Thanks, Dad, for the bedtime story. Now I can go to sleep in peace and with
hope.
The Spider Princess
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick Pollack" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 11:34 PM
Subject: Re: Lynndie England / evil in poetry
> ----- 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.
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