Why Do You Love the Poem? Charles Bernstein

 

Why Do You Love the Poem?

Charles Bernstein

For the sentiment. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the sentiment. For the message. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the message. For the music. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the music. For the spirit. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the spirit. For the intelligence. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the intelligence.  For the courage. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the courage. For the inspiration. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the inspiration.  For the emotion. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the emotion.  For the vocabulary. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the vocabulary.  For the poet. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the poet. For the meaning. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the meaning. For what it stands for. — Then you don’t love the poem you love what it stands for. For the words. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the words. For the syntax. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the syntax. For the politics. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the politics. For the beauty. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the beauty. For the outrage. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the outrage. For the tenderness. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the tenderness. For the hope. — Then you don’t love the poem you love the hope.  For itself. — Then you love the poem.

fourth-graders are now gay at a 12th-grade level

 U.S. — A recent study published by the American Federation of Teachers has revealed remarkable progress in educating America's youth. Notably, the study reports the nation's fourth-graders are now gay at a 12th-grade level.

This good news comes at a crucial time for the oft-criticized public education system, as it can now show that American tax dollars are actually being used effectively.

"Fourth graders with 12th-grade gayness is just one of the many positive results of public education," said AFT president, Randi Weingarten, "We're also seeing a rise in gender fluidity, trans-speciesism, and astounding progress in overt sexualization of kindergarten children."

Weingarten continued, saying public education's productivity in these categories would not have been possible without pioneering efforts from the lobbying of gay marriage activists, surreptitious injection of Marxist ideology in universities, and, finally, Republicans having no clue what's going on.

The press conference ended with a bedazzling show featuring half-naked drag queens letting fourth-graders put cash in their g-strings.

Evolution - this I know!

 Evolution - this I know!

Charles Darwin tells me so!

It's the strong against the weak!

Only Jesus loves the meek!

Yes, evolution!

Yes, evolution!

Yes, evolution,

For Darwin tells me so!

For a Coming Extinction BY W. S. MERWIN

For a Coming Extinction

BY W. S. MERWIN

Gray whale

Now that we are sending you to The End

That great god

Tell him 

That we who follow you invented forgiveness

And forgive nothing

I write as though you could understand

And I could say it

One must always pretend something

Among the dying

When you have left the seas nodding on their stalks

Empty of you

Tell him that we were made

On another day

The bewilderment will diminish like an echo

Winding along your inner mountains

Unheard by us

And find its way out

Leaving behind it the future

Dead

And ours

When you will not see again

The whale calves trying the light

Consider what you will find in the black garden

And its court

The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas

The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless

And fore-ordaining as stars

Our sacrifices

Join your word to theirs

Tell him

That it is we who are important