Safe Dissonance
Lyrics by John Brenner.
Spectatorship
Lights out, solemn plausibilities. Pronounce, watch, a waste of thorns. Love too much the long run of history. And what flies up? What else could we have done? A part not apart, wrinkles made smooth. Take not partake. Take it all apart.
Armadillo
All heresies are forbidden. How great are the faults that mar it. Your people is
a great beast, whet her vulture fang.
Cover it all with oblivion. Look to the end of all lies. Shun security. Leave a
beast of prey.
Canon
Glide away. Turn to god, into gold, perishing. The trained mind awaits chance. Without fate...fly. Is life so dear, peace so sweet? Only the saint chooses his death. Avarice, industry. Who can refute a stylish sneer?
Sophistry
Fighting with shadows, titles are dangerous. Debased coinage, language corrupting thought. I despair. Boundless presumption, holy simplicity, the holy see. The holy see holy simplicity. Boundless presumption. I despair. Language corrupts debased coinage. Titles are dangerous. Fight shadows.
Safe Dissonance
Nothing from nothing ever yet was born. Sin by silence. At home, the enemy waits. Empty your golden glass, master anger. Moderation is best. Run the risk of heresy.
Note to Myself
The noisome weeds upon the foot of fear, nothing pleases me. Excellent device! What have I done, being young?Any stigma will do. Put me on earth again. Naked I descend. Cheating for beauty’s sake. No pity in the clouds. To suffer and endure. Thou art indeed just, Lord. Tragedy’s preoccupation knows at what time to promise.
Swerve
I see the suns die every day, not knowing how to remain alone. Learn in our graves the opinion of ghosts. I won’t divulge my right to be wrong.
Ignorance with Arrogance
A comprehensible darkness. Loudness is impotence, an arbitrary veneration that peers out in sleep. The world does not move, let alone with an arbitrary veneration. A comprehensible darkness? Loudness is impotence.
Inflating Dwarfs
No man born can set you free, tiny mewling tyranny. Loathsome words, repugnant form, brag and scrape and pray and fawn. I speak of what will be. You among their company. Puffery and stuffy pride. What are you but a child? Teach us what all this means, sacrificed to calumny. Bear it lightly, recognize the thief of fire.
Beware Lilliputians
Small soul, wandering, an imbecile with only eyes. Sincere ignorance molds himself to their likes. Greatness is hard to bear. Your ready answers leave me old. Great leap in the dark. Your steady answers make me bold.
Torpor
Running, you
are stunning, so far cunning. Why start one thing without nothing ?