Luke North: Songs of the Great Adventure — 1917

EARTH'S GOD

The Living God stands forth in human birth!
In fearlessness no power His Will can girth
  To hasten evolution's toiling way,
Release the millions, paradise the earth!


MAN'S GOD

When sundered chains release the prisoned mind;
When hearts their secret dungeon Prisoner find
  And free! — 'Tis He; 'tis only He who can
Raze prison walls and fear-bound man unbind!


SELF RESPECT

No man is better than I am,
This I affirm, and dare you to prove
That any man
Is better than I am.

No man is worse than I am,
This I admit
And challenge you to show
A baser man than I am.

All crimes I have thought
All virtues I have felt.
I am greedy, voluptous, deceitful,
I am generous, true, and courageous.

We are different shallowly,
Not better or worse underneath.
We are what circumstance makes us,
None is better than I am, and no one worse.



THE UNKNOWN

Life is greater than philosophy,
Than all the schools
And systems of thought,
Than all the logicians
Dead or living.

I like to think
No child will ever be born
On a day when
All the secrets of nature
Are known
And men can read
All knowledge
In a printed book.

Such a little universe
Would stifle me
Who find the zest
The urge and the joy Of Life
In the vastness of the Unknown.

Life is vaster than all
The creeds, doctrines, theologies,
Moralities, religions
And philosophies —
Than all the saviors,
Saints, gods, sages,
Wise men and fools,
Dead, living,
Or yet to be born.

Life has had a billion
Times a billion Interpreters
On this little planet alone
And remains — Unknown!

Every sentient creature.
Is an interpreter of Life
And everyone interprets
A little differently.

In this lies not despair
Or even sadness.
In this lurks the lure of Life
And the Why thereof.

The deeper, truer, bigger
Joys of Life
Accrue from its
Fearless exploration.

Life would be a prison cell
For the human mind
Shut in by the printed page.

Every soul brings
New problems to Life —
Multiplies its wonderful mysteries.

Life would be a dungeon
To the human soul
Could the printed page
Lessen the vastness
Of the Unknown.



THE ONLY REVOLUTIONARY
Love is the only
Revolutionary.
Not a supine submissive love —
A bold audacious Love
That dares anything, everything,
Even the loss of Dollars! !
To gain its darling end.

A Love that lays Profit,
Stocks, bonds and dividends
On the altar of its heart's desire.
Its own stocks, and bonds,
And Profit —
On the altar of Human Welfare!

Such a Love there is in life;
Millions of men feel it,
And daily it shapes
The course of their lives —
Only in little ineffectual ways
Because —

Our aimless, thoughtless
Way of land hogging
Denies Love at the base
And beginning of life,
Bringing to naught,
Turning to ashes

Turning to fear,
To unfaith, cruelty
And self-righteous littleness
All the fruit that ripens
From our fondest, boldest,
Broadest human love

Where human life begins
We will carry our Love
And end the shameless,
Heartless barter
Of human flesh and soul
For bread or dividends.


AS TO HATE

I don't hate the spider that I kill,
But hate the narrow life I lead
In which there isn't room enough
For a spider and myself.

The soldier doesn't hate the foe he also kills,
Nor the lion hate the lamb he eats,
I will not hate the men whose tenure of the earth
Has pauperized the millions —



THE NATIVITY

Plead not with heaven's alien Gods to bless
  Some Holy Babe and Mother far away.
  Be thou thyself the God whose power shall stay
With human sympathy and love's access
Whom never Gods bend earthward to caress —
  The Hungry Babes and Mothers of Today!
  Seek thou the Lowly Mothers first, for they
Need most the touch of manhood's tenderness.

Round every Infant brow an aureole gleams
  However starved by Greed's brutality.
The holy Mother in each Mother dreams
  Above the Infant cradled on her knee.
Sing: not of ancient Gods and ancient themes —
  All Babes enshrine whatever Gods there be!

THE ONLY DANGER

Fear is the World Lust!
  Obsessing human life —
  Poisoning its springs of desire,
  Glooming its sunlight of love,
  Trailing its shadows
  Over every natural joy that bursts
  The heavy bonds of superstition.
  Sans Fear life is worth while.

Fear is the Serpent in the Garden!
  Fascinating the soul
  To weakness and despair,
  Drawing the feet
  Always in lessening arcs
  To the tomb's embrace.
  Death were cheated but for Fear.

Fear is the Mother of Sin!
  Dashing to the mud
  The soul's reach starward;
  Defiling the Garden's
  Rose-laden air
  With stench of the Puritan.
  On the warp of Fear is woven
  All that swineherds call sin.

Fear dethrones the true God!
  Robs man of faith in — Himself!
  Skulking Fear
  Of pain, of death, of loss —
  Ignoble Fear to stand alone!
  Sans Fear of tomorrow
  Man will reach his Godhood.



THE ONLY VIRTUE

That pluck abide with kindness,
Courage stay with thought,
Daring and decency be friends,
Intelligence evade mushiness,
Sympathy sidestep impotence,
Love remain virile to the end.

That the strength and the hardness of steel
In the hour for action
Come from the deeps of Men
Who can think and feel!

That brutality, sentimentality,
Aimlessness, stupidity, froth,
With cunning, greed and gluttony,
Be not the sole possessors
Of manhood's only virtue —
Courage!



TO KEEP THE IDEAL

Have you a love that you would keep?
Pour it out into a larger love.
Have you a friendship you would hold?
Share it with the world.
Have you an ideal you would not lose?
Lay it on the Altar to Man.

Nothing is an end in itself.
Everything is only a means to something else.
Satiety is the only sin.
Only what is given can be kept.
What is hoarded turns to Ashes.

Nothing is stationary.
Treasure grows or lessens.
This is true of a love, a friendship, or an ideal.
To keep it, share it.
Love is not an end in itself,
But a means of human growth.

Everything is for use,
Nothing is "for keeps."
Things, qualities, thoughts, feelings —
The world and its contents
Tangible and imponderable —
Are for the growth of Man.

You have heard this before
And gushed over it, no doubt.
Now stop the gush and get it into your system
Live it! Save your love,
Hold your friendship,
Keep your ideal
By use!



ANTINOMIES

I will not ask of Life
More than I am
Willing to pay for.

I will not seek
To be drunk and sober
At the same moment —
Drunk of wine, women, thought, music, poetry, of the wild splendors of nature, or the beautiful creations of art.

I will not ask of Life
Joy without effort,
Health without care,
Wealth without work,
The approval of my neighbors
Without consideration
For their welfare.

I will not seek in Life
For the blending of opposites,
Nor an ultimate God.

I will not expect
Gluttony without satiety,
Drink without remorse,
Excess without lassitude,
Anger without regret,
Hate without grief.

I will seek no thornless Rose,
Nor curse heaven
At the scratches.

I will seek the essence
Of the Rose
And avoid its thorns —
When I can.



A MAN'S PRAYER

O distant God
If Thou art in heaven
Or anywhere —
I don't know.
Thou hast not revealed
Thyself to me —
Yet hopefully,
Anxious to miss no point —

O alien God
If Thou art outside of man
Give me power to combat
The bigotry hate envy
Of Thy devotees,
The tortures crimes cruelties
Perpetrated
For Thy glory.




THE OLD ART
The old art makes man
The scapegoat
Of creeds, conventions, moralities,
Gloats over the soul's efforts
To disentangle itself
From artificial codes.

THE NEW ART
The new art leaves man
Above moralities,
And seeks its unities
In the human struggle
Out of the web
Of the exploiter's conventions.


LIFE LURES
Life lures
To fresh endeavors.
Is it only a lure?

Life beckons
To new adventures.
Must all fail?

Life reveals
Higher aspirations.
Shall none satisfy?

Life shows
Another peak —
Yes, the peaks are endless.

Mountains pile
On mountains —
Still a higher summit.

Life leads
Upward, upward —
If one be unafraid!

Life — halts
The climber and says
Take the crowd along!

What a lonely
Heaven, with
Only one soul in it!


THE BLIND GODDESS
Symbol of a darker age —
Hewn by men who feared the gods;
Nor sensed the Silver Thread
Nor knew the bond of kinship.
  She holds the scales of Shylock
  To weigh a pound of human flesh.

Symbol of the Jealous God —
Conceived by Envy
That hoards its own and counts
The crumbs eaten by another.
  Scales weigh only gold and goods,
  Scales weigh never motive.

Symbol of the tradesman's age —
When things count more than humans
And children's flesh balances dividends
And property weighs more than life or hope.
  Lust and hate alone are blind.
  Love sees with a million eyes.

Symbol of superstition—
Born in the night of man's great fear,
Sponsored by monk and mercenary,
Dipped in the blood of heretics.
  There is no justice without mercy,
  Care, thought, understanding, and love.

Symbol of materiality —
Chiseled by bound slaves
To weigh surfaces and appearances;
Blind — all blind — to the Inner God.
  Sign of slave and tyrant —
  Give us the emblem of Democracy.

Symbol of submission —
Fashioned by men afraid to love;
Denial of man's divinity. Serving
The ancient Greed and the modern Privilege.
  Give us a marble cut by free men.
  Give us a symbol with a Soul!



HUMILITY

Humility is the crowning virtue.
Dare slaves assume it?
The attribute of gods, kings, rulers — even of one who might rule self!
On the brow of the mighty having power over all. Humility is the brightest jewel in the last and
most resplendent sceptre.
Dare slaves reach for it?

Humility — so large a jewel —
Would bow the head of God Almighty
So he could see the chains of slaves
And strike them off.
By this sign ye shall know the True God —
That having all power he ask nothing
And raise all men to his stature!

Humility never graced the life of slave or underling:
Servility bows them.
Subaltern and slave whose breasts burnt not
With hot flames of unceasing Rebellion —
Who patiently wait, submit, and argue
While children toil and women starve
Amid plenty —
Know not humility, but Cowardice!


WANTED — MEN

Wanted — Men!
Able-bodied men,
Bold-hearted men,
To enlist in a holy war
Against poverty.

Wanted — Men!
To fight for
Women and children
As bravely as
For kings and queens.

Wanted — Men! A million men
To brave death and torture
Gallows and prisons —
To dethrone Privilege.

Wanted — Men!
To dare as much for human beings in America
As for property "rights"
In Europe.

Wanted — Men!
To wrest from
Greed and monopoly
The unused land of America —
Men unafraid.


NO MAN'S KEEPER
I am no man's keeper. No jail keys
Rattle in my head
Or heart.

If I am not
My brother's helper
When I may be
The loss is equally my own.

I will keep no one —
His conscience
His judgment
Or his earnings.

Keepers bring jails
And gallows.
Keepers are tyrants
In hate or in love.

Not your way, but mine
Would I go — kindly.
The soul hungers most
For Self expression.

The urge of life
Is to Individual difference.
Keepers, in love or hate,
Make the discord —

Sad confusion of thought
That harbors the exploiter!
Man is his brother's helper,
Not his keeper.

To help is love's way:
Anon to bind a wound;
Usually not to rob
And never to hinder.



THAT I MAY STRIVE
That I may die in strife
'Gainst slavery!
Teeth set, hands clenched
To every static bond
In christendom.

That death find me
Far out from the ranks,
Strike quick
And fell me face forward,
Hating all that limits man.

Life's joy is its strife,
The battle 'gainst odds
Its oil, its wine, and its bread:
O! to fall under fire
And escape a smug death in bed!



A NEW VALOR

A new valor stirs the blood Of Men.
They shall despoil
The strong, the rich, the mighty,
Whoever hath overmuch
Where many starve.
Boldly, with conscious dignity
Men shall rob the over-rich.

It is taught that
Love shall be slavish
And kindness meek.
On this is founded
The christian cruelties.
But the new valor
Brings power to Love,
And daring to kindness.

The old valor saith
That from those who have not
Shall be taken
And to those who have
Shall be given more.
Thus do the christians
As told in their books —
The creed of cravens.

Thus is it written in ink —
By long-dead hands
Palsied with fear,
In tomes rotten
Of the centuries' dust.
The moving Finger writes
In blood
From the heart of Men.

And it says:
Kindness shall be
Bolder than hate!
It stirs a new valor
In men unafraid
Who shall despoil the rich
And unseat Profit
That all may have enough.

The new valor stirs
To action!
The weak, the ignorant
Shall not be robbed
By the cunning.
Kindness shall thunder
To lust: You alone
Shall be robbed.

And the voice will
Be heard!
The lowly and the poor
Shall not be coddled —
Thus do the christians
In charity —
But hear ye the
Thunder of Kindness:
They shall not be robbed!



HATE IS FORCE

Hate is a strong force.
I will hate the chains of men —
The institutions, superstitions,
And conditions that bind them.

A good hater is a strong man —
But I will not hate myself,
Which is part of all other selves.
I will hate things, not men.

I will hate gods, creeds, states,
And all that belittles Man.
I will hate words and ideas
That enslave men.

Who hate men have little hate
For the chains that bind them,
And little force or care
To break the chains
At whatever cost.


BE STRONG FIRST

Masters teach their slaves
To "turn the other cheek"
When they are beaten.
But the new valor
Will brook no blow.

Masters teach their slaves
To be long-suffering
Under oppression.
But the new valor
Will slay the oppressor.

Masters teach their slaves
Be good, be moral,
And you shall have
First choice of the crumbs
From our table.

But the new valor says
Be strong, be bold,
And rout your masters —
Only strength is good,
And weakness sin.

Only strength can win.
Be strong first!
Life and the world
And all their good
Are for the strong.



THE NEW POWER

O then to Think
Means not to Feel?
The Head must not
Take counsel of the Heart?
Thus teach the christians.

Thought in one tank,
Feeling in another —
Ce n'est pas comme il faut
To mingle thought and feeling
In a single act.

So do the christians.
But a new light flashes
To pierce the christian gloom —
A wondrous birth —
From the union
Of Head and Heart.

Lo, the Intellect
And the Soul are wed!
Coward Words go tumbling
To the ash heap,
And Deeds accomplish!

The new birth is Sympathy.
Froth of easy sentiment
And cruelty of intellect
It banishes: the child
Of the fusion leads!

The bank wants human feeling,
Religion's lack is thought.
The market-place needs poetry.
Art needs sense and depth and care.
Slavery lurks in aimlessness!

Lo, the Heart and Head
Are wedded!
Come —
To Greed a bolder foe,
To Love a deeper meaning,
To the Many, at last, Power!



THE LOVE OF GOLD OR THE LOVE OF MAN

I never knew a man
Who feared not the alien God
Nor loved him, but was the kinder
To his neighbor
And had a fine, firm
Faith in Men.

I never knew a thief
Or forger but feared an alien God
And loved him —
A sneak, a pimp, or
A detective, but confessed
A distant God and feared him.

Maybe
(Tho I have not met one)
An "atheist" could also
Be cold and vicious,
But the million babes in arms
And playful children'
Are starved and tortured
In the name of a heavenly
God and Jesus.

In the love of the alien God
Lies the hate of man
And full extenuation
For all the bloody murder
The weeping, christian world
Has ever seen.

The "love of God"
Means the love of Gold
And ever has, by far and large,
And ever must.
The "love of God';
Brings the love of Gold.

For man cannot
Love an Abstraction.
The human heart impinges
Seeks the Tangible.

In God the heart is cheated,
And the cheated heart
Turns to Gold.

I announce a new faith,
A new hope,
A new religion
(Older than the hills) —
The love of Men!


HATE GODS, LOVE MEN

Ye are taught to love gods —
The creed of slaves.
Ye shall be masters of self
And of none other than self,
When ye shall cease to
Love any god and center
Hope and thought and love
And interest on Man.

Ye are taught to fear gods —
Dogmas of cowardice.
Those who fear neither
God nor Satan
Are your masters and exploiters.
Ye shall fear nothing.
Ye shall cease to fear
And dare all.

Ye shall find Self
Each man himself —
When all gods under all aliases
Shall be dethroned.
Not law, evolution, the state,
Prosperity, posterity,
Progress, or providence —
But Man (each to himself)
Shall be first.

Ye shall hate gods and love Men.
Ye shall love even Self
And seek self-interest first;
Not behind lying cant
As do the christians,
But openly and with
Much pains to discover
The real interests of Self.

Ye shall know Self
The true Self
The whole Self
The body, mind, and soul
Of self — when gods are forgotten
And care and thought
Are centered On Man!

In the love of gods
Lies the hate of Man,
For none serves two masters.
The hate of Man
Breeds the needless grief
And pain unutterable
Of christendom —
Hate gods and love Men.

In the fear of gods
Lie sin and weakness.
Here is true valor:
That ye fear not the Unknown.
Fearless of which ye shall be
Strong for the tortures
And prisons of Greed
And attain — Comradeship.



THE MASTER MOTIVE

Superficial appeals to the human crowd
Its pocket-book and its cupidity
Its business interests, personal advantage,
Will bring superficial results
A million of which multiplied by a million
Will not produce a profundity —
Nor a tangible inch of freedom.

Human freedom is the profoundest thing
The heart and mind can reach
Or has any decent right to try to reach
While human lives are wrecked by Greed
Every day and hour before our eyes —
While the mortality and destitution of Profit
Exceeds the death roll of the world war.

When the primal passions
Are stirred the mass will Act,
Unitedly and spontaneously
To compass great and vital issues
For good or for ill
For construction or destruction
For Death or for Life!
So moves the human mass
So is it moved toward the Ideal
By the inextinguishable human Urge
For Something — something Better
Than the personal end —
It knows not what
But is spurred ever by the Ideal.

So is the human mass. 
Would you moved it
To its own unfoldment —
From the damned death psychology
Of Profits' world war?
Touch its heart.

The greatest, strongest, deepest
Primal instinct of every being
The "master motive of human action"
The "force of forces"
That alone can reach freedom
Is the impulse of expansion —
We call it Love.

Not the servile patient
Slave "love" of christian theology.
By that rules the Exploiter.
The deep unfearing audacious Love
That sees the Goal alone
Leaps the chasm blindly
Fells like fire the Foe.

Nothing less will break the war spell
Or stem the wave of slaughter
For greed of wealth,
Or turn the mass thought
From Death machines
To welfare —
To life and hope and growth.

Nothing less will gain
An inch of human freedom
Or strike the chains from wage slaves
Or turn the children
And the nursing mothers from the alleys
To a free and open earth.
Nothing less!


THE STATE

The strength of the State
Is the weakness of the People —
Its wealth is their poverty
Its dignity is their degradation.

Mighty State —
Little Manhood!
Rome reared its splendor
On sixty million slaves.

The pomp of the State
Is the servility of the People —
Its pride is their shame
Its glitter is their gloom.

The State is a superstition,
Heartless, bloodless, beingless
Save as it draws sustenance
From living creatures.

The palaces of the State
Are the hovels, the slums,
And the mortgaged homes
Of the People.

The richest State
Means the poorest People
And the greatest cruelty
Of the few to the many.

Next: The Naked Truth