I am Strong enough to
Break human History in Two²
I make a Golden Age at my Whim³
I Command Lightning to come down to me
From the Heavens, and it Comes at my call –
And serves me for a Plaything when it comes⁴
Mountains Tremble at the Shock of my Passing⁵
I Wield Calmly & Humbly an Awful Power –
Of which Angels & Saints stand in Reverence⁶
My Foot-Stool Earth – my Canopy the Skies⁷
My living Flame Pierces Clouds & Banishes
Night – my Glow the Hurricanes Increase
To Match the Gleams of Heaven’s Light⁸
I Split Galaxies – with a Single Breath⁹
I am King Giant Dragon Sun¹⁰
¹ Danez Smith, Litany with Blood All Over
² Friedrich Nietzsche tr. unknown, Letter to Strindberg, December 8, 1888
³ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, quoted by James Miller in Examined Lives
⁴ Edgar Allan Poe, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
⁵ Primo Levi tr. Ruth Feldman & Brian Swann, Autobiography
⁶ James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
⁷ Alexander Pope, Epistle 1
⁸ Arthur Caswell Porter, Faith
⁹ George Abraham, Memory Study with Elizabeth Specimen in Dark Universe
¹⁰ Philip Whalen, I Am King Giant Dragon Sun