The Verses Versus Empire Collection

A Dangerous Poet for Dangerous Times!


“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” So said the poet Roethke, and his words echo in this searing indictment of empire through the lens of poetry…


Through three imperial presidencies,
The poet cries, voice in the wilderness,
Reed swaying in the wind, a bruisèd reed,
His motion stirred to music.


Author, poet, and former Reuters journalist Abdiel LeRoy takes us into the inferno of U.S. politics with all its absurdities and horrors…


Daring to see and state the obvious,
Decry hypocrisy, prophetically to see
Not just the future but the now,
The awful now, and make some sense of it.


Created over 20 years, these three volumes overthrow the lies and blasphemies of three imperial presidencies under Bush, Obama, and Trump, as if the early prophets spoke through Shakespeare and echoed to humanity today. You will find no resort to outdated 'left-wing' or 'right-wing' proclamation here, no flag-waving for Democrat or Republican, but fierce denouncement for the peddlers of power, whether in Washington, London, Moscow, or Brasilia.


Yet LeRoy is not your typical fire-and-brimstone prophet. His moods range from witty satire to biting irony, from bawdy word-play to melancholic lament, even as he brings each White-House occupant before the throne of God, whether for mercy or judgment…


Rejoice! The day is come when every soul,
His placement for eternity to take
And due reward bestowed his earthly role,
Learns what pronouncement God for him shall make.
Now, having been called “Mr. President”
By doting throngs, Bush steps up to the fore,
For Heaven should follow earthly precedent
And saints, like press, should worship and adore…


But Heaven is about to divulge a litany “of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts”—to echo Shakespeare as this poet often does—fraudulent elections, false-flag terrorism, war, assassination, torture, racism, planetary rape, and the rulings of corrupt courts. Throughout, LeRoy serves as a chronicler of world history over two decades. Among the signature events…


1. Volume I—Bush (2001–2009)

9/11
'War on Terror'
Military Invasion
Desecration of the Constitution
Hurricane Katrina

Volume II—Obama (2008–2017)

Obama awarded the Nobel Prize… for Peace?!
BP's oil spill
Nuclear disaster at Fukushima
Edward Snowden, and the NSA
Julian Assange, and 'Collateral Murder'

Volume III—Trump (2016–2021)

Rule by tweet
Family separations
Threats of “fire and fury”
The emergence of Covid


Never was divine fire more poetically expressed. These three works establish LeRoy as “a brave new presence in the politics of the globe,” according to The San Francisco Review of Books, and are a collector's item for any discerning library.


“So well done. A remarkable command of the language and great sensitivity. And doing all this in an entirely new way, wading into (almost) unexplored literary territory.”
Claude Forthomme


“Abdiel LeRoy’s poetry and prose offer intellectual nourishment for critical thinkers and seekers of truth… I highly recommend these books to anyone who seeks to escape from the ‘Matrix’.”
Annemarie M. Osborne


“If you wanted to extend the critical view of American political history into the present beyond Gore Vidal’s ‘Biography of the United States of America,’ these books would be the ticket… A joy to read and an invitation to keep your eyes open as to what is really going on.”
Rogier F. van Vlissingen


“LeRoy’s words dance.”
Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews