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The Horror The Horror (Free verse) by Nicholas Jones
âThe horror the horrorâ is our favourite line:
not because we see it in our lives
but because we do not.
Late night trash tv and three minute pop songs
articulate our days.
Imagine being able to say
âThe Horror! The Horror!â
And meaning it!
That is not an option
Which basically is the problem.
But we are not like those who embrace
the trash and make a virtue of it,
We want more but cannot achieve it,
Our inability killed western high culture
Which is all we revered
and it all dead now
like Mistah Kurtz
who we associate with
Conrad and Coppalla equally
Jim Morrison and Wagner
But we still canât explain the ending
Poor old us. We canât adapt. Only collapse.
Said Orwell:
'Our civilization is decadent and our language...
Must inevitably share in the general collapse.'
I used to believe that I am perfectly
adapted for these superficial modern times
Happy with the high and the low
The ancient and the modern.
But my secret is this: I am out of step
Yes, I can be clever and ironic
But thatâs not what I want.
Instead I go to gigs looking for art and am
disappointed when I find only
entertainment. I joined a party to fight for socialism
but found ideology was out of fashion
and weâre all in the centre ground now.
And I can do nothing
and can create nothing
of any real worth
I go to church each week but
donât really believe
in heaven hell resurrection divinity.
Enjoy instead minutiae of
useless theology. Pointless controversy.
Though perhaps this is just the historicist excuse? I cannot
succeed because of the times. Not because of me.
Real rapture? Use fragmentation to
escape my culture. Abstract disconnected must fucking try.
And this is not even an attempt just an explanation
that I expect to fail.
Fingers now going numb from the cold
So time to stop. Cannot even churn out crap any more.
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