and met $1 ether mer
were 1 aw
IEI
+ took
the
+ and not
a owir
fert
ion
eel wes once
ursed inthe
guarded heart It grew from the
mating of dreams ne
came
forth frombed from pregnant
silences eliving en ildof steel


Seventeenth Canticle
Someone is harmering A dog has
barked Quicktiring bores are
pulled they gleam again Boots
refitting after the
are seraped of last night"Eblood
battle
ang mud There 1s Work to do
Someone is whistling This is a
workshop The bushes are thick
with next year's fruit Tea is
being brewed and enemy tunics
turned over in the hand And
stained letters found in another
language And new letters written
on living knees The earth steams
Metal gleams Trees drip The
field is glad The grub will soon
be up Its smells announce that
the field is home and even sane
he begins to finger her photograph
and think how the sunlight falls
through the W indow of a house not
yet, In a place not yet, With a
person not yet, / Butfor conventence
the irl in thé photograph He
needs
pess
eftness hum
mi ing areams
eu peu night's
elf in
inks
But steel
hee har
is watching decreeing
te deed h
name it abnegates m le No wars Ge
- a 3 dcd tto
1 ream
sheet
an I1 ough
the night And now the
face down
a I Lh


Eighteenth Canticle
This is no place for thinkers te
colleet The Evening talk is no
longer/here Thereare Sstrolling
patrols they will pick off a
thinker or two It is best to be
under cover this is not the
society for you It is an after
math of other thought than yours
These are its squares its sys
tems shrewd encampments Only
thought could have envisaged
such regularity could have taken
the place of stones The fields
are hard with them They make
no room for more They fill with
flatweight Nothing short of
absolute destruction will allow
a fresh congregation of thinkers
here They gather not disciples
but avalanches whirlwinds meteors


Nineteenth Canticle
steel brings its people into the W orld
its especial# and elect itpchildren
They cannot be included any more in
that venerable hierarchy renging from
the primal procreative powers to thè
2 rock
denserock in all tite varying degrees
of breathing, and-root-leying ereature
They have broken rank They would comm
rtt on nature the anti-natural law cand
They can no longer be relied upon to
observe the subtle etiquettesor inter
dependent - ereatures For instanc e you
will observe that under attack from its
own kind thcat the vaolf the tiger
prowling genet will if weaker lie on
its back_to denote.fiprender- Andthe
Pax.
Te) Eiquette/operatog on the muscles mind
of the attacking creature makes him
withdraw,freezes his actiono But the
child of's teel witl press the attack
unld
even harder Indeed the surrender is
his invitation His min d has come un
stuck from the general plan He perceives
no etiquette but that of his ambition
lo cal Sx tudd
and this may demand the liquidationg
of-the-suzrendening-ereaturing-ereature He will
not pause to dispense with what appears
to him an elaborate finesse and over-
done politenhes(inbred protocol, ade
a d
be generate observance of sweet hiérarchies,
he can ill Lafford andwhich give him
6 sut tc
Haythe creeps - For S teel doest not tempor
ise itss spans projeets supports IUS a
a T
st Qut autonomous unwa ve anul A D
ho ngi its etiquette is geometrical Its
courtiers are as highly strung as the
steel support itself They are hlers
to a flesh they feel unhappy with.
They feel no safety in this W orld.
They have to have tae suppert asteel
desig - + 11
e Thus Greatures of
steel need C onflict flames distress
not because they love it which no man


Could
carr but e 7
rom steely
darte
à to
e a certain
a looked an eve
es tOo In
se eeing ach
ecame
as + a
appens that a
will
eput ace
geuenl
steel is born and looks
1 eal In self-defence theyrtight
k teld cata, the
vem with ne ther
Lall
tt ilild
guy
put up his paws,
and
quarter is not givenAor/received)
ib iv
mvende,
eLr
ameu


Twentieth Canticle
secure quiet in villages breeds
the hope of disturbance The hope
breeds the disturbance itself And
this (in villages now become sub
urbs) breeds insecure quiet which
in turn breeds fear of disturbance
with the birth of steel
the last si lent villages
disappear
they bec ome dreamed
thus steel serves both the market
of hope and the market of fear
hence its success in places Where
fear of its coming is uppermost
for proportionate to the fear is
the hope These are the male and
female progenitors of all steel
in the eighteenth century
Enlightenment and Revol-
ution were the fear/hope--
fear at one moment, hope
at another, fear in one
man and hope in another,
breeding steel for all
Sv.Jiliu
US mother and
omitt
saint julian's crime mistoyimg-mother


tre
Pure
for wife and father for a lover in
higmeritat bed Remember the anguished
cry of Julian's wife when she saw
what had been done i.e.mother and
father slain by their only son.
Steel/like the
hospital in penanc e
the deed, 1
nndatpetesisbes
The cancer-cutting steel is'ytie pen
itent aftermath of
D4>tel wu


steel
Parm
Sene
Twenty-first Canticle
it is no use looking in the war itself
for solutions,causes,plans of escape.
Its steel will only ordain a steel
peace and steel hearts will ask for
steel rewards fixed wages central
the 1945 revolution
heating lifts to the top steet enter
tainments films televicion with their
promise tha t somewhere hearts are beat
ing not of steel but st teel is their
source their component their benedict
ion it is tripod dolly lens suppert
it glides on steelit tracks it zooms in
the scene is cut with shining scissors
in first the mind and then the studio 0


Twenty-second Canticle
53847 being in the memorandum of
agreement named the first part
'write a deed of gift
hereinafter called the soldier saw
with thine own bloodt
the seçond part hereinafter called
the dying man with holes in his back
lying face down at the last gasp
and cried without sound or tears
at the barn door while a black
shawled woman smaller than he by
half mourned loudly in his place
it being her inherited rustic duty
to do the wake even for a stranger
he of the first part could only
make silent water with his eyes
because he could not understand
he did not see the connection be
tween the love he had made not
long since and this dying part
he did not know that these were
his desires his nights exploded
into deep black holes in another
man's back lying stomach down in
a barn trying an offered cigarette
but the thin white tube swelled red
no man's help no quotation of inn
Itze
ocence not the child he had been
dyt loy
nor mother's appeal nor-eity noise
could rescue hinfrom the clause of
the memorandum in which it was stated
that there was a living and a dying part
M5 asmmy nunhr.


nor rescue the living part from
his failing to understand decipher
the place in the covenant where
the precise relation had been set
down confirmed and duly signed in
his own blood hislevedeve-desires tn 3 A
al uU uiltan 'mile A dee
18h UH Phie mm hoodl an
cle (
n + m


Twenty-third Canticle
a glimpse of civilisation
is a glimpse of the pre-
steel state
Serenivama
Venice a city settled inside a
golden lake danced to herself, she
talked to the sky,to the reticent
walls of mist that came to seal
her off from landlocked enemies
It only happened from time to
time that along with the waters,
the refuse lapping against the
patient
thoughts that
were harder 4605,60180 iron, more durable
but then they were laid to sleep
in gondolas along the flat lagoon av
where no ripple tree nortower
resisted the sky, her courtship, fon cuudliay
to brother earth,her sympathy
but because of the iron thoughts
she fired the cannon first and
wrecked the parthenon which like
cassino fell thus early to cm a
man's steelif most serene ambition
henc e the fall of Vemice
1796-1950 and the rise of
Maghera the chemical works
D BE


ten kilometres away on
the mainland the pois onous
heads of whose envenomed
body have breathed a pest-
ilence on us allt


hrighs Mallemelia
Twenty-fourth Canticle
eteel is love of astraight line
of confinement1imitation. Being
squared-in it offers the maximum
sharp angle,most resistant frontier
to winds, a shield to imagination
a hard front to the unpredictable,
bven a circle,in seeming to offer
concentric repetitions of itself,
in endless ripples that might ex -
tend to infinity, is unsympathetic
to the first progenttive dream of
Wwsteel that beckoned like a friend
hve
this saw endless souttelto be con"
fined hemmed-in such as thoughts
and kisses,hours lost in the waters
of a lake, atnightito give them
shape a mérk to see them by for
the long unwritten days, eternity
steel came for the unsafe, the
unsteady of foot,the leaning, the
bent who would hâve broken sticks
and staves and stumbled on brick,
on C obble,on imperfect stone,
steel was the
Tor a moment
of squared and Proyrmd d life in


which to settle the terms of a
difficult journey to C ompass-read
confer on it/within safe walls
the first clear decision to
take this journ ey was in the
eleventh century with the
first appearance of what
came to be called the middle
class namely the explorers
the conceivers the ones Who
thought across the fields of
the closed domain to the
next town (i e trade)
and then to the next ocean
and then to the next planet
all the time more and more
encased in S teel
the desire to explore begins
from doubt
steel was the mineral frient
journey out of LUhaos of
H Hr
night eut of
a uight
ound that offered no 3e
noelearly righe communiquéc
the first explorations of
Mexico or New Spain were
ighings
dark as
marked by an intense desire
on the part of the settlers
to make a closed system safe
for the Spaniard against the
foreigner, for the Church
against the pope, for New
Spain against 0ld Spain
from this first insemination
steel America grew
the steel mind sees life as
things to be done


Twenty-fifth Canticle
steel was designed not to dissolve
It intended a perfect projection of
the mind neat static not given to
the troubles sta ins the forgetful
evolutions of the landscape the
known already worked such as wood
as rivers pryaers stone buttresses
but steel being iron plus an alloy
has the mineral property of having
emerged from many untiring dissol
utions of deep packed shelves of
leaves and skeletal structures pro
cessed in a design perhaps more
complete than even manufac tured
steel and thus implacably given
to its evolutions Which lead again
to further dissolving evolving
like the brain too like the imagin
ation like the nerves which have
the mineral properties of emerging
from sundry dissolutions over the
millenia and will go their way
even the perfect design the sure straight
straight line too dissolves and
crooked grows even steel the shining
the clear the everlasting to their
grave in new delight must emigrate
so it happens that straight t dark war
with her aimed prjectiles only curving
to the degree entailed by curve of
mother earth will dissolve her sharp
her cutting stripping and blasting ob
jectives in the shape of a twenty-year
boy who henceforward will not raise


his arm his voice his mind to any
hurt So that here in order to a
chieve the dissolving of violent
intent a disrobing of power a war
has been engaged a disturbance of
millions of children philosophers
and populations of every colour in
order to beget a particle of peace


Twenty-sixth Canticle
in the meantime W omen wouldseem
the antithesis of steel but this is
We ur
not the case Consider steeltshard
dependability, andher desire. in fimes
of threat for' increasing firmess
The male and female are the same not
opposite poles They are one/ /alloy
so war provideg the opportunity for
much exchange of hard penetrations
deep experiment in the bhoice of the
right breeding cambination this being
the natural selecting/ operation in
times of private distress and massive
panic petEe/dieplacementy of population
thus when stteel was acclaimed it be
came the sine qua non of the bed
The male spear/ /had to have a steel
tip for its thrust to bring steel
babies forth/however deep the wound
the crying flesh the wailing in the
night Take the lover of number 53847
how quickly she learned (in fact in
three or four days from his depart
ure) choos: ing at once to be what she
couid not recognise in herself namely
a soldier no less than he She went
from preach to breach undoing male
defences claiming heavy casualties
on the other side and like a man she
moyrned the wounded and the dead her
triste post coitum being a triste
post mortem much like that of 53847
in the old days we used to say that
iron entered a man but the steel re
volution in its cleanliness made poss
ible not even regret nor a modicum


of bitterness disappointment to
bring on the state of stee ely quiet
the suspended fidelity the isolation
the apparently safe separation be
hind gleaming fences of desire
Newton was the philosopher
of the steel revolution
the lutheran revolution in
Germany, the industrial
revolution in England, the
french revolution were
simply three phases in the
development of the steel
revolution


Twenty-seventh Canticle
a period of hospitalisation will be
necessary in view of the pollutibn of
the air
embt
uide the
deeimation
in mi llions of
roaring halls the withered the blast-
shattered bowel of the earth,the corr
upted sea,the disorientation of the
upper atmosphere and thus the displace
ment of the seasons, the broken weather
the broken heart, the
mexl
aborted/the poi
soned crop, the flood, the holeeaust
the
hne.
Dois
PES
Gasking
newtonian dostrine
proved poor science in
taking no account of
hiddne vibrations and
radiations It tried
to reduce life to the
simple plane of the seen
and the thought
with disastrous con-
sequenc es When it came
to be applied
but revolution is only
made possible by a
quick corruption of the
truth
this hospit talisation for whieh the
earth ie
resent ceaning does
notimplfa return tonature becayse
on theevel of separable objects
however manufactured distilled syn
thetised inverted C
nature
is never departed from cocretoraned -
any case


Only the revolution the ppplication
of doct trine ie the theught the quest
the journey is a depetture from nature
and requires the negessary rethinking
the birth and devel-
opment of the idea of
progress is precisely
correspondent with the
birth and development
of steel
under the steel revolut-
ion the Ganges, Euphrates
and Nile peoplés are
judged to have done no
more than languish in
the picturesque
war is the kernel of the
idea of progress
the most clamorously
progress-believing
pec oples are the ones who
make most war
war is the climax of
progress because progress
was a simple contract of
war on the environment
war is conducted in the
air, the waters, inside
the body, the mind
it is a state not a
circumstance
progress is the achieve-
ment of total war
the instruments of battle-music, the
shooting
hollowing out, the scorch
of geaes,t ERa'bie blasting,the chemical with
ering were each a string on
steelts


A 3
manifold bow and one day would make
a total harmonic contribution (given
time e a
the right conductors) to
the production of a final and single
instrument that would make all music
rise to one last definitive crescendo,
ka Liima
HIROSHIMA


Twenty-eighth Canticle
all the revolutions
tributary to that of
steel (namely the lutheran
the industrial and the
french) stem from the
mediaeval schools
the newtonian doctrine is
a picture of life as int-
ellectual for this reason
pure the aspiration straight the
flight but a little question of
the displacement of air the ex
haust the pollution of conceptually
annoying particulars such as lungs
nerfous system eardrums and other
soft propensities were overlooked
on the basis of a giant error comm
itted early in the scholastic argu
menta namely that the world was
intellectually created grew itself
from concepts But this was fast
disproved by the very minds believ
ing it and soon it was seen that
life is not necessarily ma1 themat
ical nor infinite concepts the
edges of finite facts and that
the idea of a fixed creation a der
tag on which it was all rigged
and shipshaped into bursting action
then launched and let slide into
the consciousness was rot And
this entails a period of hospital
isation given the frightful gap
between the application and the HEEH
facts the concepts and the uncon
ceived the given the humming the
throbbing of the whole machine


the backward peoples who
took over the ruins of the
Roman empire ignorant even of
the first principle of person-
al cleanliness (hence the
plagues) needed a long
journey of self-discovery
their starting point was
Golgotha
the c oncept of the clock
(ie the safe ticking off
of the silent pool of time
in regular beats) and the
concept of zero or infinity
(the silent pool itself)
were both mental innovations
of the mediaeval monasteries
They were the twin root of
the steel revolution They
were an effort to contain
life inside a system of the
mind ie a schedule It was
demanded by the organisation
of religious life into
community forms HER te
ttnes tahrtatendom The
monks gathered together
against the darkness of the
age (and the barbarian dark-
ness inside themselves)
Thus the steel revolution--
through all its later
schedule-tightening convul-
sions whether lutheran
industrial or jacobin---
was always and exclusively
a theological matter


Twenty-ninth Canticle
hiroshima exploded history
To try to collect up the
bits into one order suggest-
ing forethought and control
became rdiciculous
the disturbance of radiot-
active balance means the"
disturbance of all natural
processes
you can guard against the dis
ruption of seas ons by means of
central heating insulated fur
lined boots electric blankets
double win dows fitted carpets
sunray lamps pickmeups sauna
baths massages and also air con
ditioning for the sudden summer freak
day in heart of autumn not to
mention the frost in the dog
days But plants require sure
ly many years of indoctrination
technical guidance gentle a
ssistance in understanding the
nature of our epoch in which
astonished they find themselves
preparing in dark winter earth
the sap the root for peeping e
mergence in spring and high per
formance in summer without the gucl
seasons being necesearily there.
having only the poor and insuff
icient guidance of many millenia
behind them the technical assist


ance of only stars the moon the
raging sun and timely irrigations
made by rain and blind mineral
activity and busy W orms and winds
that prune decay inseminate, how
Ca Hey coupere nit mer 1 ww?
in the old-style weather
Italy was the balanc ed zone
between the harsh sahara
oven and the cold Atlantic
Rome (an Etruscan site) was
best/ once said to be thekmemteet
choice man ever made for a
city given its position
betw 6 een the mountains and
the sea The Italian sun
used to rise like a gong in
the sky and re emain steady
sy Its steadin-
ess gave rise to an arrog-
ance of flesh among the
pec ople which it is hard to
imagine now When the old-
style balance collapsed
the Mediterraneen fulcrum
disappeared and Italian
weather became as unpred-
ictable as any notth of the
Alps And Italy became a
northern country in all
senses Latinity became
an anachronism
when the possibility of
sound health ceased Italy
ceased
Italians say 'prosperity
has brought us anguish'
The steel revolution gives
first the sugar and the
sheen and then the bitter
core
(n b the communist revolut-
ion is the steel revolution
enacted suddenly and ve ry
late in a feudal society)


for a time America was
the sugar and the sheen
for many millions inside
and outside the American
continent
alone with two thieves he
hung During the night
the thieves understood
him


Thirtieth Canticle
nations make music Hearts
in-many plaees-sing The
withered vine the cactus
burned by cold,the olive
nipped in the flower their
music make. So let despond
ency not dim your tune. Be
not overruled by these our
multiple deaths demiseof
chemical init tive in the
delving reet-the smile For
orchestras will ring despite
the fall Surcease of sap
cannot stop their song but
rather make new harmonies
the steel revolution has
cheated today's child of
place Henc e his burning
resentment which can find
no words
the steel revolution was an
assault on belonging


Thirty-first Canticle
i e the steel revolution
like all revolutions was
a crude statement of some-
thing that later looked
very much like its opp-
osite (rather as the
french revolution claimed
democracy and established
a class)
but in steel we are dealing not
with the hard square angled as
it seems at first Not with the
neat original scheme by which
the wild heart aimed to be struct
ured kept confined dependable
steel was not only a dream to
render finite that which threat
ened to escape beyond the due
measure or rather the measureable
Steel aimed to extand to break
beyond the place the hot centre
confined circle the home the birth
the death the daily sound of
work the expected and the accepted
the purring silences of truth
by explosion thrust establishment
of intricate bodies fer higher
than the eye CO uld hope or the
mind contain or wild heart love
steel was what tore up


the old apparently for
a new fixed order but in
fact for the denial of
symmetry
the steel revolution was a
reorganisation of the
nervous system i - e we can
now stand much greater
speeds changes of climate
situation friend or home
than any previous creat ture
We are not wh ole as they
We are not truly made
We have S imply grown this
layer We have come this
far to reach where the
Chinese were three thous-
and years ago


Thirty-sec ond Canticle
the steel man derives
great comfort if not erotic
exultation from accelerat-
ion Hence his willing in-
carceration in the auto-
mobile and his pride in its
silentttransformations
window-slidings hushed
spurts at the touch of a
digit
the man of steel sees the past
as a successive climbing to the
final realisation of a now static
if always improving kingdom of
steel scalpels engines clever
C omputers pills to bring off and
put on not to say revolvers He
prides himself on an unflinching
reaction to anything new prov
ided it is of a steel that is
clearly structured nature and not
invisible magnetic non spatial
immeasureable for the cool mind
thus the puritan revolution
(which created America as a
steel dream) was the essence
of the st eel revolution
The puritan revolution in
England caused the indust-
rial revolution there just
over a century later It
was the adoption of the
steam engine that won the
American states their indepi
endence and their victory
against the south
the famous disgust of the steel
man towards his oW odours not
to say his love slime was nothing
but a criticism he was making of
his own barbaric state and there
fore a rise from it He was shedd
ing the body escaping its grip
the so-called dark age
following the breakup of


the Roman cities and their
middle class and their gods
and their memory of Greece
never opened at any stage
into light
some further dark ages
transpired At no point
was a christian civilisation
achieved
the steel man saw steel
forms as the unfolding
of long historical pro
cesses making us the
crown of achievement in
what might be called his
sleepwalk of hegelianism
everything from the spinning
jenny to the moonfl ight is
the barbariants idea of
glamour
all his enterprises have
been cloaked military oper-
ations including TV films
the Loudspeaker
if there has been any hegel-
ian or unfolding hist oricàl
theme in our past it was the
gradual enr olment of every
creature no matter what his
village enclave club in the
world military enterprise
of the last two thousand
years
those men most hegelian ie
most fixed in the illusion
of progress become the
cruellest war leaders (the
german torch passed into
american hands via the
british empire)


far from light having
grown over the centuries
from a dark beginning
there was at first a Greek
light of Mesopatamian
origin (which was in turn
of Indian origin) which
shone in the deserts of
the Thebaid (Paul, Antony,
Pachomius) and then seemed
smaller and smaller as the
darkness of the next two
thousand years grew round
it A religion in Christ's
name has not yet been mooted
let alone a civilisation
been based on it
his tory i e developmen t in
time was therefore our idea
(enbedded in our 'civilis-
ation')
the word christian cannot
describe a civilisation
because it means war
Christ defined this in his
'I bring not wha t you assume
to be peace but thelsword#*
A period of high fever sweats
out our poisons
in the east flu is called
the cleansing disease It
attacks most frequently those
sunk in self-indulgence
They require a fever to shed
their poisons That was true
of the barbarians who took
over the Roman empire That
is the reason for the steel
revolution
flu is one of the many


private or fleshly aspects of
Christ's 'sword*
the steel man saw connection
only in terms of the system
of his senses Ie to be real
a thing had to be seen touched
the scientists thus superseded
(to his astonishment) the steel
man locked in a visionary yet
no less false version of self
'science' merges into an
exploration of the non-sensual
areas
pageant science i e the moon-
flight is that craved by the
steel man
moonflight is moonfright
the steel man taking fright
at himself undoes the hardness
thus achieving a hitherto un
surpassed compassion calm
the adoption of long hair and
loose clothes may mark the con-
Pairl version of the steel man Short/
is the Roman model imitated by
those disposed to the military
version of life
in the eighteenth century vast
wigs were mounted on natural
hair to signify the abundance
of feeling before it was cut
short by the steel revolution
in its final stages
the barber often finds himself
in an attitude of vengefulness
towards the hair under his C omm-
and
the more reactionary the society
the more the barber identifies
hims self with his steel


the first steel men the steel
dreamers were the weak disease-
prone areas of our body devising
a protective system for their
survival
without mines air-polluting
railways cars factories planes
without nervous tension wars
costing millions of deaths
bombs disposing of entire
populations christianity would
not have survived
industrialisaticn was the first
clear panic measure of survival
the Church brought in its
plainly military arm (the
Jgeuits, organised under a
'generair) at a time when the
collapse was imminent The
period coincided with the first
explorations of the Americas
which were an aspect of indust-
rialisation i e the mobilisation
of res ources for war
n b that the industrial revol-
ution took place in England as
part of a desparate attempt to
escape the consequences of the
war-blodade against Napoleon
She hadto produce Ker own goods
All such advanc esp being aspects
of war, whether industrial
tec hnological or scientific,
take place by means of and
through war alone


Thirty-third Canticle
it would be a mistake to assume
that the steel men were the equiv
alent of or identical with or a
simple definition of the middle
class Certainly they were its
leading lights but armies of sim
ple people not given to steel
thinking were prone to their bland
ishment its in the form of black
mines eighteen-hour days and the
sweating of children They say
that men and women copulated willy
nilly in the mines as the mood
took them thus showing a choice a
predilection for barbarism Per
haps the steel revolution was more
a mass affair than we think a
populative clamour for some revenge
on the healthy body on history
peasants in their thousands
and them millions became
scheduled Workers supply-
ing so to speak the choreo-
graphy required by the
steel men ie no languish-
ing in silent unfolding
fields but people moving
like clockwork
it is often said that the jews
showed little resistance in the
camps of the last war that they
could easily have turned-ontheir lhous
anc
guards being millions against an
armed handful But given a certain
implacable choice it may be bet
ter to choose death This may
have been a decision on behalf
of purity It may have been the


answer of the animal caged who
will not mate or run because
he knows he is not one but all
the agreement to become a
working class implies an
agreement to further the
steel decisi on i e the
steel revolution was a
universal movement
in the same way the chosen
people of the east i e the indians
might choose their deadh
the jews chose not only
death by gas but also
hitler


Thiety-fourth Canticle
the war that suddenly 53847
found before him was surely I
am saying his owm life explod
ing The puff of choking cordite
the quick probing action of the
shell and then the scream were
only the unfolding of that which
he was within Yet he did not
know nor approve nor participate
such is the irony of the
christian doctrine of
progress, derived from a
popularisation of the Hebrew
idea of a divinely appointed
people, that after nearly
2000 years we are reaching
an appreciation of indian
music, namely the oldest
musical forms in existence
for we are the people who enact
what we already are inside in
order to become for other mill
ions an opposite enactment
in bec oming suddenly a war numb
er bereft of his girl home pros
pects of all S ign of a past of
connections even of mother's
love our 53847 was doing none oth
er than passing into his identity
we are shedding the illusion
of you and I The steel men
were the creators of you and
I in order to achieve one


unified experience i e they
refined the You and I to the
fine point where it no longer
clung to place but made a
common life the world over
It was a brutal and primitive
version of the eastern pract-
ice of detachment
the barbed Wite the shuffling
at night as a recce party passed
the stifled cry of someone not
even fighting were the steel pro
jections of the fight he had insi de
to take an example One day be
fore he ever dreamed he might
be taking the pin out of a hand grenate
grenade and throwing it he sat
with his girl on a summer evening
talking about how they had reached
a surfeit and must perhaps some
times admit a desire for someone
else At which she showed a flinc h
ing surprise Not many weeks had
passed when she returned to him
shame eyed and said she had lain
all night on a bed in the nude
with a boy not himself And from
that moment the love he Wished the
girl he wished the bed he wished
were done to death they were no
more And was he not the cause?
had he not asked her to do what
he perhaps could never bring him
self to do but insisted must be
done as macbeth did but left the
deed to his wife? And is it not
the same with war? Could it not
be that structures of steel of which
he disaaproved and which indeed
were cutting him insi ide had still
to reach their zenith in his blood?
Could it not be that while he
asked for love he had itinot at all?
the manifold steel revol-
ution lies already in the
unknowing child
in which case the war was already
there One might even say each
young man to his own devastation
some to sleepless nights some to
bile S ome to extermination in camps


the child wakes to various
unexpected shocks accord-
ing to the role he has
chosen
he chooses his period his
function as the pollen
chooses the flower
it is no good looking f or
'my' or 'hist free will
because free will is exer-
cised by that in us Which
is not you or I It does
not speak or logic chop
It transpires


Thirty-fifth Canticle
he has unkno lomfingly
uttered the terms of the
steel revolution whose
rational publicity he
would reject
translated into steel terms
53847'S words to his girl
were a destruction of place
They asked for a consideration
of all human beings in whatever
home as the objects of desire
in whatever other human beings
thus removing the question of
fidelity from one arena home
locality The matter of desire
was thus transferred from his
and hers to all of ours And
limitless c onstructions shining
infinite had won And steel-
supported roads that ran from
town to town were running also
in him And one place one girl
one sure fidélity was now a prison
steel struc tures imply sex
freedom
homosexuality being disgust
of (i e self-identification
with) the woman's softness
is a transference of the
steel revolution to the
sex organs
all this is an attempt to
dissolve sex difference and
rise. from the barbarian
desire for assault


collapse and rise are sim-
ultaneous The collapse of
the Roman empire was the
rise of the Christian empire
These historian's definitions
have to be unravelled, with
their tendency to hegelian
diagnosis
so he left himself with only
a photograph of the girl which
he looked at every day to the
tune of the gu uns until it be
came exactly what it was i e
a steel idea conveyed by black
and white dots He glanced at
it in bivouacs at night when
screams had died Until her
face was gone and all he saw
was spots i e a steel memento
the melting of sexes was to
be seen during Rome's fall
as during Constantinople's
as during Venice's (*the men
are Women, the women men, and
both are monkeys'---Gozzi,
of the last Venice)
they were parts of the same
sexual decision Ie the
christian World must also
slowly groom its Women to
be sacred (not si imply to be
described as sacred as in
chivalry)
He now could concentrate on
war which was his metier
On screams that seemed to be
his Owm And many times he
passed the body of a boy and
thought suppose that he is me
and death translates me from
this me to other me's for ever
And home and kiss and warm
place died only because they
were where he could belong
For all the revolution in him
said you have no place to lay
your head no face to rec ognise


ie we do not belong on the
earth And the steel revolut-
ion was one of many convulsions
to tear us from the illusion
of settling down even while
it seemed with its permanent
steel struc tures to offer a
security of tenure as never
before
every flash of bayonet every
blast announced the same to
him that t never must he pause
or lay his head for here was
no security no welcome home
the reath (life) is only a
medium, a way of expressing
it Christ's way of putting
this was a Hebrew way ('hate
your mother and fatheri)
designed to shake the people
from a slough of family
thus the steel structures were
to give us a temporary supp-
prt during our first flight
from place, from the hot bar-
barian desire to put down
roots They prevented us from
succumbing to panic in the
first uncerta: ain moments of
losing a home And they were
the means by which we lost a
home
To put it in Sumerian terms,
the steel struc tures were
achieved by Enkadu the man,
unaware that Golgemesh the
half-divine was behind him,
waiting to reap the fruits
indeed the meaning of every
whizzing car the whistle of
airbuses overhead the flicker
of screens is you do not belong
ie cars etc being emanations
of steel


Thirty-sixth Canticle
one of the ironies is that all
these endeavours setbacks sur
vivals explosive fates add up
to no golden age nor the achieve
ment for any Whole people or
time or global state of what
might be called imperishable
grace It may happen for one
man ot ten or half to one and
all to a million It may come
now for an instant or delaya
thousand years It may reach
what seems a climax only to
instantly fall It may be seen
for less than a moment or the
whole of a life And what for
us is a million deaths may be
a subscription to something we
cannot see but which another
may inherit Which is to say
that in whatever time or place
whatever circumstance the sub
scription whether of life or
death is always to various
flowerings of a whole body un
divided into one or two or
here and now Which is to say
again that you and I are not
Nevertheless some movements
are discernible though not
in a graph of getting bet
ter or falling into Worse
war settles on each area as
the steel revolution is re-
quired by peoples to burst
upon them and explode their
past Hence its appearanc ce


in varying degrees in the
east
where it does not appear the
people have no need of it
the war has various forms
from the use of high explos-
ive and the jet flame to the
working of gears and the
manipulation of knobs The
war thus presses home the
terms of the steel revolut-
ion each moment of the day
the war in its manifold
forms shocks the people out
of the sense of belonging to
any one place
as the automobile drives the
jetcraft flies so the TV
picture refers us to other
places other times always as
pictures dissolving into
others cut into others
we are in every way trans-
ported


Thirty-seventh Canticle
he found when his war was
over that peace didnot come.
didie.
hii
belief in onself as the
climax-society of history
and in advance of the past
is the barbarian's failure
to penetrate beyond him-
self It coincides with the
infliction of war on undefend-
ed peoples and the cruellest
reve enges The barbarian's
difficulty in penetrating
beyond his own hot self
creates a strong sense in him
of 'other' people as separable
and by implication inferior
'All men areislands' is the
height of the barbarian
philosophy
the barbarian and the half-
divine present the tension
of history by their struggle
with each other (inside the
same man) Enkadu and Gol-
gemesh
Many times he dreamed it
then it ceased,snd-derk
came oncereve Kings came
in a
to his black tent They
drau
told him his business with
the women giggling behind
veils outside Then horses
twice the size of a child


came steaming from their
walk and russet red And
another time it came in
a city by the sea with
blinds against the sun
And then it was a man a
lone in his room And then
a girl on a hill in the
evening and very still
the barbarian is engulfed
by the hot demands of his
own nature and these may
convince him that he is a
man of control and even of
civilisation
Attila the hun never hesit-
ated He swore that wherever
his horse trod the grass
would never grow again He
could not afford to hesit-
ate because of the power of
his own fears
and so it wove in and out
of space and time which are
not fixtures otTeality but
little veils to be drawn a
side if so it takes the will
Cnt.
history is an attempt to
systematise the past as if
we had no other place but
here
civilisation equals no
history
history is a glancing back
and forward in the act of
building When the building
is done what-we-are replaces
what-we-have-done and what-
we-shall-do


Thirty-eighth Canticle
53847 was transported 'home'
after the war but did not
recognise it because place
had died in him He saw the
faces he knew butthe motor
centre of home in himself
was gone
orficial peace came in form
of hungry memories stop ehil
dren wandering skies yrdefined
by catved tops of houses pal
aces stop no roadsto know the
truth by nor the/expected cor
ner stop A whigf of someone's
death a glear of bones stop
this peace) surely nofchange
stop in pact war only the
curtain raiser stop and this
peace/a first tired scene
stop the denouement long to
transpire stop war here to
stay stop repeat stay stop
not that his own home had
been blown sky high It
nearly had The effect would
have been the same The loss
of home was no less among
those Who ret turned home to
unscathed streets Bombs
had exploded in people The
external bombs were only
the outer realisation of the
inner decision


bombs were the steel revolut-
ion blowing out the last re-
doubts of intimacy place
(we remember how the streets
used to be hot with belong ing
Now they must be painted
planted with trees given vistas
We didn't see them before
We were simply in them This is
how the most unsightly slums
were loved)
Not mist these are
fumes This not the
earth but battle
field War has moved
to organsbt tissues
Srmeat
air the waters
always remembering that the
objectivebf christianity was
not to create a civilisation
Indeed that could never have
come within its SC ope given
the hordes it had to educate
from barren savagery
anachronistic the
bombs the screams of
women War is now
secretions -
Wages in the
cell
Christ controlled the educ-
ation so to speak His obgecté
ive was never pockets of civ-
ilisation but a worldwide
presentation of the most
ancient thought, more ancient
than Judah This came to him
via Greece It travelled along
trade routes from the east to
the lediterranean The Jews
were its vehicle to the Roman
empire
these are smokes of fear the


thunders of engines of dis
turbed thought These vi
fpu
brations are attompts at
- au
action The crowded C omings
and goings exchanges at
airports siamped-peesports
L gauges clocks pressure
valves are us heaving us
asteam with hot concern
what diseases what
wav
plagues Like a land
scape they unf old
What disasters
End of message


Thirty-ninth Canticle
war is the struggle to
eliminate as in vomiting
or diarrhea
hmu Ralr
She has proved that she is
light by dying. So many
times she died. By a
agtem uon n
stream on el/so many
has she been How this
mother weaves in and out
of death unveils her
self. How like a waking
and an incubatory sleep
it is. How we can see
her when we close our.
touch her in our sleep.
How all she is how
mother. How white a
cuel W7
million times, How both -how sn
she is haring the meie
complete And Mow light
she knows how tobe
coome how silent


Fortieth Canticle
Demnilintn I4PEZOAO
Having lost his place he
began to look for it
knowing that this was FI
looked
pax
designed He
faces familiar places
but nothing transpired to
teach him who he was
Even mother and father
were now remote Knowing
that enjoyment is a
sign of belonging he tried
to enjoy but not belong
ing anywhere he couldn't
53847 'whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth'
he tried to talk to walk
but
strange looks His
talk opEs laim his walk un
steady His nother gazed
at him but cotld not find
her $on nd
tr an had
his nevervhaving belonged was
a fact blown into-him by war
War was the first drastic step
jun hisy
to understanding that his not
belonging was,far from being
lahl
an uncanny state, the mirror
of truth
Husl
fm i W
sormtter
Ind
Lhoh tte
he N 8he
chodchoh?
loveth I chebtt


Forty-first Canticle
the key began to turn in the
lock whi en he realised after
many slow steps that indeed
he and not supposed implac-
able forc es outside had been
making his life iel he had
to abolish the archetypes
which the barbarian imagin-
ation establishes outside
itself and then bows down to
for five years or more he
looked in the face of an
other and did not find his
wife Looked for arother
and another but aza not see
that the originay. premise
of which 'another' was the
supposed variation had been
lacking Like/a man who
never having /had a horse
was looking for ranother onet
which accounted for much
travelling and looking in faces
he tended to cast back
glances to the time when
'she' /had been there And
all he remembered of the
original'she' was a series
of steel-evoked black
dots on an ageing piece
of /paper kept in the int
erests of extra preserv
ation in the leaves of a
book and not any longer
An a pocket over his
soldier's heart *She'


was perhaps the nearest
to the original premise
of wife that his imaginy
ation could get So his
tired mind adopted her
Thus he found himself
looking into other/ faces
for the presenc e bf black
steel-engendered dots
And naturally since his
methods of chdosing were
mad his choide was mad
too and he Zanded him
self with hany clumsy
bed situations and no wife
ie he was now free to act
because outside life had no
existence independent of him
And dethroning outside life
was a step to de throning inside
life He came to know that his
area of action or freedom was
not outside or inside or any-
where It was simply where he
did not belong (i e freedom
was not in space and time/
number/identity)
and when he/found her
he knew she was not
here or three but every
where and not a dot
the archetypal figure of
'othert people began to
collapse


Forty-second Canticle
Totl Wu
the soldiers have gone home Steket
up TTOW - - hereiom Rejected the ex
amplesof shining valour Medals threwn pur
away in truckloads No longer required
the reminiscenaces with their thrilling
dulimi.
tribal suggestion/ or the speech by the
eminent captain A H bhat tay Hithin
agination flair The smiles of boys
won wars A tint of hair could be de
cisive How the general moved his
shoulders when he had a hunch couid
Bienaldriotory/rand men sat singing
tal
dofesl(t t
in the dark But eW there is function
Alaartpmarieed CAnd
TIC PP C
coneenn cenades chemical disruption
of crops the
ill ges wir other mun
aged i demolition for peaceful pur
poses in crop-spraying even the firing
of contaminated areas in the case of
Bnv tti pug
cattle disease etc thue Showit a thet
hvy
the-funetion onl
results I tu prspr
hou
indifferent fields
Foy 3 3
one to death
ay dechi ve
rise to any ex t raneous
eterd t
li hos
saerifice
on the level
phan,
So put up your swords rutup your
hard revenges Nothing now but shining
steel will meet your victory erde
feati So many have we lost on the way
Each death each cry is part of my
anatomy How bland has been the murder
and how unpaus: ingly the war turns to
ether fields Look how she passes in
hujhl hew


chalk AF who
the street a disc of 11 we
HF * 5
N where she has murdered
a child The hordes that pour past
have each a murder under the careless
hair So many knives have twisted
in the night so sure has been the
slide of steel the gleaming surgeon's
eye that stays the kicking child
the climax of the steel
revolution lies in the
abortion centre where the
young committ their
first act of premeditated
murder Which prepares
them for the bigger acts
of war
blessed is the woman who has
never Long is the path of the
one who has ever For she has
cut herself You did not knife
another in the dark it was
yourself No wonder that you
cry Some flowers have drifted
sullenly down with the falling
of night in the body in the
womb and these are for you
darkness has fallen in the
passages No torches gleam
No glad forragers no ex
panding of soft walls A
candle spits Some murders
hale been done Silence has
fallen on the cave and
these mothers will not
the divine mother W ill
not bring forth in con-
ditions of captivity
She therefore ch'c ooses
war (techincal develop-
ment) as her means of
escape
the murderesses are vouchsafed
automobiles and when they
freathe out it is exhaust gas


the use of the knife and
the renunciation of the
knife are close by a
hair's breadth (the surgeon
is a man of nightmares)
Henry Vlll's protestant
revolution provoked a long
outburst of poetry in
England Napoleon's revol-
ution provoked the same in
France
click goes the cattle gun slit
goes the knife clatter goes. the
pulley and the blood flows down
the gutters The walls have heard
such shouts They hang by hooks
herdes enter by night and
Eatym by
are divided Such
multitudes have been seen Their E Yuts
ghosts live up the hill in
in the eyes of Atar the
sun god there was only one
crime---cooking dead flesh
the daily extermination of
animals is the war visited
on other creatures Thus
they too are drawn int o
the struggle They are not
simply edible bystanders
the fear of the murdered
becomes the fear of its
eater The anger of the
murdered the anger of its
eater The assault on the
murdered the assault on its
tre eater (At the moment
of alaughter the animal's
terror is said to secrete
a poison or acid into the
system This becomes the
poison of the eater)
the flesh is in such turmoil Its
sex erupts in meteors that fly


alne
across the sky The heart beats
fitfully in winds in drifts that
takewhole cities bladders livers
with them There is a state of
fever in the hills The patient
landscape trembles to the point
of magnetic attraction Depend
ent corpuscular populations un
acc ountably die off.Or inst as
unaccountably do away with them
selves Night and day andsoft
and hard and growing and 'dying
and laughing are all mixed up
And entirely nther forms such
as only the stars Gould tell
are lurking in the smiling dark
the visible is an end-of-
the-line product of the
invisible
nature disasters and body
disasters are the same
the earth is equally with
ourslves a hospital case in
dire stress
the believers in the visihle
are victims of 'unaccountable'
disease
disease is a great or small
attempt at suicide
smoking, drinking, over-
sexuality, speeding, drug-
taking, night-wakertilness
are extensional diseases
(i e outside props are
gently or harshly engaged
to fulfil suicide) The
non-extensional disease
often contracted as a
result of these extensional
ones is carefully separated
by the mind from its cause
(is "unaccountable")
suicide is a savage haste
for the divine without
acquaintance with it
the voice of agnosticism
is the engine


Forty-third Canticle
take flies settling on an
arsenic-impregnated pad
They will mate a second be
fore dying in order to a
chieve security not progeny
the use of sex for the dis-
burdenment of sorrow leads
to further sorrow It arises
from the mis take that we
belong here
death-sex is the music of
war Where halls where at
mospheres ring with death
sex becomes remedial and
gives rise to anger and then
more remedial sex in eyer
darkening spirals to despair
hence we have the disarming
contradiction much felt by
beginners that the practise
of sex draws love inch by inch
to where she languishes and dies
and will not longer rec ognise
sex is coneonant with mad-
ness but love is not


Forty-fourth Canticle
it will never be said of the bird
thatshe failed in anyparticular
Hespecking willbe perfect her
hop# thekind originally endowed i styt cu
HeS worm will slide the same in
each millenial field Andshe will
simE from the selfsame tree that
clipe
éver hugged with shade het song
wud
ory
Etwitl Rot-besaid that this was
wrong much less irmelevent It
will not be said that what
syrooteed
tunes
false
hes SC ong by can be LAe or
whatshe hops by can be melinformed
absent to Afa is the present voice
that in hessings tnd Absent is
hrie
the wire inside hes claw And ab
sent is the figure insiderthe gloom
that makes firs sing and touches
leaf to make the warming fireo
everything of a technical
character has the same
function---of telling the
story of the World as if
it were the only place
Heaven and hell are further
extensions of this idea, Cuk
on a pre-steel level
the suicide's conviction
that life is right at the
drab
CMFABR
bottom
is a rec ogn-
ition of the fact that we
do not belong here, with-
out the wherewithai to


realise it in experience
Hence the need f or techihcal
assistance
the yawning suburbs of the
Thirties, fat with 'reality',
produced their suburban
Beelzebub in hitler He
was simply their alter ego
The middle class ev erywhere
simply carried out in bed
and behind locked doors
what he announced publicly
The jews were reviled a
million times over, and they
reviled themselves a million
times over, before hitler
put it into political lan-
guage
ft will not be said that any
thing of hien is hèn, that S ong
that claw, that peck,that pounce
belong to' hier Never will it
be said that>he is present to
hedself ggtt owner of hes gifts
Or that the gloom of the leaves
that holds hes song is where>he
only belongs and always rests
the homosexuality and herm-
aphorditism that mark periods
of great friction of ideas
are a withholding of love on
the sexual plane becase the
race is held up so to speak
in its progenitive decisions
the drunkard will see others
as drunk, the sick man may
suffer the same trick of
sight, and the homosexual
sees the heterosexual as a
'potential' or suppressed'
homosexual He sees the
heterosexual as suffering
the woman's C onstant demand
for servicing while yearning
for the freedom of loving
no one
the armies of homosexuals


are the eunuchs of God
forming up They mark a
new turn of religion
likewase a suicide is the
urgent need for an other
body
The idea that the universe
is dark and cold and empty
is barbarism defined
Hence barbarism entered
the first christian theo-
logy after the desert
fathers in this form It
entered in order to elim-
inate itself, working
through the system like a
poison until violent vom-
iting took place in the
form of the nineteenth
century (i e the disrupt-
ion of local life every-
where by the creation of
world markets)
civilisation is the inher-
itance by great numb ers
of the opposite idea
by its study of a throbbing
and alive universe (i e
radiation and vibration)
science will now complete
the process of elimination
in the last redoubts of
the steel mind


Forty-fifth Canticle
Recogniles
Ruin
Kepel
e saw him throb like
waves like wings SHe
said hullo to oneghe
had not seen before
but was himself and
row valked shining at
hrside He saw how
he had killed himself
had fired his bullets
in his selfsame face
had died himself and
in the field lay talk
aal
ing silently, a +h men
face downat a motioniess
we choose the kind of sheath
k tte Ghu dend.
which will serve our sl OW or
quick purpose Think of all
the millions of ch oices from
mineral to vegetable
the S teel revolution, in-
volving over the centuries
long relig ibus wars and
civil massacre and the ruin
of the young by W ork/persecut-
ion/famine not to mention
the disruption of the pro-
genttive process in animal
vegetable and mineral,
was the equivalent ofa
thought in a room
one whose dream all life had been bad
and was older than 53847 decided one


Tve Decini k Kill A:
lrfi's hover
Fwesle?
night in his trench to clean his bed
of its wife's lovers by destroying an
enemy The night was silent damp and
the enemy too He needed to remove a
man Who had entered his bed that night
and
guma al
any man would do The hated one
never has a name and his face and his
limbs are anyone's The
miho.
torning papers
that reached the
sifel
front the crackling
radio were loud each dayl declaring the
official enemy arranged to last for
the
of the
dixnpte
length
war and quiet the
worms that each man hadl in his head
or his bed by rationing out one common
enemy He drank as much scotch as the
bottle held and sat lodking at his
nails by the light of a candle breathing
hard his men all round him knowing that
his enemy in this case a youth of twenty
or so with frightened blond eyes was on
the other side behind a quickfiring gun
Now this young man behind the gun was
not quite sure of his hate and only
half believed in the enemy's existence
on the other side But when the bad
dreamer jumped to his feet and called
to his mem to follow him he knew that
the enemy was therel He. saw him suddenly
swaying screaming across the night in
front and pulled the simple trigger in
his hand and to his amazement fear the
night clattered with armament and the
shadow fell with al gasp in the middle of
the field and his men had not followed
They threw the empty bottle of scotch
away and phoned tb the rear# for another
officer This is how a dream can lead
straight to its fulfilment In this case
the enemy was destroyed precisely as
promised sfocg the enemy washim elf