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03-16-2002, 12:12 AM | #1 |
Punisher of Good Deeds
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 183
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Poem (Ani di Franco/September 11/Flame)
Hey.
This is not for everyone. Obviously, political slant will be heavily attributed, and people will rapidly claim that this is yet another leftist artist thoughtlessly betraying America for the sake of being different. If it succeeds in provoking at least *some* thought, however, the artist succeeds. And that's all she wants, right? Provoking thought? Ani di Franco wrote a poem, still a work in progress, which she has been reciting at recent concerts. The Robot Wisdom weblog called it 'incendiary', and it's hard to disagree. The third stanza is where the criticism becomes more lucid, whereas the final passage is clear in its simplicity and sorrow. No, this is not for everyone. [Link and full text below] http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/poem.html === yes, us people are just poems we're 90% metaphor with a leanness of meaning approaching hyper-distillation and once upon a time we were moonshine rushing down the throat of a giraffe yes, rushing down the long hallway despite what the p.a. announcement says yes, rushing down the long stairs with the whiskey of eternity fermented and distilled to eighteen minutes burning down our throats down the hall down the stairs in a building so tall that it will always be there yes, it's part of a pair there on the bow of noah's ark the most prestigious couple just kickin back parked against a perfectly blue sky on a morning beatific in its indian summer breeze on the day that america fell to its knees after strutting around for a century without saying thank you or please and the shock was subsonic and the smoke was deafening between the setup and the punch line cuz we were all on time for work that day we all boarded that plane for to fly and then while the fires were raging we all climbed up on the windowsill and then we all held hands and jumped into the sky and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar looked more like war than anything i've seen so far so far so far so fierce and ingenious a poetic specter so far gone that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on and i'll tell you what, while we're at it you can keep the pentagon keep the propaganda keep each and every tv that's been trying to convince me to participate in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution perpetuate retribution even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution is still hanging in the air and there's ash on our shoes and there's ash in our hair and there's a fine silt on every mantle from hell's kitchen to brooklyn and the streets are full of stories sudden twists and near misses and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters with tales of narrowly averted disasters and the whiskey is flowin like never before as all over the country folks just shake their heads and pour so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine afghanistan iraq el salvador here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors who daily provide women with a choice who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city just to listen to a young woman's voice here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now awaiting the executioner's guillotine who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads to find peace in the form of a dream cuz take away our playstations and we are a third world nation under the thumb of some blue blood royal son who stole the oval office and that phony election i mean it don't take a weatherman to look around and see the weather jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks and boy did he ever and we hold these truths to be self evident: #1 george w. bush is not president #2 america is not a true democracy #3 the media is not fooling me cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation i've got no room for a lie so verbose i'm looking out over my whole human family and i'm raising my glass in a toast here's to our last drink of fossil fuels let us vow to get off of this sauce shoo away the swarms of commuter planes and find that train ticket we lost cuz once upon a time the line followed the river and peeked into all the backyards and the laundry was waving the graffiti was teasing us from brick walls and bridges we were rolling over ridges through valleys under stars i dream of touring like duke ellington in my own railroad car i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches in a grand station aglow with grace and then standing out on the platform and feeling the air on my face give back the night its distant whistle give the darkness back its soul give the big oil companies the finger finally and relearn how to rock-n-roll yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets and clear the air get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand of someone else's desert put it back in its pants and quit the hypocritical chants of freedom forever cuz when one lone phone rang in two thousand and one at ten after nine on nine one one which is the number we all called when that lone phone rang right off the wall right off our desk and down the long hall down the long stairs in a building so tall that the whole world turned just to watch it fall and while we're at it remember the first time around? the bomb? the ryder truck? the parking garage? the princess that didn't even feel the pea? remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D? can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?! it was a joke, of course it was a joke at the time and that was just a few years ago so let the record show that the FBI was all over that case that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face and scoping that scene religiously the CIA or is it KGB? committing countless crimes against humanity with this kind of eventuality as its excuse for abuse after expensive abuse and it didn't have a clue look, another window to see through way up here on the 104th floor look another key another door 10% literal 90% metaphor 3000 some poems disguised as people on an almost too perfect day should be more than pawns in some asshole's passion play so now it's your job and it's my job to make it that way to make sure they didn't die in vain sshhhhhh.... baby listen hear the train? 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03-16-2002, 12:30 AM | #2 |
Person who doesn't update the user title
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Interesting. Ani has always marched to her own drumbeat though.
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03-16-2002, 05:38 PM | #3 |
Resident Denizen
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 61
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It's still sort of shocking for me to hear something other than the Party Line regarding 9/11. It's hard to walk that line between criticizing some of our government's actions in the wake of it and being apologetic for the attackers. Or to try to mention some of what may have made folks want to do such a thing to the US and being apologetic for the attackers.
I've lately found myself in a bit of a crunch. After 9/11, I found that for a while I was very much along with most other folks in regards to their feelings about "bomb afghanistan, let's do this thing." etcetc. Lately, however, I've become more and more ticked off with what's being done in the name of preventing something like this from happening. I may be just reading too much into things, but it seems like too many people in this country are okay with giving away some of our freedoms for a police state, just so that this doesn't happen again. 'Course, that's just how it's appeared to me. While the deaths of 3000 people are a horrible thing, I can't help but feel that they're being abused by those in power in order to gain more power and to go off into other tangents. Now what's going on, we're talking about invading Iraq? *sigh* I thought we were going to go in and take out Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and that's about 75% to done. Instead, we're turning the War on Terrorism into a much worse version of the War on Drugs. There's no possibility of ever having an end date, so we'll basically just be in a state of war all the time. Seems like soon no one will be able to speak up against it, lest they be accused of offering aid to the enemy. And the worst part is most americans seem to be swallowing the idea, hook line and sinker. Gulp. It's cliche and it's been trotted out before, but I can't help but draw similarities between this and "1984." Constant state of war and the rapid changing of enemies. I have the feeling that one we go into Iraq, bin Laden will be forgotten. We have a new enemy for the masses to support their leader in defeating! Hooray! Ugh. ... Apologies for my rant. I've been drinking for St. Paddy's for the last 5 hours, and in a little bit I head out for another few hours of imbibement. Hopefully I can at least stir up something, though, with the rest of you folks that are celebratin'. sapienza |
03-17-2002, 05:15 AM | #4 |
whig
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 5,075
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sapienza was is peace after all.
hmmm, intersting line, but as poetry, its pretty average =p
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03-18-2002, 10:53 AM | #5 |
Professor
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,788
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Just another leftist artist using 9/11 as a vehicle for her own political views.
(not a vice limited to leftists, of course) |
03-18-2002, 10:59 AM | #6 |
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Commonly abbreviated in "net-lingo" as
<b>JALAUSEAAVFHOPV (NAVLTLOC)</b>. |
03-19-2002, 05:30 AM | #7 | |
Punisher of Good Deeds
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 183
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Quote:
Hang on for a moment. That's a truism. So what you're saying is that the socio-political shockwaves set off by important event would be seen in a political light? What? Ah. Stating the obviously self-evident. I see. Let's not think too much about the repercussions of such issues. Let's smile and let the governments do their difficult job. After all, that's what we elect them for, right? Right? X. |
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03-19-2002, 01:55 PM | #8 | |
Professor
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,788
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Quote:
However, when someone uses 9-11 to push views on issues such as the 2000 election (above), computer hacking (Congress), bringing God back into the country (Falwell, I believe), gun control (abortive attempt by HCI), or other such things, I think that's mere opportunism and not a genuine attempt to re-examine issues in a new light. It's an attempt to use the event as some sort of talisman which wards off opposition. |
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04-15-2002, 07:22 AM | #9 | |
"I may not always be perfect, but I'm always me."
Join Date: Dec 2001
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Quote:
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"Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are some moments when it must be taken." ~Tagline from the movie "Amistad"~ "The Akan concept of Sankofa: In order to move forward we first have to take a step back. In other words, before we can be prepared for the future, we must comprehend the past." From "We Did It, They Hid It" |
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