Ezra Loomis Pound CANTO XLV - WITH USURA

Hear the poet reading his poem the way he meant it to be heard by clicking here. The pain and agony in his voice ring true; usury is such a curse that no man should be unmoved at hearing this poem. Why must you sinners reject the Law of your Maker, YHWH? Bank loans are death. Lending at interest, even if only 1%, is death. Obey YHWH and live!

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[messiahsoon]

Why was he crazy as a fox because his opinions weren't far from Ford or Lindbergh? Were not these men complaining of the same thing? Usury is the heart of this crisis.

Greenspan and Bernanke fans get what they deserve. Food riddled with preservatives and an ever downward-spiraling society. So full of perversion, that they know no other way but Chase, the Fed, and the media to keep them on a 30yr mortgage of invisible slavery.

[LinuxStudioDave]

This poem is prophetic to the greatest degree. Every word is true, and the facts speak for themselves. Our bread is indeed a mere cake of dry dust, "enriched" after its nutrients are leached from the flour, and language itself has been perverted in favor of profit. If this poem moves you, check out EP's ABC Of Economics (if you can find it). And btw, EP told Allen Ginsberg that his worst offense was in succumbing to the "suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism".

[arkofmiracles]

it is so interesting that Islam and Christianity both forbid usury, but what is even more so is that in Islam, God (and His Last Prophet) wages WAR on usury. Now we witness the capitalist economy-religion is imploding on itself. All of mankind's problems are the manifestation of this War on Usury. The truth is right in front of our faces; are there are those whose eyes do not see, whose ears do not hear, whose hearts do not feel. Truth is just within our grasp but few we can find who want it.

[roquefort88888]

I'm Scottish, and I find it very striking how very Scottish Pound's reciting voice is - not just the accent, but also the rhythms and rhetorical style.

I'm wondering if he's adopting some specific person as a model here - or if this North-Atlantic-Celt thing was more ideological - like some fundamental part of his geo-literary construct & where he fitted into it.

The Seafarer is very North Atlantic in its Ambit, and he pulls that off magnificently...

[VoxNeruda]

La Giaconda came not by usura, but Scarvezzi gave us Giotto.

[ahamatmabrahman]

@1february1983 I don't think he meant all Jews after all is Ezra not a Jewish name ? He coined new words and phrases such as Jews papers I know

[Isidroprada]

Maybe the Greatest American ever !!

[julesthemadman]

But for his astonishing contribution to world poetry in general, Pound would have gone to the chair. His insanity or otherwise is much debated, vide Humphrey Carpenter's biography. Incidentally, he later recanted what he called the "suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism. On a literary note, it is interesting to compare his reading style with that of Basil Bunting, who can also be found reading on YouTube. Bunting has become as seminal a figure in British poetry as TS Eliot, & is more original.

[1february1983]

Ezra Pound on Race on Italian radio during WW II (March 15, 1942). Is there a race left in England? Has it any will left to survive? ... I doubt it. Nothing can save you, save a purge. Nothing can save you, save an affirmation that you are English. Whore Belisha is not. Isaacs is not. No Sassoon is an Englishman, racially. No Rothschild is English, no Strakosch is English, no Roosevelt is English, no Baruch,…or Solomon was ever yet born Anglo-Saxon. And it is for this filth that you fight.

[1february1983]

What is wrong with Ezra Pound: He ascribed all evil to the Jews.

[1february1983]

Ezra Pound on Usury on Italian radio during WW II (March 15, 1942) The enemy is Das Leihkapital. Your Enemy is Das Leihkapital, intemational, wandering Loan Capital [malicious pun on Wandering Jew]. Your enemy is not Germany, your enemy is money on loan… The big Jew is so bound up with this Leihkapital that no one is able to unscramble that omelet… You let in the Jew and the Jew rotted your empire, and you yourselves out-jewed the Jew..And the big Jew has rotten every nation ..