Poem
Joshua Clover
THE FIRE SERMON
THE FIRE SERMON
THE FIRE SERMON
1. Red Epic
Mediators! matadors!
how trivial and objective this world is!
semiologists! stevedores!
how objective and trivial!
equally fucked we are
well not equally I have an MCM
aesthetic and a radio-controlled
death drive there are two parties
to every romance
the waged and the wager
and it has been getting harder
to decipher the difference
a throw of the dice will
never reveal the real subject
oh mediators! stevedores! etc.
Madrid is sometimes in flames
though confusingly the Spanish
Stairs are in Rome
which is often in flames
Oakland is sometimes pleasingly in flames
Athens is almost
always aflame also Thessaloniki
Big Data murmurs to me
the likelihood that at a given
profit rate in a given sector
a given household debt
a given wage deflation a given
neighborhood would be
in flames given fire is the unfettered
substance of the situation
To begin again from the beginning
to write only for one’s friends
two lovers make a zero
two speculations make a hedge
if Tender Buttons had been
written by capital instead of
OBJECTS FOOD ROOMS
it would have a single section
called LABOR POWER
though technical language is not conducive
to enlisting popular support
if Lunch Poems
were the poetry of the future
it would be all like
I communize this I communize that
2. Transistor
for Ruth Jennison
There will be a revolution or there will not. If the latter these poems were nothing
but entertainments. If the former it will succeed or fail. If the latter these poems
were better than nothing. If the former it will feature riots fire and looting and these
will spread or they will not. If the latter these poems were curiosities. If the former it
will feature further riots manifestos barricades and slogans and these will leap into
popular songs or they will not. If the latter that’s that. If the former these popular
songs will be overcome or they will not. If the latter these poems were no different
than the songs. If the former the popular itself will be abolished via riots barricades
manifestos occupations and fire or it will not. If the latter we will spend several
more decades talking about culture. If the former the revolution will at this point be
destroyed from within or without. If the latter these poems went down fighting. If
the former it will feature awful confrontations with former friends and there will be
further manifestoes new slogans ongoing occupations and communes and lovers
will be enemies. We do not know what will happen after this point but surely this is
enough to draw some preliminary conclusions. The poem must be on the side of
riots looting barricades occupations manifestos communes slogans fire and enemies.
3. Poem Ending With a Line from Niedecker
I keep my mind under my arm
where I hold my
head when I walk
down to market when I
walk when I walk down
to the market
the actions are social
but the mind is private
when I walk down walk
down to the inferno
the mind is private I had
a vision the mind
is privately held
under my arm when I
walk I had a dream had a
Baudelaire had a
Rimbaud the action is
social but Apollinaire walks
down he promenades down
to market promenades
in the market
walks out walks home
walks through streets named after
market towns
the names are social
but the century is private
the inferno is social
but the mind follows
the head thinks we can leave
thinks we can go
down to the market
and leave just leave thinks we can
be in it but not of it
You know all too well
that the best poetry is not
the least revolution
you know also that poetry
is the best way available to you
to affirm this truth
now we start to see how
the trap is sprung how it was
sprung and all
before you were born
mind under your arm
in the poetry market that exists
despite the spontaneous
wailings of the poets who believe
there must be no
market because they
cannot afford that for which they
should not have to pay
the action is social but the market
exists as the secret
police exist alas the market
will never send you
to jail for your poems though
we all believed in
private that we were
worth jailing for the terrible
sedition of our dithyrambs
believed we deserved this honor
in a ¡NO PASASRÁN!
todos somos Pussy Riot
sort of way yet the good
reader geared with cuffs and
taser cometh not for us
The world of the poem is
the world the world is abstract
and real the poem
fails just when it is victorious
because one cannot live
the absolute of Victory
over the Sun until
one can and we do and many
will die when this happens
poetry will be renewed
in the blood of the negative
“and dreadfully much else”
From: Red Epic
Publisher: Commune Editions/AK Press, Oakland
Publisher: Commune Editions/AK Press, Oakland
Poems
Poems of Joshua Clover
Close
THE FIRE SERMON
1. Red Epic
Mediators! matadors!
how trivial and objective this world is!
semiologists! stevedores!
how objective and trivial!
equally fucked we are
well not equally I have an MCM
aesthetic and a radio-controlled
death drive there are two parties
to every romance
the waged and the wager
and it has been getting harder
to decipher the difference
a throw of the dice will
never reveal the real subject
oh mediators! stevedores! etc.
Madrid is sometimes in flames
though confusingly the Spanish
Stairs are in Rome
which is often in flames
Oakland is sometimes pleasingly in flames
Athens is almost
always aflame also Thessaloniki
Big Data murmurs to me
the likelihood that at a given
profit rate in a given sector
a given household debt
a given wage deflation a given
neighborhood would be
in flames given fire is the unfettered
substance of the situation
To begin again from the beginning
to write only for one’s friends
two lovers make a zero
two speculations make a hedge
if Tender Buttons had been
written by capital instead of
OBJECTS FOOD ROOMS
it would have a single section
called LABOR POWER
though technical language is not conducive
to enlisting popular support
if Lunch Poems
were the poetry of the future
it would be all like
I communize this I communize that
2. Transistor
for Ruth Jennison
There will be a revolution or there will not. If the latter these poems were nothing
but entertainments. If the former it will succeed or fail. If the latter these poems
were better than nothing. If the former it will feature riots fire and looting and these
will spread or they will not. If the latter these poems were curiosities. If the former it
will feature further riots manifestos barricades and slogans and these will leap into
popular songs or they will not. If the latter that’s that. If the former these popular
songs will be overcome or they will not. If the latter these poems were no different
than the songs. If the former the popular itself will be abolished via riots barricades
manifestos occupations and fire or it will not. If the latter we will spend several
more decades talking about culture. If the former the revolution will at this point be
destroyed from within or without. If the latter these poems went down fighting. If
the former it will feature awful confrontations with former friends and there will be
further manifestoes new slogans ongoing occupations and communes and lovers
will be enemies. We do not know what will happen after this point but surely this is
enough to draw some preliminary conclusions. The poem must be on the side of
riots looting barricades occupations manifestos communes slogans fire and enemies.
3. Poem Ending With a Line from Niedecker
I keep my mind under my arm
where I hold my
head when I walk
down to market when I
walk when I walk down
to the market
the actions are social
but the mind is private
when I walk down walk
down to the inferno
the mind is private I had
a vision the mind
is privately held
under my arm when I
walk I had a dream had a
Baudelaire had a
Rimbaud the action is
social but Apollinaire walks
down he promenades down
to market promenades
in the market
walks out walks home
walks through streets named after
market towns
the names are social
but the century is private
the inferno is social
but the mind follows
the head thinks we can leave
thinks we can go
down to the market
and leave just leave thinks we can
be in it but not of it
You know all too well
that the best poetry is not
the least revolution
you know also that poetry
is the best way available to you
to affirm this truth
now we start to see how
the trap is sprung how it was
sprung and all
before you were born
mind under your arm
in the poetry market that exists
despite the spontaneous
wailings of the poets who believe
there must be no
market because they
cannot afford that for which they
should not have to pay
the action is social but the market
exists as the secret
police exist alas the market
will never send you
to jail for your poems though
we all believed in
private that we were
worth jailing for the terrible
sedition of our dithyrambs
believed we deserved this honor
in a ¡NO PASASRÁN!
todos somos Pussy Riot
sort of way yet the good
reader geared with cuffs and
taser cometh not for us
The world of the poem is
the world the world is abstract
and real the poem
fails just when it is victorious
because one cannot live
the absolute of Victory
over the Sun until
one can and we do and many
will die when this happens
poetry will be renewed
in the blood of the negative
“and dreadfully much else”
From: Red Epic
THE FIRE SERMON
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