Blessed is the Man Who Breaks

[dedicated to St. Boniface and Ignatius of Loyola]

I heard the young fanatic say,

Blessed is the man who breaks
Blessed the hammer, hand and heart
Pulverizing into dust the art
Whose maker’s slavery it makes
And smothers in foul soot the day.

No quarter to the tyrants of the soul
The gods of plaster, gold and books,
Rulers from below and not above.
This is the single-hearted love
Which drowns the baals in the brooks
And all the schedules of She’ol.

This is the peace the prophets seek.
This is the violence of the meek.