Black Powder

This epic poem begins and ends with a house exploding in Pasadena, California on June 17, 1952. The explosion killed Jack Parsons, one of the principal founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Aerojet Corporation and co-inventor of the American rocket. Jack Parsons, who probably knew more about explosive powders than anyone on Earth, was also an occultist and Satanist and fell in to the orbit of the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley. Is it a mere coincidence that in 1942, the same year that Crowley appointed Parsons head of the Agape Lodge, Parsons made a major breakthrough in the development of rocket solid fuel? Set against the backdrop of World War II and the race for supremacy in the air, this poem explores Jack Parsons, genius scientist by day, wild party animal by night. The characters include famous engineer Theodore van Karman, a young L. Ron Hubbard, Wernher von Braun, and Marjorie Cameron - otherwise known as the mysterious Scarlet Woman. Did Jack kill himself? Was the US Government too concerned about his unearthly activities? Or did Jack evoke sinister forces that were too much, even for him? Matt Bialer continues to write about obscure American history and myth, and find humanity even in the most bizarre.