The Poetry of Benjamin DeCasseres

Ironist, Critic, Poet, Nietzschean, Anarch. Friend of H.L. Mencken, Charles Fort and relative of Spinoza. Published in periodicals ranging from the radical anarchist Liberty, to the mainstream Life, his work is now mostly lost and forgotten save a mention every decade or so by scholars or writers who have stumbled across him.

Table of Contents

THE JUGGERNAUT · Jack Cuse 5
INTRODUCTION · Kevin I. Slaughter 13
A REVIEW · Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff 25
DON MARQUIS · A Preface to The Shadow-Eater 31
EULOGY FOR DON MARQUIS 35
THE SHADOW-EATER 39

The Protagonist 41
Tantara! Tantaro! 42
The Tongueless One 43
The Shrine In The Mist 44
My Comic Perspective 46
The Peeper 48
The-Circle-That-Looks-Like-A-Line 49
My Divine Hate 52
The Rotted Ideal 54
The Vision Malefic 55
Dying 56
The Dead Who Live 57
Exvolved 58
The God Of Negation 59
Godward 60
Beyond Sense 61
The Cynic Of Nazareth 62
De Profundis 63
On A Marriage 64
The Syncopated Spinner 65
Love And Sleep 66
The Watcher 67
Face To Face 68
My Shadows 69
The Vigil 70
The Closed Room 71
Half-Seen 72
The Long Vigil 73
Prophetic 74
Resurrection Night 75
Bird Of The Night 76
The Cleft In The Wall 77
The Truant 78
Change And An Ending 79
The Quest In The Flesh 80
In The Adytum 81
The Way Out: Bio 82
Moth-Terror 83
My Holy Lust 84
The Overone 85
The Ultimate 86
The Sleeper 87
The Alleys Of Eld 88
Love The Destroyer 89
Rejection 90
The Spear Of The Great Spurning 91

BLACK SUNS 93

The Overlord 95
Walter 96
The Decoy 97
The Haunted House 98
Marche Funebre 99
Chimeras 100
Magical Night 101
Fantasia 102
In The Backyard Of Life 103
Man 104
Shelley 106
Imagination 107
Keats 108
Facts 109
The Tragic Bluffer 111
The Humorist 112
Dawn 113
Sleep 114
The Pickpocket 115
Vers Libre 116
A Son Of God 119
The Ideal 120
Miracles 121
Sea-Mania 122
Strayling 124
Ave, Zarathustra! 125
The Thief 126
Swinburne 127
The Vat 128
Salutation 129
Ingression 130

MASQUE OF THE MINUTES 133

Minutes 134
A Pilgrim Minute 135
A Frozen Minute 136
A Desolate Minute 137
A Black Minute 138
A Brazen Minute 139
A Gray Minute 140
An Ironic Minute 141
A Murderous Minute 142
An Arcless Minute 143
A Mystic Minute 144
A Nameless Minute 145
An Anarch Minute 146
An Eternal Minute 147
A Passionate Minute 148
A Spectral Minute 149
A Narcotic Minute 150
A Twin-Born Minute 151
A Hypocrite Minute 152
A Cowled Minute 153
A Philosophic Minute 154
A Static Minute 155
A Super-Minute 156
The Final Minute 157

DISPARATE SOURCES 159

Solitude 161
Strayling 162
West Point 163
Revelation 164
Late Autumn 165
An Incident 166
In The Slums 167
My Lamp 168
Bio 169
Birth Mannerisms 170
The Vampire 171
Panalepsis 172
The Bone-Dry Mind 174
Credo For Eunuch-Pacifists 176
Anarch 177
Ave, Zarathustra! 178
Time’s Schoolhouse 179
Codpiece 180
The Haunted House 181
D’Annunzio 182
Hold Yet A Little While! 183
Peter Pan 184
The Pacifist’s Breviary 186
“Let Us Have Peace” 187
Foch! 188
The Lady of the Hour 189
The Humorist 190
Prayer 191