In the work of American poet Kenneth Patchen, the vision of humanity as a fundamentally unified and interconnected spiritual identity predominates. Concomitant with this is the implication that violence toward any person become necessarily violence done to oneself. From this vision emerges an pacifist commitment to nonviolence, even under the most extreme circumstances. This conviction permeates his Blake-inspired 1941 work *The Journal of Albion Moonlight,* written in response to the breakout of the World War II, and with the explicit intention of combatting it through poetic expression. While many rallied to support the Allies, Patchen saw the war as indicative of a form of human insanity and the loss of spiritual vision. Patchen’s poetic vision represents a challenge to even the most seemingly justified uses of violence, arguing that such force can never be a victory, but only a degradation of humanity and a scar on its own collective body.