Book excerpt: Ascend Ascend was written over the course of twenty days, coming in and out of trance states brought on by intermittent fasting and somatic rituals while secluded in the tower of a 100-year-old church. It is rooted in the jewish mystical tradition of merkabah literature, chronicling an ascent up the kabbalistic sefirot to witness the "chariot of god." While traditional merkabah prose trends dry--focused on preparations for the journey while demurring to describe the experience itself--Ascend Ascend uses poetry to touch the ineffable. Equal parts Walt Whitman and Maggot Brain, this long poem documents the ecstatic destruction of the self.