{"postID":136014479,"cachedAt":716817303.36098194,"updatedAt":716817303.36097705,"content":{"type":"doc","content":[{"type":"captionedImage","content":[{"type":"image2","attrs":{"topImage":false,"srcNoWatermark":null,"bytes":null,"href":null,"internalRedirect":null,"fullscreen":null,"belowTheFold":false,"src":"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/c8d099fd-ba87-4a9d-a958-84d30be5d371_925x539.jpeg","title":null,"type":null,"width":925,"height":539,"imageSize":null,"resizeWidth":null,"alt":null}}]},{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","text":"I was a mere sixteen that Summer day"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"We all piled in a beat-up car and drove"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To Woodstock, or someplace we had been told"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That a great spectacle was to occur—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"An earth-shaking event where all the stars"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That lit a generation’s sky would be"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Together, like an astronomical"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Alignment—all their energies would merge,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And give voice to the coming brighter dawn"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"We all felt was awakening in those times—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"A spirit free of all the bitter strife"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Our parents’ lives had known, and free of all"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The forms of tyranny; the little rows"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of doll-houses in suburbs, where the chains"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of smug conformity, in silence grow,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And rigid, time-encrusted old beliefs,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That led the world in mad pursuit of power"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To war and to the very brink of doom;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Again sat mute as merchants of that trade"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Enslaved the beautiful Promethean fire"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of Reason to their grim and violent ends—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Yes, even as we blithely breathed the air"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of Summer’s freedom in those sunny fields,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Across the world, in steamy jungle hells,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Our brothers bled and died and went insane,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And only last Summer, our cities burned,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"When the last one of those great prophets fell,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And hatred, like a cataclysmic storm,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Loomed over the horizon of our lives;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And though we heard the voice of our own kind"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Proclaim the god-like feat that had been done,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As they stood on the face of a new world,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Across the radios and TV screens"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of our whole world, the weak and crackling sound"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Fell as a lover’s words, when love is gone—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The bygone dreams of days that were no more."},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For we were a new generation born"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Not for the narrow realm of ordered thought,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The world of soulless men and cold machines,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And empty phrases that no one believed,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But piously repeated, just the same;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of gods who punished or rewarded men"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As they obeyed like herded sheep, or not—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"No! We were born to be the golden ones,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Free from all law save what was in our hearts,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And free from Time, but what each moment gave"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To pleasure mind and body without guilt–"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That greatest of the chains of tyranny."},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And so we came to the appointed place"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And joined the thousands, walking on the roads"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Like pilgrims to some mystic, holy shrine,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And I became as if one of that throng"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And lost myself in that great, surging crowd,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Becoming like a leaf born on the winds"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That came from where we knew not, but which drove"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Our minds and bodies on as with a tide,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Where thought and feeling melted into one,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"A moment with no future and no past,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Where I was free to passively observe,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Without the mirror of falsely judging eyes"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As if truly opened for the first time;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And I saw many things bizarre and new;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The wild profusion of free-growing hair,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And every possible exotic state"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And hue of clothing, or of nakedness;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And people dancing mid the Summer corn"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To waves of mystical, hypnotic tones,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And odors of hashish and cannabis"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Which sweetly drifted over all that place,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Like incense in some ancient Doric rite;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And just beyond the tumult of this scene,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Upon a path that led into the woods,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"I noticed a lone figure sitting there,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"With such a placid look upon his face,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Yet so intense, as if by force unseen,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"I was drawn to him, and as I came near,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"It seemed as if a gentle light played ‘round"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"His head and brightened with his widening smile,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And I could not resist a certain charm"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That seemed to flow forth from his very form,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For he was beautiful in that strange way"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That blends the essence of woman and man;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Long, flowing locks and penetrating eyes,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Broad forhead, and that knowing, smiling mouth;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“What brings you here?” he said, as I stood there,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Not knowing what he meant, and so I said,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“Do you mean here with you, or do you mean"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The here that is this general event,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Or here upon this earth to walk a time?”"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“Good answer!” he replied, and with a laugh,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Invited me to sit down by his side."},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As we looked out upon that human sea,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The magic of his speech, like music, charmed"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"My soul into believing that we were"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Above all place and time, and free to see"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The hidden truths that guide the human heart."},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"With almost a paternal love and pride,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“No single day in all those ancient times,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"No pious rite or pagan spectacle"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of Greece or Rome, no conquering warrior host,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"No angry revolutionary mob,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Or zealous movement, marching in the streets"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Will change the world as will this day,” he said,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And smiled as he stared far away, it seemed,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And I said, “who can tell what noble dreams"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Are sleeping in the minds that gather here?”"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“Nobility?” he said, with laughing sneer,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“No, pleasure is the only god who reigns"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Today, as it will rule the Age to come—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And he shall raise the Self above all else,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And make the universe revolve around"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The sovran being, as if it were God,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And they will drink the power of that wine,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As each to each they smiling pass the cup,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Until they have forgotten that which once"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Had bound their souls together, and the words"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Which echo from the future and the past,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And even that great being who exists,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"In whom they had believed in innocence,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That great, eternal tyrant of the soul,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"They will deny, or jealously reject,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As if he were the hated enemy.”"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"He fell into a long and silent smile,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“You speak of God,” I said, in reverent tone,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"More out of fear for where these thoughts might lead,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"He said, “He has no power here on earth,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Save what the minds of men have been deceived"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To forfeit of their natural, true birthright—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For they are born of that same flesh and blood"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As all the creatures of this lovely earth,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And share with them the same deep, primal urge"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To live and breathe each moment to the full,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And love and recreate in all the joy|"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That mind and spirit lend to pleasure’s sway;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And merging with that universal dance"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of Life, they find an immortality"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of joy and pleasure, ever born anew;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The Great Deceiver would have them believe"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That they must sacrifice for some reward"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That never was, and robs them of the thing"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That makes each moment like a paradise.”"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And his words lulled my soul like opium,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As I gazed out across the teeming fields;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"A myriad of beautiful young souls"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Were sharing thoughts and feelings as a one,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"All swaying to the same entrancing tones,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As if one, powerful wave that could rise up,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And sweep the world with it’s all-cleansing force,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And he said, “Yes, and they will come of age,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Inheriting the reigns of power in the world,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But still the freedom of this moment will,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Like half-remembered dreams, enchant their souls,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Then cold necessity will intervene,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Few will to their precious ideals stay true,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But rather justify their wild pursuit"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of money and material things, as means"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"To that imagined earthly paradise"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That they believed themselves, alone, deserve;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And some will seek the power to impose"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The empire of their will upon the world,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And many will uphold them in their greed,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For they will seem to gain by loyalty,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And from the flattery of their self-love."},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But as their power and riches multiply,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"So does their taste for greater pleasure grow"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"In more insipid, mindless decadence,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"So that those lords of plunder who exploit"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"The blood and sweat of the vast, aching world,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Must feed them ever more to satisfy"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Their lust and ever more rapacious greed;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And after their own lands have been sucked dry,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"They will, by age-old logic, turn to war,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That ultimate corrupter of the soul—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And all will cheer as victims are contrived"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And hatred for the enemy inflamed—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Their hearts will harden then, to the most cruel"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And bestial methods of the ancient days—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For weakness will become the greatest sin—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But the most passionate in their vehemence"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Will be the pious ones who once confessed"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That noble faith of human love and peace,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For love had long since vanished from their hearts,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That puling, weak and poisonous idea"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Which plagued the world for two millenia,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That all are destined to an equal worth,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And with some innate sacredness are born—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For it was never so in Nature’s realm,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Where strength and beauty are their own reward,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And mankind, lacking this necessity,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Will never rise to all that he can be—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Terrible and beautiful in his might,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Conquering all the universe he sees!”"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"When he had finished, something in his eyes"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Seemed as if burning with unnatural fire,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That I had never seen, yet chilled my soul,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"For I was impotent to answer him,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"As I stood on the edge of an abyss"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of doubt and fear, for I could not deny"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That all he saw existed like the seeds"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Of some dark tragedy, already sown"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"In this bright moment, and my darkest fears,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"That often haunted me in feverish dreams—"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"A world gone mad, in which I roam alone"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Among the ghostlike beings, unheard, unseen;"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And as I wept, I thought I heard him say,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But only now like a voice from within,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"“You will not have the strength to stand alone,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Forever alien to those creatures’ love.”"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"I walked away, and never looked behind,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"But heard him laugh in piercing mockery,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Which echoed in my soul throughout those days"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And long into the years that passed since then,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Each time our common folly would fulfill"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Somehow again, that fateful prophecy,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"I heard that laugh, as I can hear it now,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"Out in the street, in churches and in homes,"},{"type":"hard_break"},{"type":"text","text":"And in the very corridors of power."}]},{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","text":"To support our work and access exclusive content you can can become a regular paid subscriber to Age of Muses or ","marks":[{"type":"em"}]},{"type":"text","text":"purchase","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"class":null,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/New-Lyre-Journal-High-Culture\/dp\/B0C6VZ1ZD1\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1685940349&sr=1-3","target":"_blank"}},{"type":"em"}]},{"type":"text","text":" our exclusive twice-yearly journal of arts and letters, New Lyre.","marks":[{"type":"em"}]}]}]}}