John Henry Mackay poem

(Mackay was a socialist radical and a great gay activist.)




“Ever reviled, accursed, ne'er understood,
Thou art the grisly terror of our age.

"Wreck of all order," cry the multitude,
"Art thou, & war & murder's endless rage."

0, let them cry. To them that ne'er have striven
The 'truth that lies behind a word to find, 

To them the word's right meaning was not given.
They shall continue blind among the blind.

But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so true,

Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken.

I give thee to the future! Thine secure
When each at least unto himself shall waken.

Comes it in sunshine? In the tempest's thrill?
I cannot tell - but it the earth shall see!

I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will

Not rule, & also ruled I will not be!”



― John Henry Mackay