To Susan Sontag, with Love by Taban Lo Liyong

The Enlightenment has always aimed at liberating men from fear and establishing their sovereignty. Yet the fully enlightened earth radiates disaster triumphant.
Adorno with Max Horkheimer

Part I

in mans greatest intellectual age sometimes called mythopoeic
he gave rivers tongues trees ears sky eyes mother earth oozed
with life
words were very gods
why but to make witnesses
all witnesses police judges erinyes

we remained human while that age lasted and its shadow
covered us

but enlightenment encroached this sensitive terrain
drove imagination behind saying we rational creatures be
and down with superstition
man shall live by reason alone

as if this was first time human intellect had beheld these views

enlightenment prophesied god dead

snuffing out divine in us

sacredness was dead for good

we caught unsuperstition like flu

mans feedback is fear

and superstition his homeostasis

and religion his lifebelt

at end of his tether man lives by myths and dies by daring
ignorance

ancient greeks in modesty moulded earth and gave objects so
made supernames
correlatives of force and power in man

heartsearchingly deeming it better man surrendered potency to
objects

and nouns abstract

making himself harmlesser towards strangers and neighbours

and a serf to his own metacreatures

whose feats feast games

he observed with awe from distance

dared not imitate challenge

scapegods man made and placed on olympuses

had megahuman exploits men enjoyed in telling only

and bore blames for his immodesty

and glowed with pride in his success

always picking tabs and paying insurance

to experience lodged in subconscious

for acts omitted or committed

with lights we came on scene in time machines
and thought first generator toy
and dismantled wheel rod indicators
shaking cosmology out of balance

human injunctions divined and austere
had gone forth to fear gods
and not prod them
and respects to locks of nestors

and noncontradiction of continuity with observation of line
in middle
mans mind cant carry much
nor follow road straight
but if remains on earth will stay safe
intuition is not practical
greeks flew by proxy
divines kept dark ages bright
inquisition lost last battle against madness
without fear without superstition nails are painted red
and fermi munches japanese
a villain after galileo
at least newton repented

firmer wax sends daedalus hit very sun
and goddic mysteries flouted without fear
everyman own god

puny nietzsches strut
bloated frogs

race of supermen has come
but where superhumanists
with guilt gone
was auschwitz far
sacredness is dead
and hiroshima invented
without superstition
denigrated godtheidea
to confront mantheideamaker
more nearly

our death machines be twostage rocket
launched on humanists laps
by scientists

they killed witches and sought for stone
keeping idea alive

we are enlightened now and burnt by fire overexposure

the wring hands

chorus bastard humanists

rebels against ignorance set acknowledging us

drilling efficiency in thick skulls and making us robots

god knows what else our fates

from abundant imagination lodged in impractical timid
humanists

scientists put to work magic

poets planned and blueprinted in classrooms

lurid attics and pulpits

and politicians would outdo alexanderandcaesar
as taught in school

everybodys tomb a pyramid and shrine
we teach iliad for war
right and wrong troy is ours

damn guy fawkes for gunpowder

but printing machine crushed noble castles

far and near amen

aeiou rimbaud sought your pregnant secrets

as if grammarians hadnt stuffed us full

with correct usage agreements

miss verb and mister person

and lord bacon urged exactness

unto him machines

shakespeare

life blows like wind

of no signification

what its worth

and world a stage

for how many roles

of angelsanddevils

sartres waiter dribbles precarious tray
full of eats and drinks and poisons
accomplished actor iago
jean uncommon actor
manipulating words
ergo cinc

manipulating cultivated physiques
veritable foyers

goethes alter ego mephistopheles
rewarded belle in saigon
drops napalm and bomb
wildes science for sciences sake
is come
rejoice

capacity for variety sensations is dostoyevskys work on paper
pavlovs moved from dogs to flesh and mind
overacute consciousness is disease with own fundamental laws
common to intellects elect
screws them tight

and forces moment to own conclusion

no matter the end

fyodor gets pleasure killing story

scientist discovering law

lover consummates sex orgasm

murderer kills victim

everything permitted

existentists technicians prepare biological warfare
aristotles literary sublime is literature
imitation

so metaliterature cybernetics

inhuman use suffering

oedipus cleanses us incest

and murder

and bloodier macbeth

washes cleaner pogroms

and roastedpeasants best detergents

granddad noah dead drunk near mississippi

triple summer murders

and sharpeville bloodbath

divine comedy be bloodier

for sake of dantes enemies

burn in hell

and ours hereandthere eliot we loster generation

with war objective correlative of might and something else
ive never heard bomb

but beethoven shot and tschaikovsky answered

guernica mangled few

picasso criminally dismembered all

and unborn gorgons head

moore made models for pills copy

and japanese bomb mass produce

general piet mondrian directs bombing operations
complete maps enemy territory

squared paddies green jungles ports rivers bridges deltas roads
rails
ready bombing

marines today tomorrow when escalation authorized

homer wins pulitzer prizes
outstanding warreporting
those deranged war cured sanatoria
but brainmixed by joice
teach universities

technocrats

beautiful hirelings

magnates

single

corporate

governing servants

Efficiency Almighty

computers in hand

massmedia in mouth

aesthetics for minds

missiles as comets

go worshipping unconcerned

about myliverandourhobbyhorse

guinea pigs die our first breaths

we less equal than other pigs

strong carlyle orders workanddoubtnot

and robots drive through green and yellow

till all is red

books on sex banned
but more potent tripped
milton honoured
but mute betters forgot

forget innocents and sadists

but preserve masochists for private consumption

publicly honour heroes

distinguished murderers

temperance societies filled donations
teetotallers get grand ovations
but not alcohol only intoxicate

KNOWLEDGE does

homer turned keats on
elgin marbles broke his heart
poor sweet nightingale

psychedelics may be harmful your health
but surrealism destroys than pills
adverse effects literary materials
on human bodyandmind
be investigated by houseunamericanactivities
sick in utopias criminal
should be criminal in ours
to be bright

and all intellectuals be rounded up
on ground intoxication
with ideas

and disturbance of natural mediocrity of man

we shall revive

the grand ancient society

for preservation of Ignorance

man

thoroughly dull creature since civilizations came and went
centuries piled top centuries
to make man less ignorant
after that

she has to spend most her life and energy being reminded
of bits of what should know to make death kit

ps

between the committed man
moral and blaming
and manofscience

there is only a difference of impracticality

the timid gropes for standardization and equality

the tradesman delivers on a platter the finished order

mixed with blood

and limbs

and horror

and overefficiency

amen.

In: Poems of Black Africa. Edited and introduced  by Wole Soyinka. 1975, pp. 21-28.