Mad World

William Blake

‘The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had’
– ‘Mad world’, Tears for Fears 1982

‘Turn your back on mother nature’
– ‘Everybody wants to rule the world’, Tears for Fears 1985

‘Tears for fears’ is a reference to Primal Therapy

‘Five windows light the cavern’d Man: thro’ one he breathes the air;
Thro’ one hears music of the spheres; thro’ one the Eternal Vine
Flourishes, that he may receive the grapes; thro’ one can look
And see small portions of the Eternal World that ever groweth;
Thro’ one himself pass out what time he please, but he will not;
For stolen joys are sweet, and bread eaten in secret pleasant.’
– ‘Europe: a prophecy’, William Blake 1794

.
it’s a mad world

o the world
beautiful and terrible
as it is
is all we have
to save or to destroy

when our demented
nuclear-crazed leaders
were set on
Mutually Assured Destruction
one teenage citizen of the world
and not the only one
eventually sussed
it was they
who were MAD
yet would look out
from his bedroom window
and if the day was lovely
convince himself
that nothing bad and mad
could possibly happen
to the world
on such a day
a cat lay
on the garden grass
while garden birds
among them doves
kept up their songs
and went about
their aerial business
if cat and bird
can co-exist
on such a day he thought
then why not us humans
if there was a record
on the radio
he liked
he wondered
how anybody in the world
could not like it
as much as he did
there was a term
he’d come across
it was
the music of the spheres
he guessed at what
this music might mean
he could hear it even so
it was the sound of peace
he was sure
maybe that’s what
animals hear
he thinks
without knowing
for sure

.

Jeff Cloves