NEMESIS (D H Lawrence c 1929)

The Nemesis that awaits our civilization

Is social insanity

Which in the end is always homicidal.

Sanity means the wholeness of the consciousness.

And our society is only part conscious, like an idiot.

If we do not rapidly open all the doors of consciousness

And freshen the putrid little space in which we are cribbed

The sky-blue walls of our unventilated heaven

Will be bright red with blood.

AT LAST (D H Lawrence c 1929)

When things get very bad, they pass beyond tragedy,

And then the only thing we can do is to keep quite still

And guard the last treasure of the soul, our sanity.

Since poor individuals that we are,

If we lose our sanity

we lose that which keeps us individual

distinct from chaos.  

But if we lose our sanity …

We can but howl the lugubrious howl of idiots,

The howl of the utterly lost …