“Wormwood, immortal Satan, Ahriman, alone”
Talking Poetry with Nate and Zaklog the Great: C.S. Lewis’s “Wormwood. Watch here ! Thou only art alternative to God, oh, dark And burning island among spirits, tenth hierarch, Wormwood, immortal Satan, Ahriman, alone Second to Him to whom no second else were known, Being essential fire, sprung of His fire, but bound Within the lightless furnace of thy Self, bricked round To range in the reverberated heat from seven Containing walls: hence power thou hast to rival heaven. Therefore, except the temperance of the eternal love Only thy absolute lust is worth the thinking of. All else is weak disguising of the wishful heart, All that seemed earth is Hell, or Heaven. God is: thou art: The rest, illusion. How should man live save as glass To let the white light without flame, the Father, pass Unstained: or else—opaque, molten to thy desire, Venus infernal starving in the strength of fire! Lord, open not too often ...
