d.a.levy
from PROSE: on poetry in the wholesale
culture & education system
now poetry is business
& now the revolution!
is turning on to art,
& the full efforts of the
revolution will be to
save the word motherfucker
from extinction…
& it doesnt matter where
you’re consciousness is,
the people in power
have needs so great
they’ll kill you to express
their inability to become
human ——
it is safe to become a telepath
if you live with people
who reach out & touch
each other gently
and if you do not own
so many things
you have to be able
to give your things to people
who think love is owning
things,
to people who think
education is the answer
to loneliness
...
the power struggle is so we
can live & love
& the mysticism is the
changes we go thru trying
to do it & survive
it makes you wonder if
its worth owning life
or is it, just another
possession?
i dont know
poetry seemed like such
a good idea
a way to communicate
pretty pictures
or to see things that exist
now. but the people want blood.
mysticism - i wanted to write
poems about things & i didnt
want to bleed in public
you see, its something like
this - everytime i write a
poem - im afraid - when
i’m dead it will sell
& some other poet will
starve because no one will
buy his poems
& i’m afraid
that someday people will
all read poetry
& not try to live it
sort of like christianity
or buddhism or any
religion
& reading to any audience
is like being led to a
slaughterhouse
to be asked questions
and know, if you had
an answer
it wouldnt be heard
...
& you want to understand
the “mystical process”
that lets people hear
what they want
& why they never hear
you when you try to
say you had to beg
money to print yr poems
or beg money to travel
to where ever you are
reading from & it hurts
something inside you
when you have to feel
like a beggar in an
affluent society ——
they dont even give poets
welfare since poets are
healthy enough to work
& so it goes on & on
the mystical coarseness
the dying flowers of
words, we have to find
a better way to commun-
icate, maybe making
poets tax deductible would
lure in money ——
i think any money you give away
any thing you give away should
be tax deductible - then students
could give away their education
& save a lot of money
& students should be able to
declare bankruptcy upon
graduation
& poetry should not
be just for poets ————— the
people who make guns do
not go hungry.
culture & education system
now poetry is business
& now the revolution!
is turning on to art,
& the full efforts of the
revolution will be to
save the word motherfucker
from extinction…
& it doesnt matter where
you’re consciousness is,
the people in power
have needs so great
they’ll kill you to express
their inability to become
human ——
it is safe to become a telepath
if you live with people
who reach out & touch
each other gently
and if you do not own
so many things
you have to be able
to give your things to people
who think love is owning
things,
to people who think
education is the answer
to loneliness
...
the power struggle is so we
can live & love
& the mysticism is the
changes we go thru trying
to do it & survive
it makes you wonder if
its worth owning life
or is it, just another
possession?
i dont know
poetry seemed like such
a good idea
a way to communicate
pretty pictures
or to see things that exist
now. but the people want blood.
mysticism - i wanted to write
poems about things & i didnt
want to bleed in public
you see, its something like
this - everytime i write a
poem - im afraid - when
i’m dead it will sell
& some other poet will
starve because no one will
buy his poems
& i’m afraid
that someday people will
all read poetry
& not try to live it
sort of like christianity
or buddhism or any
religion
& reading to any audience
is like being led to a
slaughterhouse
to be asked questions
and know, if you had
an answer
it wouldnt be heard
...
& you want to understand
the “mystical process”
that lets people hear
what they want
& why they never hear
you when you try to
say you had to beg
money to print yr poems
or beg money to travel
to where ever you are
reading from & it hurts
something inside you
when you have to feel
like a beggar in an
affluent society ——
they dont even give poets
welfare since poets are
healthy enough to work
& so it goes on & on
the mystical coarseness
the dying flowers of
words, we have to find
a better way to commun-
icate, maybe making
poets tax deductible would
lure in money ——
i think any money you give away
any thing you give away should
be tax deductible - then students
could give away their education
& save a lot of money
& students should be able to
declare bankruptcy upon
graduation
& poetry should not
be just for poets ————— the
people who make guns do
not go hungry.