“If you stare into the smoke long enough,
you start to see a better life
burning on the other side.
I’ve been clean, but never clear.”
Venice Poets Night
Michael Madsen
(1957 – 2025)
July 5, 2025 — As I have explained many times before, the worlds of poetry and intelligence overlap far more often than one might naively believe. The poetry of Michael Madsen offers surprising and poignant lessons for an intelligence analyst. Searching for the truth matters. But doing it for the right reason matters even more. There is a profound difference between having a clear mind — being objective, methodical, by-the-book — and possessing a clean spirit — being emotionally or morally grounded. One must strive to do the right thing for the right reason. If you aim to please your masters, you will find evidence of WMDs in Iraq. You will ignore the obvious clues — as the FBI did in the Lockerbie case. You will find evil hiding in the smoke — as some have claimed in the Havana Syndrome. Let us now read together one of Madsen’s beautiful, unpublished poems. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
RELATED POST : 50 Years Ago — Pablo Neruda Awarded Literature Nobel Prize (October 21 1971) — Was Neruda a KGB Agent?
RELATED POST : 60 Years Ago — Hounded by the FBI, Nobel Prize Ernest Hemingway Ends His Life (July 2, 1961)
RELATED POST : Poetry as Insurgent Art: Pity the Nation [Lawrence Ferlinghetti]
RELATED POST: Was Noble Prize John Steinbeck a CIA Agent?
“One is reminded of Montaigne’s acerbic comment: Men under stress are fools, and fool themselves.”
Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain
Like a heavyweight boxer does with his punches, Madsen had a way of compressing vast emotional weight into just a few words.
This haunting and beautiful pair of lines hits hard — let’s unpack the feelings:
“If you stare into the smoke long enough / you start to see a better life / burning on the other side.”
Madsen evokes a powerful sense of longing mixed with grief. The dilemma is maddening. There’s something better just out of reach — a vision of hope — but the very act of reaching for it might cost you dearly. Maybe even destroy it.
The “smoke” becomes both a veil and a warning — a symbol of what obscures our vision and what results from our actions. It suggests that perception itself is part of the danger.
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.”
Albert Einstein
It feels almost as if Friedrich Nietzsche met Niels Bohr — in Wonderland.
Nietzsche famously warned:
“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” (Beyond Good and Evil)
This statement cautions us: prolonged engagement with darkness doesn’t leave us unchanged. It can pull us in, warp us, even become us.
Meanwhile, Bohr — and the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics — tells us that nothing is real until it is observed.
Before action, everything is smoke — infinite potential waiting to collapse into one outcome.
The observer brings the world into being. The act of seeing creates the reality, for better or worse…
So in Madsen’s image: is the better life real, or are we burning just to imagine it?
But it’s truly the second stanza that knocked me out:
“I’ve been clean, but never clear.”
What a line!
A sharp reminder that clarity is as essential as purity. In Zen, this is the essence: not only to live cleanly, but to see clearly.
And here enters the timeless teaching of the calligraphy:
錬心, 清志 (Renshin, Seishi) — “Train the spirit, purify the will.”
Rooted in Zen philosophy and martial arts, this phrase speaks directly to the challenge Madsen presents.
To train the spirit is to:
— Develop mental discipline
— Gain emotional control
— Build spiritual strength
It’s the art of overcoming ego, fear, and distraction.
“Men are tormented by the opinions they have of things, and not the things themselves.”
Michel de Montaigne
In martial arts, it means remaining calm under pressure. In life, it’s about resilience, presence, and balance.
To purify the will is to:
— Align your intentions with honesty and integrity
— Strip away selfishness, pride, and confusion
— Act with purpose — not just force
Together, these principles invite us to strive not merely for victory, but for something deeper: self-mastery.
In everyday life — whether in martial arts, leadership, philosophy, or intelligence matters — the lesson remains:
— Meditate to calm the mind → Train the spirit
— Act with honor and focus → Purify the will
— Don’t just fight the fire. Understand it. Master it.
Because sometimes, as Madsen reminds us, what you see “on the other side” of the smoke may not be salvation — it may be you.
“The pursuit of objectivity is never purely technical—it demands courage, independence, and sometimes resistance.”
Analyzing Intelligence: Origins, Obstacles, and Innovations
Edited by Roger Z. George & James B. Bruce
REFERENCES
US Intelligence Agencies Are Trying To Solve Scientific Mysteries And Failing Badly — BuzzFeed News
Analyzing Intelligence: Origins, Obstacles, and Innovations – Edited by Roger Z. George & James B. Bruce (Georgetown University Press)
=
Poetry as a Lens for Intelligence Work [What Intel Analysts Could Learn from Madsen’s Poetry?]
“The ‘English only’ CIA is not only ineffective but also illegally politicized: the disinformation letter of 51 ex-Intel officials re the H Biden laptop was cooked up within the CIA . Empty out, fumigate, re-staff w Americans who know languages and can do the job.”
Edward N. Luttwak
(Twitter, May 12 2023)
Intel Today 