Conspiracy In The Mixtape of Taliesin

The Mixtape of Taliesin has a number of overarching themes that it returns to again and again, most of these are universal themes such as sleep or comparisons between age and youth, but some themes are very based in America from the last 3 decades, as an example of which the recurring theme of Conspiracy which is often lurking in the poetic background.

The Poet Conspires

As the poet moves through the poems they conspire at different times but mainly the attempt to maintain an equivocal standing, never fully committing to any side, but as is hinted in the early poem in the Suit of Spades THE BIRTH OF TALIESIN refusing to take sides is in some ways taking a side nonetheless:

Sedate in the Highest Sphere

I went with God on the battlements

Satan’s armies in evidence

& was asked my advice on strategy

A request I refused, remembering

what Blake should say on the Devil’s party

Or From Quartet IV of The Utah Quartets

What is hidden must remain

cunning, resourceful

surviving on second-hand crumbs

of meaning

the heretic constructs his temple

from odds & ends in secret

& worships an idol

defined only by opposition.

The Poet in an environment of conspiracy conspires as a means of survival, but without any particular devotion to the object of the conspiracy itself.

The Poet is the Victim of Conspiracies

There are recurring strands of paranoia in the poems where the poet feels oppressed by larger forces that cannot be evaded or controlled, this becomes apparent in The Hanged Man, a tarot poem in the Suit of Spades where it is stated

Exhumed Dusted Polished very pretty

very useless he walked hand in hand

with his executioner

& the cold grim sleepless night

squirming in its unshaped morbid uniform

seemed naked to his outworn Astronomy

seemed a bowl of Gods for him to sift

among the hidden Pentothal

but later again, in Quartet IV of The Utah Quartets the opposition becomes more personal

Upon his crumbling porch a crumbling man waits

jotting down information on

weird passersby.

Ward Leader, Bishop, Good Neighbor

and when this good exemplar of social order surveils the poet

Write this of me & mine:

There is nothing of me here now

& lost hands can meet no other

The Social Order is Conspired Against by Individuals

A prime example of this is the poem — The Emperor

In which every one — the sycophantic courtiers, his traitorous son, even his dogs, seem to conspire against the aging emperor, in order to overthrow the order he represents and usurp for themselves some of his powers (although to be fair the dogs represent a deeper order that decrees the Emperor should die for not any longer being able to maintain the order of his kingdom)

This of course is not the same as the many scenes of conflict and warfare that occur throughout the book, in a conspiracy the conflicts are hidden, in the poems dealing with war the conflict is in the open and impossible to sidestep

Yet when the peaceful moment has worn out

We find that season which now threatens

When the well-thewed arm in violent clench

Is better praised than a lover’s tender touch

The wolf prowls ravenous thru the gorse

As thunder echoes the baby’s bawl

Who has seen its mother’s broken skull

Carted off on the heels of her murderers

The Forces of Conspiracy Extend into the Natural Order

From Quarter II in The Utah Quartets

Lines of force, Lines

Form from Sky to Earth

the foamy grasses absorb

nature, upon that Gold & Copper

Pyramid, Last Refuge of the First

Sefiroth — Most High Illuminati

Tri-lateralist, rivulets wash

the dust of perception

off the gleaming face

The symbols of dominant conspiracy seem to be part of the natural order, but in Quartet III these forces become perhaps ludicrous

Overshadowed by the Fake Gothic

Cartoon; Fractal Gaskets

Ropes & Curds in infinite

Stone — within inked quoins

initiates stare. . . made owl-eyed

by Hermetic knowledge

behind cornices there hides

What well-mannered Gargoyle

of Good-Works & Charity?

The Conspiracy of All Against All

Probably the most conspiracy minded poem in the whole book is The World, a tarot poem in the Suit of Hearts, in which

Nets are woven of Cat Whiskers

& Filament

& Fiber Optic cables

strands of code, lines of dialogue

name brand labels, tags

upon viaducts, overpasses

of some indecipherable logos

ribbons that gyre downwards

above your victory parades

in step in formation

In other words, a vision of the modern panopticon, universal and unavoidable, but one in which the poet, as an individual, can turn the forces of oppression against the oppressor

I cut a cord & patch in

patchwork -

A world in which

cop cars circle, predators

on the weak & disorganized

but in which the organized stand a chance

…socially involved, flyers pass thru the crowd

This article was written by IG Agent 84, but the poems were written by IG Agent 18.

These poems are published in the book The Mixtape of Taliesin

You can read more about the poetry of Illuminati Ganga at