mohollyweird

Flux posted this poem a while back & I love the fucking thing. I figured it could come in handy if you decide to make a habit of being a good samaritan/superhero. Every other stanza is supposed to be italicized starting with the second.It didn't transfer via cut/paste and I'm too lazy to do it.


"After Experience Taught Me..."

After experience taught me that all the ordinary
Surroundings of social life are futile and vain;

I'm going to show you something very
Ugly: someday, it might save your life.

Seeing that none of the things I feared contain
In themselves anything either good or bad

What if you get caught without a knife;
Nothingeven a loop of piano wire;

Excepting only in the effect they had
Upon my mind, I resolved to inquire

Take the first two fingers of this hand;
Fork them outkind of a "V for Victory"

Whether there might be something whose discovery
Would grant me supreme, unending happiness.

And jam them into the eyes of your enemy.
You have to do this hard. Very hard. Then press

No virtue can be thought to have priority
Over this endeavor to preserve one's being.

Both fingers down around the cheekbone
And setting your foot high into the chest

No man can desire to act rightly, to be blessed,
To live rightly, without simultaneously

You must call up every strength you own
And you can rip off the whole facial mask.

Wishing to be, to act, to live. He must ask
First, in other words, to actually exist.


And you, whiner, who wastes your time
Dawdling over the remorseless earth,
What evil, what unspeakable crime
Have you made your life worth?

W.D. Snodgrass.


[Edited on Nov 14, 2004 9:09AM]

Congratulations Mo. You are the new sobriety group owner. You can apply to be a member or the Group Owners Group with clara. If you want a short rundown of what to do and what you can do I'll email you. But email me first so I have you correct adress. Thanks and good luck. Dick.