Jon Rappoport's VISIONS OF THE EMPIRE

Back in 2013 Jon Rappoport released a limited edition chapbook of his exhilarating poem Visions of the Empire, which took him fifteen years to complete.  I'm extremely pleased to report that Rappoport's poem is now available for all to read on his website.  Five years ago, when the poem was originally published, I wrote, "Visions of the Empire deserves to be ranked alongside Pablo Neruda's legendary The Heights of Macchu Picchu.  It is a rare and beautiful paradox that only a true magician could succeed in conjuring forth.  It dissects the old, tired myths--political myths, religious myths, social myths--that threaten to swallow our minds while simultaneously creating new myths with which the human race might lift itself up out of spiritual darkness."  Here's what Rappoport wrote about his poem earlier this month, on the 2nd of July:

"Over the course of the past 10-15 years, I wrote a 5000-word poem, VISIONS OF THE EMPIRE. You could say that proves I believe in poetry. I do believe in it. 

"Here, for the first time, I’m publishing the whole poem in its final version.

"Poetry in the grand tradition of, say, Walt Whitman may seem to be dead—and who cares about poetry anyway? But poems are life blood on the page. 

"I cast this one out like a wind across the landscape, with full knowledge that reading anything, much less poetry, is a dying art in many quarters. Frankly, that doesn’t stop me. I know, from 17 years of writing at nomorefakenews, that there are untold numbers of people who can still read and want to read. My articles have found them. 

"Going against the grain doesn’t bother me. It motivates me. Every day. The seemingly absurd proposition that a poem can have a life-bearing effect—I hold that view and always will.

"The unbound, wide-ranging, free and electric spirit within us is THERE. We can step on it and bury it and forget it, but it doesn’t die. With that knowledge, and without apprehension, I freely give you this. Do with it what you will. As with everything else I write, I stand on the words."

To read the entirety of Visions of the Empire, click HERE.