----- Original Message -----
From: "judy prince" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: Lynndie England / evil in poetry
Well, now, you know I appreciate your powerful work, Fred. How many times
have I told you that? And I'll be telling you that again and again,
naturally!
But, to be honest, after a coupla days of torturing-to-tell-the-truth poems
(yours, unfortunately for you, being the last---I think---today), I've
totally O.D.'ed on Evil . . . TOTALLY!!
Yes, I know, I know,
I hafta be politic and courageous,
stiff-upper-lipped,
Reality-based,
ready to do battle against the Dark Side,
vigilant against the Unsettled and Unsettling,
stronger than the Opposing Forces, tuned in to my own Bad Inner Self,
poised to Face and Evade,
Deter or Destroy,
beat back the Bad Guys (& Dolls),
rally the troops,
suggest and advise and consent to politic politics, politicians and police,
be prepared to slash and burn for the greater glory of Good,
seal off that part of me that wants to read happy stuff,
forsake beauty,
reveal truth only if it hurts,
sink into the lowest parts of my psyche for the sake of everyone else's
even though I would rather rise with the higher parts of me for the sake of
myself,
surf and surfeit on the brutality of humans who've forsaken themselves,
bury my brain in oppression,
stay alert for contraindicated optimism,
perch on the sharpest railing of every stairway,
gather garbage in order to contemplate its complexity and odor,
and encourage others to do all these things in the name of . . . . . . .
a better world.
Cheers!
Judy
In his great children's story The Thirteen Clocks, James Thurber has a
character, a kind of wizard, called the Golux. He helps the nice Hero who
marries the nice Princess at the end. Discussing his qualifications for the
job, the Golux tells the Hero that he (the Golux) had great hopes of being
Evil when he was young, "but one day I encountered a firefly trapped in a
spider's web. And I saved her." The Prince is touched but for some reason
asks, "The firefly." "The spider!" snaps the Golux. "The blinking arsonist
had set the web on fire."
The point of the story is that there is hope.
|