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In any large Epic poem, composed of a cycle of smaller poems, there will be parts that stand out. These parts may be different for people but I am going to write what stands out for me out of nearly each poem and make a critical observation about these parts, hoping to provide a guide for reading the whole.

The Mixtape of Taliesin is such an epic, composed of 5 constituent books

This article focuses on the first book in the Epic, Taliesin — The Suit of Spades.

Overview of The Mixtape of Taliesin describes the Suit of Spades thusly;

Spades is about entering into new experiences and is something of an analog to the suit of Wands in the Tarot

The book opens with

THE DECK OF TALIESIN

A rose without a single thorn is martyred against the window-pane I crook my head within my arms as visions blur their scarlet blooms

The article “The Theme of Sleep in The Mixtape of Taliesin” observes

We might consider sleep an initiating theme in The Mixtape of Taliesin — the first poem of the first Suit (THE DECK OF TALIESIN: The Suit of Spades) starts with an author at their table, sitting by a window, and as their pen rolls off the table they lay their head down to rest on their forehead and thereby fall asleep.

But as is often the case with these poems there are layers and layers of meaning here. The roses in the poem are Dog-roses, which have been important in poetry since the Consistori del Gay Saber (Academy of The Floral Games), which was founded in 1323 and is the oldest literary association in the Western world, would give a sprig of a Dog-rose to poets to celebrate their literary excellence.

The poem mentions that it is a dog-rose earlier

A Dog-Rose withers in the window

& sunbeams burnish up my hands

but then says it is a rose without a single thorn, whereas dog-roses normally have sharp curving thorns (like canine teeth). This is a paragon of Dog-roses, and also uncommon although not unheard of it is implied that it is a red rose because of the line “as visions blur their scarlet blooms”, red being the color symbolizing love when applied to a rose. The line seems erotically charged.

Thus we have established that this book, that of Spades, which symbolizes new Experiences, is about Love, and Poetic Excellence.

I’ve never really found it a powerful opening poem really, but it is clever and a bit tricky. It’s probably also for the best that it is not a powerful opener, with an epic it is better to open slowly and in the small and build on that, otherwise you risk a similar effect to The Cantos, a great opening and then needless blathering for a number of books afterwards.

THE FOOL

. . .& in some matter of tea & crumpets & arche discussion with some strumpet will I have the nerve shall I serve as others have to tease from her a knowing laugh?

Poets often have specific forebears in the poetic tradition that they are very focused on, sometimes because they emulate them, sometimes because they hate them.

Agent 18 has always had a thing for the Modernists, specifically Yeats and Elliot from a position of approval, Pound and Williams as disapproving.

But where Elliot is concerned while he approves, he also has a little bit of enmity. Specifically he seems to find Prufrock an amusing target.

The lines are straight ahead and don’t really show anything, it’s a Prufrock quotation / parody / pastiche / bit of fun, but whereas Elliot seems sexless 18 makes the poem libidinous, as he says in the following

Then as a sacrifice

to the primal phallus

would I gleefully upend my Alice

which suggests Alice in Wonderland, I have asked Agent 18 about that to which he replied

Obviously the Alice recalls Alice in Wonderland, and there is a lot of anglicisms in the text, and the tea and crumpets, all of which makes a somewhat disturbing connotation here, but while I was aware and drew those connections, as one might connect the nodes on the graph of literature with the edges of meaning, the Alice I was primarily thinking of was the Alice in Elvis Costello’s Beyond Belief — another Alice reflected off the too young girl of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Specifically the lyrics:

So in this almost empty gin palace Through a two-way looking glass You see your Alice

You know she has no sins For all your jealousy In a sense she still smiles very sweetly

There are some other points here — the sexual aspects of the poem seem to point back at the title “The Fool” implying that the character in the poem, a horny young fellow (the Poet) hoping to perform cunnilingus on his Alice, is a fool, but also because of the poem’s lyrical appropriation of Elliot it points at Elliot and names him The Fool.

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illustration the fool card from the Illuminati Ganga tarot, doubtful this was the version that Agent 18 meant, but makes a nice illustration anyway.

THE BIRTH OF TALIESIN

I was a blue salmon battling the waterfall a yapping hound,a bloody stag a roebuck on the hill

A straight forward retelling of the Taliesin myth. The parts where Taliesin must run to escape the witch and transform into various beasts. As such it’s a good description and faithful adaption of what is essentially a fantasy, a fairy story.

THE HANGED MAN

& the cold grim sleepless night squirming in its unshaped morbid uniform…

I sort of find the Hanged Man a fascinating meta-commentary on the whole Mixtape of Taliesin and its various framing conceits, because it accuses “American Poet” of ignoring reality of their world in favor of being eloquent concerning

Nothingness Hash Nirvanas Native Dances Pillow Rituals of Samurai

in other words all sorts of non-essential things, intellectual and aesthetic items of decor neatly shelved on the walls of imagination.

At the same thing it is of course not a meta commentary but an accusation of “American Poets”, the nationality that Agent 18 isn’t, it should be noted that the mythical Taliesin also has his critique of his fellow poets, the claim then becomes that while The Mixtape of Taliesin may use as structure the Taliesin myth, the historical Taliesin, and the tarot as framing devices it does have something meaningful to say about

the cold grim sleepless night

THE BOAST OF TALIESIN

What sleights of mind & metré O black-haired daughter of the Oceans Shall I perform with ease

We are back to the theme of love, the poem starts off with a sort of review of the Birth of Taliesin, noting his many magical accomplishments in the realm of Animal transformation

I’ve ran in the fox womb 55 days I’ve turned in the grave for 9 months further Dante dwindles to the indefinite As I sneak from my bursting cradle A cantankerous young ram Who stakes the world to his altar

to move into his sleights of mind and metré comment, indicating sleight of hand, which will of course come up in the next tarot poem — The Magician.

The poem also plays the poet as the previously indicated Fool

In some motley uniform In the garments of a piper Capped & belled I jingle

This is, I think, probably where the book gets to be very strong. The Deck of Taliesin was too much preparatory, The Fool too randy and foolish, The Birth of Taliesin too mannered and given to archaisms, and The Hanged Man too theatrically grimdark. They all had their moments and were worthwhile, but the works of a younger poet of promise. Works that while maybe interesting could also be tedious. This poem starts off with a similar feel, promising but will it deliver or just keep promising.

It makes another arrogant boast about remaking Milton in Rimbaud’s signature, and then it proceeds to deliver.

The last three verses I think step up the game significantly, starting with

Well, I have known the present & formation & I have seen the hingeing clouds Circling Dinas Mawdwwy forever & I have reckoned myself older Than any beast now living

the matter of fact, homely “Well…” leads in, and all the observations while at times boastful in keeping with the title, are erotically charged and sensual but also beautifully observed.

The whole ends with a boast that might not even be understood as such

The lightest rain is felt to fall Thru my hat, with a grin I wish it might rain stronger

THE MAGICIAN

In an offhand motion the lovers side by side Are palmed to a discrete side-pocket While you are momentarily distracted By the meteor shower in stained glass

If there is any person I would feel sure would understand the difference between discrete and discreet, it is Agent 18.

So my initial feeling was that it was a play on words, that is to say it like most sleight of hand (like the sleights of hand performed in the previous Boasts of Taliesin) the palming of the card (The Lovers, a tarot card) is done discreetly, but it is also done by moving it into a discrete (singular) side-pocket. As is generally the case with Magician’s tricks, you move things into a specific pocket that you have set up for this, people might not even be able to see you have a pocket there. A discrete side pocket.

But of course there is always the chance with 18 that he is making some subtle Discrete Mathematics joke, which I’ve heard him do in the past, specifically in relation to graph theory, so I asked “why does The Magician say *In an offhand motion the lovers side by side Are palmed to a discrete side-pocket *is there any hidden meaning there?”

To which he replied

Like many poets I’ve always liked homophones, discreet and discrete are two of my favorites. Originally I just wrote it as discreet, but then I thought it could be discrete just as well and that would make a funny pun. I am actually doing a reworking of the whole book in a different way, called Time Wizard — Taliesin and there will be some more exploration of the connections between the two words which both evolved from the Latin discretus.

So, a warning to me not to read too much into things which I guess I have a tendency to do at times, and at the same time maybe there is something more there to be brought out.

At any rate this poem is not as good as the previous I think, its main appeal is, as far as erotic poetry is concerned, this is pretty porny. I don’t mind that. The poem as porn workout is a rarely encountered genre.

Of course the poem also has to hit its Taliesin and overarching themes beats so after the porny bits it goes back to the Magician metaphor.

When he says

These hours have descended From their books In sinuous processions thru ages Page boys in mild blue Dalmatics

I feel like he has a particular Book of Hours image in mind, when asked he said “maybe”, did I ever mention how much I hate poets.

there is also the stated target of affections being a dark haired daughter of the oceans, which thematically ties in with all the other water imagery in the rest of the poems, Taliesin is of course also someone who springs from the endless sea, being

Born & re-born I have been Borne in the rocking coracle

in the very next poem.

TALIESIN TALKS TO THE POETS

Embody for me the Firmament’s Points Conjugate its Elements What District of Heaven did you hold Before you touched this Earth What was the Language that you spoke Before bawling at your birth?

This is probably tied for most known piece of the Taliesin myth, with the whole transformational chase between Ceridwen and Gwion Bach when he first gets all the wisdom and knowledge of world spilt on his finger by accident being the other entrant.

In this poem Taliesin’s foster father has been taken captive by King Maelgwn Gwynedd, Taliesin shows up and decides, in a bit of professional poetic shit-talking to show up all the poets of said king as being significantly beneath him on the totem poles of verse.

The questions above are some of the things Taliesin claims one should know if one wants to be thought of as a competent poet, evidently the poets of Maelgwn were not competent.

No mention of dog roses here, however, but he does move beyond the original Taliesin talking to the poets conceits and makes some more wider boasts than just Maelgwn’s court poets

Poets Above Poets Below; My Beatrice is Below In fetters of Arianrhod Imprisoned in Annwfyn Awaiting the freedom Of my Orphic Lyric

by addressing poets on every step of whatever hierarchy of poets that exists, implying a divine one with above meaning evidently. Paradise, and Below the Inferno, an implication strengthened with the next callout to Dante by saying his Beatrice is below (in hell) as opposed to Dante’s Beatrice, and then bringing it back to the Welsh symbolism with Arianrhod, the goddess of the moon and the cycle of life and death, Annwfyn the Welsh hell, and promising freedom with an Orphic lyric, in essence claiming to himself the deeds and power of Orpheus the Greek arch-poet whose status is at a similar mythical place as Taliesin.

As often happens with the Welsh / Mythic Taliesin focused poems the flow is one of transcending the boundaries of the legend and conquering other cultures and myths, folding them into the Taliesin myth, capturing treasure, enriching the narrative.

THE HIEROPHANT

Drowned Drowned Downed in the whirlpool of Surreal Life ice-blue corpses of dead poets swim thru the haunted city

A very oceanic/water focused poem. Also death focused, but is the poet of the book one of the ice blue corpses swimming through the city?

I think in this case it is more that the dead poets that are all around him are his forebears, he exists within the surrealist milieu in this poem. I personally find this poem and the next one to be directly tied to the earlier The Hanged Man — surely surrealism is another one of the useless pretty things that a poet can interest themselves in, and in fact the poem has very pretty visuals

Unknown, among the deep cafes young maidens delicately scaled silver & ultramarine read DADA without expression as pink bubbles are blown from their slightly parted lips

It is pretty but also you get the feeling that the prettiness is somewhat looked down upon, it is a Disneyfied prettiness, the pink bubbles an animated detail of the little poetry reading mermaid of the stanza.

This often happens with prettiness and other softer details in these poems, there is a hedonistic attraction but also a repulsion or denial by the alternate ego of the hard man of Poetry, Taliesin, which creates an enjoyable tension between the personas of the poet, who seems to always move between hedonism and asceticism, between peace and warfare, between sophistry and stoicism.

THE NIGHTMARE OF TALIESIN

O trance of music mad in ghostly impermanence Harlequinned instruments gaudily self-performing unwounded by criticism of all that is not as they are

the previous poem of course did the pretty surrealist track, this one the nightmarish one.

There is a lot of onomatopoeic play, depending on my mood this can really annoy me.

I’ll also note these musical instruments clothed and playing was something that Agent 18 returns to at times, including in the poem Tempo

which is found in the recently published Mercuric Distillations (affiliate link below)

Part of the imagery and madness of the poem echoes Symphony Fantastique, another 5 part work of Romance, which was composed by Hector Berlioz in 1830 and, tying our themes together, tells the story of an artist’s obsession and unrequited love with another artist, the actress Harriet Smithson.

I don’t say this poem is unsuccessful exactly, but you have to be in the mood for it. To say something that would probably annoy Agent 18 no end it reminds me of Pound. The showy playing around, the high drama, the linguistic trickery in your face. Although maybe that’s why it’s the “nightmare” of Taliesin, a jokey title, thinking about how awful it would be to end up as Ezra Pound in the end.

I can be in the mood for it but sometimes I have to force myself. This has the problems you often see with a young person’s poetry, they’re dancing around with one wrist pressed against their foreheads and eyes rolled back in their heads like a druidic cosplayer on ecstasy as the most moody angst-ridden music plays much too loudly and you get the urge to say “aw, calm the fuck down, please.”

Of course while this is the end of the first book, of Spades, the poem also exists as the lead in to the next book, that of Clubs.

Obviously while Illuminati Ganga recommends the book as it does all of The Mixtape of Taliesin, and while it is far superior to many other books of poetry out there, compared with the rest of the whole Mixtape it is one of the lesser sections.

In competition with other poets Taliesin wins, but in competition with their self Spades is not their best suit and it is not the best of the 5 books, in comparison to almost any book of poetry it can stand on its own, but in comparison to its companion volumes it should not be read alone.

And part of that is really due to the last poem, which functions as a good bridge to the next book, but not as a good ending to its own book.

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This Essay was written mainly by Illuminati Ganga Agent 13, with some contributions from Agent 77, especially when it comes to describing the antics of angsty young people.

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Notes: The lyrics for Beyond Belief said she has no sense for all your jealousies originally, but I believe that to be a transcription error and so have changed it to has no sins, which is sensible.