PROVOCATEUR-POET, DISTURBER-OF-SHIT, MAKER-OF-MYTH

Make a name for yourself and you will have no need of ancestors.
—Voltaire¹

*

Well! but I begin to be ashamed of my magnificence[…]
—Horace Walpole²

*

I address myself only to people capable of understanding me, and they will read me without danger.
—Marquis de Sade³

*

With false ambition what had I to do?
Little with love, and least of all with fame;
And yet they came unsought and with me grew,
And made me all which they can make—a Name.
—Lord Byron⁴

*

Most writers—poets in especial—prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy—an ecstatic intuition—and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating [calculation.] [N]o poet can afford to dispense with any thing that may advance his design[.] Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones. [D]eath, then[…]is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world[.]
—Edgar Allan Poe⁵

*

Always be a poet, even in prose.
—Charles Baudelaire⁶

*

Lying and poetry are arts—arts, as Plato saw, not unconnected with each other—and they require the most careful study, the most disinterested devotion. Indeed, they have their technique, just as the more material arts of painting and sculpture have their subtle secrets of form and colour, their craft-mysteries, their deliberate artistic methods.
—Oscar Wilde⁷

*

I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Not only do words infect, ergotise, narcotise, and paralyse, but they enter into and colour the minutest cells of the brain[.]
—Rudyard Kipling⁸

*

A writer’s name is his most cherished possession. It is the basis of his economic life, and the ‘trademark’ which establishes his competence and craftsmanship. It is more than the means by which he earns his bread. It is his creative personality, the symbol of the whole body of his ideas and experience.
—John Howard Lawson⁹

*

The writer’s only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one.
—William Faulkner¹⁰

*

A word after a word
after a word is power.
—Margaret Atwood¹¹

*

Erotic politicians, that’s what we are. We’re interested in everything about revolt, disorder, and all activity that appears to have no meaning.
—Jim Morrison¹²

*

Build a good name. You know, keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work. And make the right choices. And protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, you know, that name will be its own currency.
—Patti Smith¹³

*

It’s funny, I spent my whole life wanting to be talked about
I did it, just about everything to see my name in lights[…]
It’s funny, how everybody mentions my name, but they’re never very nice
I took it, just about everything except my own advice[…]
—Madonna¹⁴

*

People say my name…what comes before or after is irrelevant. I am a force that changes what surrounds me.
—Marilyn Manson¹⁵

Jono Borden is a Canadian poet known for transgressive lyricism.

Borden’s voluminous outpouring is a smattering and smashing of many traditions, conjuring reactions as diverse and divisive as his influences.

Always with an axe to grind—and fitting, then, that Jono is cousin to Lizzie Borden, among other notable relations—better at swinging hatchets than burying them, splitting with deep-hitting wit his many opponents, Borden cultivates debate, unashamed to articulate what others are afraid to say. What he makes deviates.

Jono’s bibliography, discography, and filmography comprises nine books, two discs, and one film, including his début poetry collection Simple Simony (2013), the verse novel Isaac & Iskandar: A Conquest in Verse (2015), the double album 7×5 (Uncut) (2016), his second poetry collection Between the Silver and the Mirror (2017), the novel Where the Willow Does Not Weep (2019), his occult library catalogue and esoteric bibliography Catalogus Librorum Impressorum Bibliothecæ Ionathani Bordenii (2021), his third poetry collection Diamond & Dagger (2021), his original screenplay for the Byron biopic Lightning in the Veins (2023), his first short story collection Cor Hydræ (Heart of the Snake): Twisted Tales (2023), and his fourth poetry collection Bullets in the Temple (To Open Closed Minds) (2025).

Referring to Borden as “brazen,” men of letters as respected as George Elliott Clarke say he is “set to rise from obscurity,” comparing him to Byron, Blake, Laforgue, Dylan, Cohen, and Hendrix, another “great, rock songsmith,” noting, “Dude’s got guts!”

A scholar of religious studies and film studies, Jono practices ceremonial magic.

__________
¹Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), «Scène III» / “Scene Three”, Lines 175–176, of «Acte Premier» / “Act One”, in Mérope: Tragédie / Mérope: A Tragedy, dialogue spoken by the character Polyphonte to the play’s eponymous protagonist Mérope, in Voltaire’s Mérope: Edited with Introduction and Notes by George Saintsbury, published at Oxford by The Clarendon Press in 1885; page 80. Rendered into English often as, “Make a name for yourself and you will have no need of ancestors.” In its original French: «Le premier qui fut roi fut un soldat heureux: / Qui sert bien son pays n’a pas besoin d’aïeux.» Translated by George Saintsbury: “The first who was king was a fortunate soldier: / Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.”
²Horace Walpole to George Montagu, in a letter written at and sent from Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, London on Friday, July 1^st, 1763, mocking modesty, from “Letters 2 January 1762–16 October 1770” of The Yale Editions of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, Volume 10: Horace Walpole’s Correspondence With George Montagu, II: Edited by W. S. Lewis and Ralph S. Brown, Jr., published at New Haven by Yale University Press in 1961; page 84.
³Marquis de Sade, «Français, Encore un effort si vous voulez être Républicains: Les Mœurs» / “Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans: Morals,” in Philosophy in the Bedroom: Or, the Immoral Mentors, translated from the French by Lorna Berman in The Thought and Themes of the Marquis de Sade: A Rearrangement of the Works of the Marquis de Sade, published at Kitchener, Ontario by Ainsworth Press in 1971; page 57. First published clandestinely in two volumes as, La Philosophie dans le boudoir, Ouvrage posthume de l’Auteur de Justine. La mère en prescrira la lecture à sa fille. Londres: Aux dépens de la Compagnie. M. DCC. XCXV. [sic] / Philosophy in the Bedroom: A Posthumous Work by the Author of Justine: The Mother Will Prescribe Its Reading to Her Daughter. London: At the Expense of the Company [actually, published at Paris by Girouard, and the Marquis was, in fact, at the time, very much alive, aged fifty-five, fresh out of prison (again), and deceiving censors by such false imprints in], 1795; Volume Two, page 102: «[J]e ne m’adresse qu’à des génies capables de m’entendre, et ceux-là me liront sans danger.»
⁴Lord Byron, “Epistle to Augusta,” Stanza 13, Lines 1–4 (Lines 97–100 overall), in “Poetry” of “Part Three: Exile on Lake Geneva (April–October 1816)” in “Byron’s Poetry and Prose” of Byron’s Poetry and Prose: Authoritative Texts [and] Criticism: Selected and Edited by Alice Levine[,] Hofstra University, published at New York by W. W. Norton & Company in 2010; page 244.
⁵Edgar Allan Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition,” Paragraphs 5, 10, 14, and 20, in The Philosophy of Composition of Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Theory: The Major Documents: Edited with an Introduction, Notes, and Textual Variants by Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine, published at Urbana by University of Illinois Press in 2009; pages 61–62 and 64–65.
⁶Charles Baudelaire, «Notes précieuses» / “Valuable Notes,” in «Mon cœur mis a nu» / “My Heart Laid Bare” of «Journaux intimes» / “Diaries” in OEuvres posthumes: Troisième édition [Posthumous Works: Third Edition], published at Paris by Société du Mercure de France in 1908; page 131. In its original French: «Sois toujours poète, même en prose.»
⁷Oscar Wilde, “The Decay of Lying: An Observation: A Dialogue,” Vivian to Cyril, in Intentions of “Essays and Letters” in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: With an Introduction by Vyvyan Holland, published at London by Collins in 1983; page 972.
⁸Rudyard Kipling, “[Chapter] XXIII[.] Surgeons and the Soul: Annual Dinner, Royal College of Surgeons: February [14^th,] 1923,” in A Book of Words: Selections from Speeches and Addresses Delivered Between 1906 and 1927, published at London by Macmillan and Co., Limited in 1928; page 223.
⁹John Howard Lawson, the first president of the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) after the Screen Writers Guild (SWG) divided into two regional organizations (East and West, WGAE and WGAW, 1954), in an affidavit of 1960 sworn by him in support of the class-action lawsuit culminating in Nedrick Young et al., Appellants, v. Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., et al., Appellees, 299 F.2d 119 (D.C. Cir. 1962), as quoted in “[Chapter] 2[.] Two Front Lines” of Miranda J. Banks’ The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild, published at New Brunswick, New Jersey by Rutgers University Press in 2015; page 112.
¹⁰William Faulkner, interviewed by Jean Stein at New York in mid-winter of early 1956, for “The Art of Fiction No. 12” in The Paris Review, Issue 12 (Spring 1956), published at Paris by The Paris Review Foundation (Paris Review, Société à Responsabilité Limitée) in 1956; page 30.
¹¹Margaret Atwood, “Spelling,” Part 4, Stanza 3, Lines 1–2 (Lines 24–25 overall), in True Stories, published at Toronto by Oxford University Press in 1981; page 64.
¹²Jim Morrison, describing his rock band The Doors, quoted as the epigraph to “Chapter 4[.] Sympathy for the Devil: Theodor Adorno, Aleister Crowley, Mick Jagger,” in E. Michael Jones’ Dionysos Rising: The Birth of Cultural Revolution Out of the Spirit of Music, published at San Francisco by Ignatius Press in 1994; page 139.
¹³Patti Smith, paraphrasing advice given to her in her youth by William Burroughs, while being interviewed by Christian Lund at the Louisiana Literature festival held on August 24^th, 2012 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark and filmed as Patti Smith: Advice to the Young, produced by Honey Biba Beckerlee and Kamilla Bruus, supported by Nordea-fonden, for Louisiana Channel; time code 01:12–01:34.
¹⁴“How High,” written by Madonna Louise Ciccone, Henrik Nils Jonback, Christian Lars “Bloodshy” Karlsson, and Pontus Johan “Avant” Winnberg. Copyright © 2005 by Murlyn Songs AB (STIM) and Webo Girl Publishing, Incorporated (ASCAP). Administered by WB Music Corporation on behalf of Warner/Chappell Music, Incorporated (ASCAP). All rights reserved. Used by permission. Madonna, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Warner Bros. Records, 2005, CD, catalog number 49460-2, track 9.
¹⁵Marilyn Manson, in a written response to a fan’s question, posed by username Fieldgoal, and posted for public view on March 4^th, 2003 through the “Oracle: Q&A” message board section of his official website (Record 100, on the “Records 96–100 of 262” page thereof); archived for perpetual consultation by Nick Kushner at The Nachtkabarett.