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Europe Arranges Its Own Autopsy
—with apologies to T.S. Eliot
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I. The Trojan Horse
When April came it showered France with acid.
The U.K. too and Sweden, Spain and all
The countries of the West—so smug, yet placid.
They chose this. Not to fight. Not to stand tall.
Deluded, they chose spineless, fake compassion
By opening their borders to great danger,
To strangers who turned vibrant colors ashen
And tried to stab the Christ child in His manger.
Too few could see the truth. Some feared the ire
Of spineless leaders: “It was not our fault!”
Poor Europe, once the world’s pillar of fire,
Is now Lot’s wife—a cenotaph of salt.
The heirs of mighty nations, all of whom
Created fabled cultures—Roman, Greek,
Etruscan, Norman—now crouch in a tomb
Of cowardice while prattling double-speak.
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II. Notre Dame
A vision I once had… not Xanadu,
But something less attentive to men’s pleasure—
The Continent of Europe which “outgrew”
A heritage I’d thought of as a treasure.
I watched in silence. Charles Martel (“the Hammer”)
Was standing tall at Tours in Aquitaine
To save the Franks and Lombards from the clamor
Of Arab conquest staged from Moorish Spain.
Had Charles not fought, the West would have been lost—
All France and eastward past Bavaria.
His failure would have forced a dreadful cost:
Our languages extinct. Our laws, pure Sharia.
And then the triumph in my vision faded.
Pride morphed into abject apology.
The greatness of the culture? All degraded.
Poor Europe died from ideology—
And nothing ever after was the same.
Martel sneered scorn. This time he never came,
While prayers rose from the Mosque of Notre Dame.
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III: The Mediterranean-Messinean Salinity Crisis
A pause ere we resume our painful story
To ponder a historic allegory.
I’ve read that in the very distant past
The vast sea between Africa and Europe
Dried up. A landslide triggered by a quake
Completely blocked the Strait now called Gibraltar.
The blue became a desert, the fish died,
And sea salt poisoned the extensive lands
Which now joined Europe, Africa and Asia
As if they were but one vast unbound tract.
The continents were wed now—but in death.
Eventually an earthquake brought relief
Through what the experts call the Zanclean Flood:
The churning, gray Atlantic finally breached
Gibraltar’s dam; the basin was refilled
And Europe somehow got its lost sea back.
The Earth can be as violent as jihad
Indifferent to the oceans of blood spilt.
But brutal acts which may cause desolation
Can be defeated—if there’s condemnation.
Resolve is needed. And determination.
A truth known ere the pyramids were built:
That sometimes death is only the beginning.
It sometimes only seems the foe is winning.
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IV: The Conquest
Consider how the Norman-French invaded
Old England, how the English tongue was altered
As words of French origin soon pervaded—
And yet the Anglo-Saxons never faltered.
And ultimately the linguistic tide
Redeemed the English language. Every scholar
Confirms though English changed, it held its pride.
But can it still continue thus? Inshallah.
.
V. So They Say
St. Peter’s Square. They say here reigned a prophet—
A man named Jesus. Many worshipped him
As if a god. But how could there be profit
In singing out an infidelic hymn?
Throughout the hills of Rome the muezzins call
Like Jesus was not ever here at all.
They say the grave of Winston Churchill trembled
As Europe was laid out and disassembled
From Big Ben to the Reichstag to the Louvre…
All gone. But not from hate. From tender love.
The love that says that walls are mean and evil
And Western culture is the very devil.
They say if you don’t let the strangers in
Then you’ve committed some great mortal sin.
Ironic. Europeans clenching fists
Claim “sin” when they are mostly atheists
Who bend now to the whim of narcissists.
They say the Mosque at Chartres (ask any tourist)
Was once a church. Its stained glass was the purest.
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VI. Adaptive Reuse
I first observed this in Tenochtitlan
In Mexico, then Cuzco in Peru.
The ruins of one culture’s structures can
Serve as the base for something else quite new.
You see it too in Europe all the time:
Il Teatro di Marcello—central Rome.
Its base built by Augustus, arches climb
On which now rests a 15th Century home.
And then, of course, there’s lovely Istanbul
Built on Constantinople’s ancient stones.
The Hagia Sophia’s always full—
A mosque filched from a treasured church’s bones.
It’s not that I am trying to stoke your fears…
But visit the U.K. in twenty years.
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VII. Alexander in Egypt
The Ptolemies ruled Egypt in the wake
Of Alexander’s conquest. They were Greek,
But Egypt was not forced to worship Zeus.
In fact, the Greeks became model Egyptians.
The Ptolemies were pharaohs not Greek kings
And Isis took the form of Cleopatra.
Though force may lead new lands to be acquired
Demolishing their culture’s not required.
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VIII. A.D. 1453. Again.
So why did Martel save France from the Moor?
And what is it the Allies struggled for…
Deep sacrifices—every painful day?
Now their descendants hand it all away
And, citing progress, say “It’s very good,”
As strangers mob where patriots once stood.
O mighty continent, rest now in peace.
We warned you and we mourned you and we sighed.
Now here across the sea let us not cease
To marshal sense and strength before the tide.
Yes, we loved Europe well before it died
But it chose as its avatar The Fool.
Oh, April is indeed the month most cruel—
But so are May and June and all the rest—
Days when we fleetingly recall the West.
But maybe worst of all is bleak December
With Europe dead. And so few who remember.
.
.
Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Wimauma, Florida.
An absolutely monumental critique’, Brian, and there’s disturbingly little evidence that the rapidly growing number of victims of this ‘4th-stage-multicultural-pandemic’ fully comprehend what they’ve allowed to so deeply penetrate their ‘societies’ and, even worse, have any intention of doing whatever is necessary to put things right. You teared me up with this one – thanks –
Thank you very much, Mark, for this generous comment. I really like your description of this “4th-stage multicultural pandemic” because it very succinctly describes the cancerous aspect to inviting a culture to come and dominate one’s own rather than to assimilate. In terms of America, it’s one thing to welcome people into our country who sincerely want to be Americans — to live within the norms of American culture, to learn English, to support our institutions. It is an entirely toxic thing to welcome people into our country who have no intention of becoming American and who actually hold America in contempt. Why would we do this? Is one really meant to be true to an ideology to the point of suicide? I’m glad this poem moved you. It’s upsetting for sure but I hope there’s a kernel of hope within it that the West is not past salvation.
This is an excellent warning put into historical perspective. Whether you call what is happening in the West Stockholm syndrome, suicidal empathy (thanks Gad Saad), or Marxist destruction, it is fatal if left untreated. Thank you Brian for your clarity and truth telling.
Jerry, I can’t thank you enough for your encouragement in the creation of this poem. It was extremely difficult to write since it is comprised of so many perspectives, historical details and visions of what is, what has been and what may be.
I appreciate your introducing me to the term “suicidal empathy” which fully encapsulates the Western mind virus — one which still somehow manages to delude kind liberals into thinking that all peoples and all cultures are equal, that all people practice good will, and that we should do away with borders and language restrictions. It’s not only a fantasy, it ignores history, psychology, sociology, theology and a host of other ologies which show what utter nonsense that fantasy world actually is. The fact of the matter is, if an enemy is trying to kill you, you fight back. To simply accept being conquered and to somehow delude yourself that this is a good thing — “the right side of history” — is homocidally destructive. Evil exists. In the real world, we must deal with it rather than try to explain it away or justify it. A moral compass requires recognition of both poles.
Theologically speaking, if one could pray away Satan, don’t you think Christ would have done it rather than show us how to armor up for battle? If you don’t recognize an Enemy it is hard to fight him. And it’s even harder to win.
Thank you again, Jerry. I’m eternally grateful for your moral compass and your bravery.
Brilliant indictment Brian; it’s difficult to pick out a favourite bit – so many trenchant commentaries; but for pure Popean wit I love: “It’s not that I am trying to stoke your fears…
But visit the U.K. in twenty years.” Yes, exactly. But perhaps the most telling detail of the surrender is its atheistic nature” ‘sin’ indeed. Well done – great work.
Thank you so much, James. I worried a bit about how readers who actually live across The Pond might take this poem and so I’m grateful to know it was not overly presumptuous. As for that “sin” — yes, it’s really something. People who have abdicated having any kind of actual moral compass wag their amoral fingers at us to tell us we “must” do something self-destructive because… and then they sort of lapse into a narcissistic flood of feel-good reasoning which is insupportable by actual facts.
One of the great flaws of liberalism is the fact that liberals cannot bear discomfort. And it makes them very uncomfortable to see other people face awful challenges. So they act — irrespective of whether it’s wise to do so. Liberals often take some type of action because it makes them feel useful and less uncomfortable. Even when it causes more harm than good. More people die from misplaced, backfiring compassion than are saved. But if it makes a liberal feel good, why should such a price matter?
Thank you again, James. I’m always so grateful for your support!
Brian, thanks for these poems. I feel there is a decisive moment coming soon, at least in Britain. Maybe people will fight back, maybe it’s too late. But your poems pinpoint what is wrong.
David, I’m so glad to get this comment from you! Thank you. I worry about Britain constantly and the fact that antisemitism there has become so very ubiquitous and openly displayed. I read that Israeli soccer fans were barred from attending a soccer match in Birmingham to support their team The Maccabees. https://www.timesofisrael.com/antisemitism-charge-kicked-around-as-maccabi-tel-aviv-fans-barred-from-uk-match/
There were concerns, of course, of disruptions to the soccer match and security for the Israeli players and Jewish attendees. These concerns were all directed at one disruptive group — the pro-Palestine Solidarity Campaign which apparently hasn’t heard that the war in Gaza is over and seems to have a deeper incentive for keeping the anti-Jew hate going. https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/11/07/eleven-arrested-heavy-uk-police-presence-soccer-match-maccabi-tel-aviv-aston-villa/
Britain’s solution to all of the Jew-hate seems to be to tell the Jews not to participate anymore in public life and to hide their Jewishness. In order words, to bend a knee to the Islamists who cannot be controlled. It’s hard to believe that this is the same island which once gave birth to Churchill, Lord Nelson, Henry V and Richard the Lion Hearted.
David, I typed out a lengthy reply to your comment a few hours ago and it has disappeared into the aether, so I shall try again and keep my fingers crossed! First of all, I’m so glad to receive this comment from you! I think often of you and James and other poets in the UK and readers who are in Europe and I wonder how it is for you. Please forgive me for the unflattering things I have said here. I want so much for those who can to stand up for their noble cultures, their histories and their nations rather than simply cede control of their lands with a whimper rather than a roar. I am speaking as much to America as to the countries of Europe.
I am especially concerned about antisemitism and the extent to which it has been normalized in the UK — it sounds as if it is ubiquitous and outspoken. And it further sounds as if it is now quite divorced from any connection to the war in Gaza. The mask is dropped. This is clear from the recent soccer (football) match between Aston Villa and the Israel “Maccabi” team in Birmingham and the fact that Birmingham actually banned all Israeli fans of their team from attending the match. I won’t link to the news coverage because I suspect including hyperlinks on this particular news story may have caused the removal of my reply the first time. But I note that even with the Israeli fans banned from their own match, there was violence and the arrest of eleven Palestinian “protestors” who did not get the memo that the war n Gaza is over — who actually no longer even pretend that this is about anything other than Israel’s destruction and the genocide of Jews.
Birmingham police, of course, said the ban on the Jewish soccer fans was necessary “for their protection.” So now the UK demands of its Jewish citizens that they no longer participate in public events and that they hide any evidence of being Jewish when in public. This is shameful and a dereliction of responsibility to the UK’s own people. I can scarcely believe this is the same island that once brought forth Churchill, Lord Nelson, Henry VIII and Richard the Lionhearted.
“For their protection”?!? Huh?
“Protective custody” was the phrase used by both the Nazis and the Soviet Communists for the arrest and sequestration of political enemies, leading to their eventual liquidation.
Brian, thanks for your reply. These are indeed worrying times for the Jewish community in Britain; a few weeks ago, on Yom Kippur, a Muslim terrorist stabbed a Jewish man to death outside a shul in Manchester. The fact is that successive governments have failed not just the Jews but the wider population. We’ve had stabbings and bombings by Islamists, and the horror of the mainly Anglo-Pakistani grooming gangs. One problem is that in the UK, there is such a fear of being called racist that brown-skinned people (ie most British Muslims) are in effect given a free pass to do pretty much as they please.
Some political analysts have talked about a real possibility of civil war here. I don’t know what will happen; but to be honest, if my sons wanted to emigrate, I would not discourage them.
This is a powerful and ambitious work, Brian, at once elegy and warning. Civilizations do indeed fall not only through force, but through forgetfulness, softness, and self-contradiction. It makes me sad and angry to think how Europe, despite the left’s focus on identity, has lost its own. Great finale at the end, updating Eliot.
Thank you so much, Andrew. Yes, elegy, warning, meditation, history lesson, clarion call to action. As you point out, civilizations must work hard to preserve themselves. You would know better than I — wasn’t it Ben Franklin who, when asked what system of government the USA was going to implement, answered “A republic… if we can keep it.” ? Forgetfulness and softness hit hard in my mind. I think of how Rome just went into a destructive spiral that it could never escape. But I also think of many religious institutions which have just sort of devolved to the point where they don’t even know how to defend their existence anymore. Yes, Europe’s “awakened” attitude towards national and cultural existence is suicidal. Their attitude seems to be that there should be no more countries or ethnicities or religions. We shall be one big happy human family. And that sounds nice in a Star-Trekky kind of way. But it presupposes the good will of everyone involved and that is a fatal error. At this point in history, the elimination of the West means the full global hegemony of either Islamic jihadists or Communist China. The West is willing to die for globalization. And the Islamists and Communists are willing to kill. It’s all very convenient.
Brian, Mike and I are in a rush to go out today, but having just read “The Trojan Horse” I have got to say this – WOW! This poems tells it as it is in poetry that soars and sings to all those who know. I thank you for your linguistic gifts and for your bravery. It takes courage to bring a poem like this to the public arena, and you have bravery in spades. I will be back when I’ve read the rest of the series. I look forward to it.
Bless you and Mike, Susan, for your attention to this extended poem and for your support on a piece that still gives me butterflies when I realize that it has actually been published. It’s a scary thing to post something controversial that one knows may upset others. But truth is truth and it must be served. I’m pleased that you liked The Trojan Horse, which probably is the section which has the most “bang for the buck” as it sets forth the situation, the argument and the consequences. As for “bravery in spades”… I learned that from you, Mike, Joe and some of the other fearless poets on this site.
On the subject of courage, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that I have also learned this from Evan, the publisher of the SCP, who has published this and other pieces which must surely have given him some trepidation but which furthered matters of principle. Let me therefore take this moment to offer a salute to Evan Mantyk, one very brave publisher!
This is a magnificent poem, of unbelievable perception and power. And it brings Eliot’s “The Waste Land” up to date, with shocking contemporary relevance. I shuddered when I read it, for its structure and language were of the highest quality that any good poet could appreciate, but what it said was soul-wrenching and undeniable.
I have mentioned many times, and in many ways (both here at the SCP and elsewhere) what is wrong with those Westerners who have allowed this atrocity to happen, and who celebrate it. They suffer from “elephantiasis of the moral sentiment.” They worship “the Other.” They are “guilt-ridden weaklings.” They are ideological slaves to the Kantian “Categorical Imperative.” They have no conception of “Realpolitik.” They are obsessively “multicultural.” In many cases they are ignorant of their Western heritage, and deeply self-hating.
But the deepest wound, the most serious infection, the knife-thrust in the heart, is the collapse (both moral and intellectual) of the Christian churches and clergy, most especially the institutional edifice of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the corrupt Vatican 2 council of the 1960s, the Church has sought to uncouple itself from Western culture, slowly but steadily. This aim is conscious, deliberate, and planned. The rejection of Latin, the destruction of ancient liturgies, the disregard of received doctrine, the ecumenical clown-show, the closing of seminaries, the top-level contempt for traditionalist Catholics, and the appointment of administrative careerists to all important positions… I could go on and on.
And what do we have, in the midst of all this ordure? Diehard fanatical religionists, like the violin players on the deck of the Titanic, trying to soothe us with pious preachings that all will be well, and that we just have to trust our clerical superiors and go along with what they decree. In a recent discussion thread here I have called such religionists a “fifth column” of traitors in our ranks, whose loyalty is not to the heritage of Western culture, but to their fetishistic obedience to an effete and epicene clergy. These religionists seem not to have a clue that the Christian clergy are now part and parcel of the enemy forces. They are always telling us that we have to do “what is right,” rather than whatever is necessary to survive this invasion of aliens.
The only European nation that is defending itself is Hungary, under the Orban government. And much of the internal opposition to that government comes from rotten Vatican 2 bishops.
Joe, I’m deeply honored and moved to receive your profoundly generous compliment about this work. It means more to me than you can possibly know. This piece has been weighing heavily on me – both the necessity of writing it AND the possible risks associated with having it published. (Again, I must thank Evan for being willing to do so.) Your incredibly magnanimous comment makes me feel like it was worth the effort and the risk and that – more than that – my piece has actually touched a raw nerve for a number of people. People who have been shamed into being unwilling to speak what is on their minds and in their hearts. Well, if I have my way that shame ends here.
The many times you have commented on the self-defeating ideology of leftists throughout the West has not fallen on deaf ears. To the contrary, Joe, you have helped me and many others to understand what has actually been occurring as well as the reasons for it. You zero in on a number of ideas which essentially resolve into one key point: liberals have acquired a point of view in which their nationhood, religion, culture and civilization itself must be devalued – particularly if the identity described belongs to a white person. They have debased everything that has brought them into the modern era, dismissing it all as products of colonialism and claims of white supremacy. Beethoven: racist. Mathematics: racist. The English language in which they shout their hate: racist. The level of self-loathing is astonishing. — and ultimately incredibly arrogant and itself racist. As if they view white people as the official protectors of the globe.
But ultimately their white self-loathing comes across as performance art. I say this because observe how oddly white abject apology is acted out with people of different races or cultures who are not Western. Somehow, these liberals who are ashamed of their histories and skin color self-identify themselves as the saviors of every other race and culture on the planet. They are wretched and their culture is horrible and yet the brown and black people throughout the world must come to them for salvation. Do they not see how arrogant this is? And when it comes to Islam immigration — with a Muslim world is comprised of 55 nations, why do they all need to come to Europe and the U.S.? And why do liberals in Europe and the U.S. think that those 55 nations are inadequate? Is that not deeply narcissistic thinking?
As for this performance art of self-flagellation to prove moral superiority, I am reminded of all the Democrats groveling on their knees to mark their abject shame and shared responsibility for the death of George Floyd. It was pathetic and a complete abrogation of any level of either self-respect for themselves or pride in their nation. Pure performance art and nausea-inducing virtue signalling. And yet this occurs over and over throughout the West to the point where people just trying to live their lives as their parents and grandparents did are forced upon pain of cancellation and financial ruin to take part in a self-induced devolution of their culture so they can cede all authority – political and moral – to immigrants and criminals. We are left with that concept of “suicidal empathy.” It doesn’t work. It is buying an alcoholic a bottle of scotch and grooving on what a great and magnanimous guy you are for doing so. As for the abject dissing of one’s own culture – there is a world of difference between humility and humiliation. Leftists better start to figure out what that means while they’re marching as Queers for Palestine or Antifa Against ICE.
Your comments on the Catholic church are particularly poignant to me. I’m not Catholic but I believe in God and I believe in Scripture and I am reasonably well-versed in history. What I see happening is a phenomenon in which Western religions have – to an astonishing degree – lost their faith. It is not only the Pope, it is the Anglican Church (remember the “trans Christ” sermon of a few years back?), it is much of the Jewish community (especially the Reform movement) and it is almost anyone who is NOT Muslim – an ideology which obviously understands the existence of this vacuum in Western culture and is doing its best to fill it – even as Westerns turn a blind eye because they do not consider religion important. The fictionalists in the pulpit don’t seem to believe anything anymore or they would actually act as if the Bible were real, as if good and evil were real things. Or some of the pious Westerners turn a blind eye to being invaded because (perhaps without even realizing it) they have abandoned the Biblical ideas of good and evil and have chosen to worship the succedaneous religion of Woke Social Justice. In the religion of Woke Social Justice, Islam nicely fits into the leftist category of non-White which therefore triggers abject guilty-white submission. And this is a submission Islamists are happy to accept.
Pope Francis was fully on board with this submission to the point of wrapping the Baby Jesus in a keffiyah in a breathtaking display of disrespect for a) Jesus Christ’s Jewishness; b) the world’s Jewish community at a time of deep antisemitism; c) Joseph and Mary’s culture; d) a little thing called “the Bible” and a whole panoply of additional things. I am trying to picture a Pope wrapping Baby Jesus in the Ukranian flag. Or how about a Confederate flag? Blasphemous, correct? But a keffiyah which symbolized terrorism? Perfectly alright. Best of all would be no flag because the Pope shouldn’t have politicized Baby Jesus in this way in the first place. But he found it necessary to bend to the Islamic pressure on him to submit. Just the way Pope Leo recently decided to place a Muslim prayer room in the Vatican Library. Apparently no prayers respected for Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Zoroastrians, Shintos, etc. But the Muslim community gets special treatment. Once again, this is an example of a Western institution voluntarily ceding authority (cultural and moral if not overtly political) without even giving it a fight. Charles Martel would indeed by ashamed.
Yes, God bless Hungary. It’s the only country in Europe that I would consider visiting at the moment.
Thank you for letting me get some of this off my chest, Joe. Your bravery has been a considerable influence upon my willingness to speak with candor. I’m very grateful for that.
Brian, I’m grateful that what I have written has been helpful and enlightening. If one person speaks up, his words can generate a chain reaction of audacity in others.
Both Bergoglio and this new Prevost antipope have explicitly championed the invasion of the West by alien hordes. In fact, most of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy have been vociferous defenders of the current dispossession and replacement of white Europeans by massive population transfers. And too many Catholics, in their abject clericalist obedience, are terrified of raising any objections.
Brian, you have deftly written about a subject that has been much on my mind lately. Even Orwell and Huxley could not have envisioned the dystopia now enfolding in Europe before our eyes. We are uncomfortable because we are witnessing the Fall of Western Civilization in real time. Thank you for such a prescient poetic statement. You have inspired me to write something about it as well.
Thank you, Theresa, for this wonderful comment which really nails the dystopian aspects of the real-time Fall of Western Civilization that we are witnessing. The “double-speak” that the European leaders prattle in Section I of this poem is an oblique allusion to the double-think of Orwell’s 1984. He understood perfectly how language could be exploited to manipulate the masses. His dystopian slogans “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength” would not be out of place in a world such as ours where reality and morality have been inverted such that terrorists are worthy of reward, assassins are admired, men who pretend they are women are coddled, violent criminals are offered praise and all the core values that the West has fought for at great sacrifice are considered despicable. I must believe that our society has the ability to return to reality and that our language can follow suit.
I ‘m thrilled that this piece has inspired you to write. I can’t wait to see your poem on the subject!
I can hardly add to all that has been said here already— but thank you for this marvelous demonstration of telling the truth through excellent poetry.
Thank you so much, Cynthia. I realize this is a very long and emotional piece. But the truth needs to get out there before the U.S. goes the same way as Europe. I’m very grateful for your taking the time to read and comment.
What can I add to the above – just terrific! I am also reminded of Venice, that mighty nation-state that choose not to care; then Napoleon rolled over like a whore.
David, thank you so much for reading and commenting! I was fascinated by your comment since I’ve never thought of Venice that way, but apparently Venice’s “whoredom” actually appears to be something of a political, historic and literary trope. It goes back — at a minimum — to Thomas Otway and his Restoration play “Venice Preserv’d.” The Napoleonic history of Venice intrigues me and I will now have to do some research. Perhaps a poem will come of it! But yes, the number of nations and cultures that have not fought back throughout history is impressive. In modern terms, I’m thinking of Austria and the German Anschluss. But I also know that during the early years of the Muslim conquests of Byzantine and African lands, many cities and states chose to submit without a fight. Have any of them survived to tell the tale?
I just read it all… wow. Very powerful. I’ve read some poems on the theme, but none like these. In particular, the lines:
To strangers who turned vibrant colors ashen
And tried to stab the Christ child in His manger.
And:
Martel sneered scorn. This time he never came,
While prayers rose from the Mosque of Notre Dame.
And:
But maybe worst of all is bleak December
With Europe dead. And so few who remember.
I’m fighting back tears (and failing), and I almost never cry anymore. Well done.
Perfect timing, too, given the stunning comment by the 100-year-old British soldier saying the sacrifices he and his fellow soldiers made in World War II weren’t worth it: https://notthebee.com/article/100-year-old-world-war-2-vet-tells-good-morning-britain-the-sacrifice-wasnt-worth-the-results
The whole issue is so emotional for me, too… I can barely handle it all myself, knowing how much the West as a culture is like my previous dog in his last month of life, when I had to work harder and harder to get him to eat, and having seen it happen to my dogs before him, I knew the end was near. Likewise we’re in the same kind of end-of-life decline as so many empires before us.
It’s not just Europe, either; examples right here in the United States, even here in what they call Flyover Country, are too many to list. Seeing my country go the same way as my dogs is just too horrible for words, even in poetic form. Joe Salemi’s mention of “the violin players on the deck of the Titanic” is spot on as a description of a lot of people, not just clergy.
I’ve mostly been lurking here this last year. Everything I’ve written above is a big part of the reason why. But after reading these, I had to say something.
Kudos to you for your always meaningful contributions to the world of poetry.
Josh, I am overjoyed to see you here on the SCP! It has been such a very long time and you have been greatly missed. Thank you for thinking my poem worth speaking up and sharing about! And thank you from the bottom of my heart for your emotional reaction. You have shown me that all of the anxiety I went through preparing and then submitting this poem has been worth it.
I’m somewhat astonished by your selection of couplets which you chose as favorites — astonished because those happen to be my favorite six lines in the poem as well. You zeroed in on them as if you had read my mind. The first two couplets shocked me even as I penned them. The last couplet — ending with “and so few who remember” actually made me cry as well.
My mother was born and raised in Germany and it is impossible for me to not feel a strong sense of kinship and affinity with the people of Europe. This is one of the reasons why I am absolutely torn by their astonishing decision to voluntarily undermine their countries and cultures. As an attorney I am used to seeing corporations voluntarily dissolve, sell off their assets, pay off the creditors and shareholders and settle into the status of no-longer-extant. But to see an entire continent of Westerners volunarily dissolve themselves in this way? It still baffles me. I suppose this death wish got its start with the formation of the European Union and the voluntary elimination of individual currencies and protective borders. But Europe has used this as a model for self-destruction. And I am terribly afraid the USA wants to follow suit.
Your reference to watching a beloved dog deteriorate and finally die actually strikes me as apt. I think of it in terms of a grandfather who accomplished much in life but who we are now horrified to see is being taken by dementia. It is a terrible sadness, a terrible anger and a terrible feeling of helplessness.
I, too, read about that British soldier who basically said that fighting Hitler wasn’t worth it. One of the comments concerning this brave soldier’s bitter indictment of the current state of the UK said, “The generations that benefitted from this man’s sacrifice, and so many others like him, have so squandered our inheritance that he no longer believes it was worth it. That’s the gut punch the West deserves. We either will rise up and remember ourselves, or we will belong to the dust of history.” Just so.
I agree with you about Joe’s metaphor of the band on the Titanic. A brilliant metaphor which I would love to see him turn into an actual poem. It’s too rich and full of resonances! The fact is, Westerners have become the victim of their own ideology. They have taken logically-developed ideas into territory where they no longer accurately reflect the real world. The idea that colonization is bad for example. Yes, it’s not generally a good thing to destroy the culture of another (talk about hypocrisy in the face of Islamic colonization!) But historically speaking, when populations exploded and resources shrank it was natural that countries explore other territories and assert their strength over other cultures weaker than them. Is there that much to see here? Yes, gender may have shades of gray in certain respects, but does that justify eliminating recognition of what is essentially as binary as day and night? Yes, immigration of people who seek a better life is in principle a laudable thing. But does it make sense to allow an entire population to be replaced? Swamped? Weakened? Colonized? A fellow poet mentioned to me privately that an enormous influx of 30,000 African refugee recently arrived in the UK all of whom are being put up in hotels — at taxpayer expense. How did this become the UK’s responsibility? How long is this sustainable? And you are right to fear for the United States. We are following in Europe’s footsteps. Or at least half of the country is, with the other half sensibly trying to reverse course. Is there any doubt this must eventually lead to a second civil war?
The instructions on any commercial flight indicate that in the event that plane depressurizes, oxygen masks will emerge from the ceiling console — and that a parent must attend to his or her own oxygen mask first before helping their children or others. This is common sense. And yet countries and politicians don’t seem to understand what it means. Policies which undermine the health of the host country are guaranteed to doom that country to failure. And so we watch the great countries of Europe become the Third World (with an attendant loss of faith and freedom) in real time.
Josh, despite the painful subject-matter, I am so pleased and grateful that you commented here. It’s a real blessing.
Excellent.
Thank you very much, Michael. That means a lot to me.
Brian, the multiple scenes and the complex time scheme of this piece put it among certain kinds of distinctly modern drama. Vision shifts rapidly, and the speaker resembles someone standing on a sterile revolving stage. The play could be theater of the absurd, with a perceived lack of meaning and purpose. Is the time European present or future? The speaker analyzes and he warns, but he also seems lost in a maze of mosques. He laments loss of memory, yet he is amazingly adept at recalling history. In fact, varied pictures of the past roll by like a dream vision. Yet he is wide awake, comprehending and then explaining what seems to him incomprehensible. He has much to say to a shadowy audience, but has lost “our language” and our culture. He identifies the source of his plight as borders open to dangers stranger than similar dangers defeated in the past. There is psychological anxiety in the air. You follow not only the poet of The Wasteland but an author of several plays. You’re specific enough to preach a clear theme when the work is considered as a poem, but the artistic enchantment of the whole consists in drama. The grounding of it in Tours represents a excellent choice. Charles Martel at Tours fought one of those world-shaking battles practically unknown at present. Superb reminder.
Thank you so much, Margaret, for reading, commenting and offering insights regarding the poem’s architecture and subject matter. As I was contemplating how I would write a poem about how Europe gave up its autonomy, the first person I thought of was Winston Churchill and how he must be rolling over in his grave. The second person I thought of was Charles Martel — the Hammer, who saved Europe from the Moslem advance and who ended up as the grandfather of Charlemagne. A consequential historical figure to be sure who I hoped would ground this poem. I’m pleased that you concur that this was the right choice.
I can well imagine how this poem might seem like something of a fever dream with many stops through Time — past, present, future. It is decidedly unlinear as it jumps from past to future, I had not thought of this as actually being theatrical but I can see how you would come to that point of view — especially since this is largely written in a first person voice. My original conceit — largely realized — was that this poem would be offered with multiple points of view and in different sections, different forms and rhyme schemes — but, in the end, a unity. This was meant to mirror the structure of Western Europe itself — multiple countries each with its own character and language and also — presumably — a unity. At least politically.
As for that “maze of mosques…” Precisely. “Psychological anxiety” — absolutely. Ultimately, I see this poem as a clarion call to acknowledge what is happening and to take the countermeasures necessary to preserve the West from a serious threat. I am particularly concerned about the future of the United States — especially in the wake of the Mamdani win in New York, but I am also concerned about Minnesota, Dearborn, Michigan and other places where the Judeo-Christian character of our values is being overtly and proudly attacked. To that end, the entire poem really leads to one sentence: “Now hear across the sea let us not cease/To marshal sense and strength before the tide.”
Thank you again for your appreciation and insight, Margaret.
Brian, it’s bitter, so bitter, and fittingly so. It’s a horrible heartache to observe the fall of Europe that is happening right in front of us, voluntary and smug. Bitter and gratifying, like a great scotch. I wonder if they still teach about Charles Martel in French schools: it may hurt sensibilities of Umayyads’ descendants, for whom Europe is now a ripe if rotten fruit, the kind they can freely feed on.
Michael, I am so grateful for your comment even through the heartache you mention. Mine is indeed a bitter poem — and how could it be otherwise? How does one describe the feeling one gets watching a loved one drink himself to death? How does one describe the feeling of seeing a loved one stay in an abusive relationship despite the black eyes, the broken ribs and the shattered glass as the victim constantly repeats, “but he’s so nice when he’s sober and I love him.” And all you can do is watch the disaster unfold. And so it is with Europe. And Canada. And Australia. And now New York City.
Good question about Charles Martel in French schools — and throughout Western Europe. And how do they treat the Crusades? Or the Siege of Vienna? Or the Fall of Constantinople? Anyone know?
By the way, Michael I want you to now that I would not have had the guts to write let alone submit this poem if it weren’t for you. You had written that poem “Peacemakers” two years ago and I had avoided commenting on the poem because I felt that a more subtle argument about Islam was called for — a more cordial dialogue. I want to apologize to you now. I am posting the link to your bold poem here:
https://www.classicalpoets.org/2024/02/peacemakers-a-poem-by-michael-vanyukov/
I was wrong to be critical. You were 100% right to state the truth and to do it boldly. I regret being so reticent and hesitant about speaking out. I have learned something this last year: Those who would fight to preserve Western Civilization can no longer be shy or subtly diplomatic. History is watching. We cannot wring our hands and, even more certainly, we cannot lie to ourselves. The West does not require defenders who are lambs. It require lions. And you, sir, are definitely one of the lions. Thank you for your courage.
Dear Brian, you are too generous crediting me, let alone calling me the magnificent name. I am quite sure that the cultural downward spiral if not tailspin of the West would prompt you to write this great piece regardless of whether I did anything. Nonetheless, if at least a small particle of that credit is deserved, I could not have had a greater compliment: the Autopsy is stellar. You are a merciless pathologist.
Brian, your poem is a superb and stark meditation on civilizational decay. It is powerful, morally crucial, and executed with Eliotian bite. It has hit me like a stinging wind from my homeland and Europe’s slow unraveling feels all too familiar here. The cultural tomb described feels like a mirror held up to America’s own dilemma, where the choice of a Muslim mayor in a land built on Judeo-Christian values signals a tipping point – the quiet surrender to ideology over identity. Your poem’s call to “marshal sense and strength before the tide” is a warning Americans ignore at their peril. This elegy for Europe is a wake-up call for the West’s forgotten valor and I thank you for this brilliantly conceived and courageous masterpiece.
Susan, I am so grateful to you both for this comment and for the sheer courage and resilience you show in your own poetry as you consistently bring the spotlight back onto Truth — no matter how painful, no matter how sordid. The risks you take are real and I know you have paid a price for what you have had published. Your work has long been a deep poetic inspiration to me.
If is for that reason that your comment regarding the meaning and craft of this poem means so much to me. Yes, I took my inspiration from T. S. Eliot, though I did not attempt to match the obscurity of his references since I wanted to be very direct in what I had to say and wanted people to hear. I sadly second your observation that “Europe’s slow unraveling feels all too familiar here.” I only question the slowness of that unraveling. It feels pretty much like an out-of-control freight train to me.
You are quite right — we in America have reached a tipping point. Are we going to choose an ideology which must logically overrun and destroy our culture? Are we going to volunteer to dissolve America so that people can virtue signal about how we are a land meant for everyone? Well, the interesting thing is: the point of America is to immigrate here and become Americans. It is not about turning America into Somalia or Iran. It is not about imposing Sharia laws on our shores. It is about abandoning old laws and embracing the Constitution of the United States. Why else do people migrate here? Simply to take advantage of American financial opportunities while they spread their hatred of the very country that has embraced them? It feels very much like an abusive relationship to me.
Thank you for pointing out that line which is the crux of the entire poem: “marshal sense and strength before the tide.” The other points in the poem are “Poor Europe died from ideology” and Europe was disassembled “not from hate but from “tender love.” The kind that blinds people because they are delusionally trying to lift other people up while they themselves are mired in quicksand. And sinking fast.
Thank you again, Susan. Your words and support mean so much to me.
Your inventive powers, Brian, have never yielded more stunning results–in line after line, couplet after couplet. No sharper alarm/lament could be sounded.
Thank you so much, Julian! This means a lot to me. And I certainly hope that this alarm is heard by those who can still stem the tide.
I completely agree with everyone. This is monumental. Each part of this work could have been a separate post because the message and the poetic craft of each chapter deserves a separate look. I can’t even imagine putting something like this together. Susan is right in that this warning is as much for America as it is for Europe. We are Europe. The same destructive forces working against us, are working against people of good will everywhere.
Thank you so much, Mike! You are definitely one of my inspirations — bold, truth-seeking, truth-telling. I have always admired your work. I am so grateful for your appreciation of how I structured this piece as well. As I mentioned above, the concept was to have a poetic version of Europe itself — many countries, different languages, differently histories and points of view but all within a unified framework. You and Susan are both right. We ARE Europe and we have been sleepwalking like lotus-eaters through what will turn out to have been the defining event of our time. We must wake up! History is watching and will be merciless with those who simply sat back, shrugged and (like Alfred E. Neuman) said “What, me worry?”
Brian’s poem is what the critic M.L. Rosenthal called “an extended sequence,” which is represented in modernist verse by Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and W.C. Williams’ “Paterson” and several other pieces. But it is not common in formal verse today except in some of the verse novels of Arthur Mortensen, or what ABB has done (verbally and visually) with American history.
Thank you for this educational comment, Joe, regarding where within the literary spectrum this sequence of poems falls. I had vaguely heard of the extended sequence in the context of T.S. Eliot — his Four Quartets as well as his Wasteland — and the concept worked for what I was trying to achieve. Iff I have a most direct inspiration it would be The Wasteland (hence the epigraph) and its precedent-setting kaleidoscope of a poem comprised of different ideas, forms and points of view. I should mention that I found some thematic resonance in the idea that the American-born Eliot represents both American and English literature and therefore binds both sides of “The Pond.” But I also took some inspiration from Coleridge, Orwell, Pope, Yeats and Wordworth. In fact, Wordsworth’s conversational blank verse directly influenced Section III concerning the loss and restoration of the Mediterranean.
Brian, you have given us a beautiful composition with a sobering message..
I love your Canto VIII call for us, across the sea, to be the Atlantic of Canto III and bring Europe back to life – but we cannot. We are fighting our own holy war in the U.S.
Thank you so much, Mary! You are very perceptive for focusing on the two bodies of water mentioned in the poem! I expected that readers would be scratching their heads wondering why I had included the third section concerning the Mediterranean Messinean Salinity Crisis. The answer was three-fold: A) I wanted readers to understand how ancient Europe is. This damming of Gibraltar took place 5,000,000 years ago. The issues of Europe are far older and deeper than the vain and narcissistic decisions made by its present-day leaders; B) I wanted to shake the complacency of those who think Europe is safe and impervious to attempts to change it to think again — catastrophic change can happen at any time in many ways; diligence is essential. And C) I wanted to demonstrate with an ecological catastrophe the destructiveness of removing barriers between different parts of the world and, by implication, different cultures and faiths. Or, put in more poetic terms, Good fences make good neighbors.
The ecological catastrophe from 5,000,000 years ago is an ironic little twist because most of the ecology-minded liberals of Europe who would wring their hands at the environmental crisis of losing the Mediterranean are completely (and inconsistently) on board with removing boundaries that actually protect them. The world — certainly Europe — has been better off for being able to rely on the Mediterranean as a boundary from the jihadists coming from Africa and Asia. And, by extension, America has been well-protected by the Atlantic Ocean. We who are across the sea should not seek to bridge this natural boundary so quickly. It offers natural protection and it forcibly distinguishes us from the nations of the Old World — a valuable thing since they now seem intent on suicide and would like to take us with them.
Dark, dark, dark is the sky beneath which this ship of fools sails un-self-knowingly. Even Conan the Barbarian knew what was up better than the modern-day Westerners who may soon no longer exist.
A superbly terse but observant and literary comment, Kip! “Dark, dark, dark” is, unless I’m wrong, directly quoted from TS Eliot’s Four Quarters — very deeply connected to my Wasteland homage. And the ship of fools is a trope which goes very far back. I know it from the 1960s film with Vivien Leigh but Wikipedia also describes Plato, A 15th Crntury German satire, Das Narrenschiff and a painting by Heironymus Bosch. All of the above are painfully relevant but I’d love to hear more about your take on ship of fools here. Your mockery of the West is eminently justified.
As for Conan… I’ll take Conan the Barbarian over almost any of our world leaders any day of the week.
I ain’t got me much Eliot and ain’t ashamed to say it, and wasteland is exactly what it says it is. Ship of Fools to me is a poetry journal out of the Midwest to which I often contributed. Whether or not it is still extant is a question I cannot answer.
Probably the best thing you have ever written Brian. Superbly dark and frightening to read, as I hunt out the old longbow and along with a gang of old pals we head for AGINCOURT, that’s if we can get past all those migrant boats coming the other way.
Jeff, it is so great to see you here and this is such a kind comment! Thank you! I’ve heard about the migrant boats and the hotels having to put up with another 30,000 or more undocumented people coming into the UK. I don’t see how long the UK can sustain this. It’s nice to see you have a sense of humor about it. Agincourt is a wonderful historical destination which reminds one of the days when English pride roared rather than whimpered. But I must note that France is no picnic these days either. You’ll need that old longbow.
Agree with all the writers before me. This is a poetic Tour de Force to be re-read often as warning as much as appreciation. Thank you for it, Brian Yapko.
Thank you very much indeed, jd. A “tour de force” is very high praise indeed and I will long treasure this comment! I realize the subject of my poem is not a fun one but warnings rarely are. Threats must be acknowledged before they can be acted upon. Thank you again.
Ouch! Take me back to the days when the greatest worry was the advancing Mongol Horde. Resisting the enemies within is much harder and ultimately more tragic. Put me on a boat to China so I may at least drink tea and eat bamboo shoots.
Kip, I will gladly accompany you to the days of the advancing Mongol Horde — when people had the sense to understand and react to threats; when people had a sense of decency and knew right from wrong; when the invasion came from without rather than from within. No Fifth Column — just sword to sword and the application of common sense. But I’ll skip China. The communists are using the jihadists as much as athe jihadists are using the communists. In the end, they will have to turn on each other. It would be an entertaining little dance if the world’s survival wasn’t on the line.
Brian, whether you have reached your poetic peak is not for me to judge, but you’re definitely in your prime with this masterpiece. I’ve been reading a lot of history these days, and this sentence from Will Durant’s book, The Reformation, stands out: “From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.” As you say in VI. “visit the U.K. in twenty years”, it only takes a generation (or perhaps less) to lose what took centuries to build: government, industry, the arts – everything.
Cheryl, I am so grateful for this generous comment! Thank you! I don’t know about “masterpiece” but I will say I wrote it from my heart and primarily because I see a situation which may be insoluble and yet I feel that I must do something. This is what I came up with.
I’m astonished that you happen to be reading about the Reformation because this is a subject I’m also reading about! It is a period of time which actually has a lot of resonance today — the corruption, the lawlessness, the huge gap in information between countries and classes, and the huge number of people killed. It seems like it would have been an awful time to be alive. Will Durant’s quote is spot-on. We are very close to losing everything. And it unnerves me that we have these smiling, blue-haired ideologues being interviewed who think this is a wonderful and just thing. I can’t imagine how such people were brought up to think that they are either good or have good judgment.
Brian, so sorry to be late to comment. What a monumental accomplishment of magnificent proportions steeped in historical detail immensely applicable to the present maleficence and moral decay of a once great Europe. Authenticity and honesty are the hallmarks of great poetry, and you have surpassed that to the celestial domain. So many great comments and accolades already exist which would dwarf any further comments on my part. You should be in communication with Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point.” You would be a great speaker and contributor!
Roy, I’m just so glad to see you here! Thank you for this amazing comment. The moral decay of the once great Europe occupies a great deal of my thought these days — especialy since so many in the USA seem determined to follow the disastrous course they have embarked upon. Misery surely loves company. ”
I’m so honored that you think I would be an asset to Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point.” I have no idea how I would do such a thing, but thank you! No matter through which medium, and whether I get to be the messenger or not, I desperately want the truth to get out there!
Thank you again, Roy. You’ve made my day!
Immensely disturbing truths, Brian.
So overwhelmed am I by your powerful eloquence, I can only quote Emperor Joseph II in “Amadeus”: “Well, there it is”.
Thank you very much, Laura. The situation is indeed disturbing and we in the West have been in denial for too long. Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step. I am, however, chuckling at the reference to “Amadeus” — one of my favorite movies!