I see the end says from Boring, Oregon. I grew up there. Always had to tell people it’s a place not a state of mind. I lived in. More rural area not very close actually. But when I was growing up our address Route 1 Box 502, Boring, Oregon.
Amen, brother. Amen. Your powerful poem from the past helps me recall my own contribution to the H.G. Wells time machine capsule.
I read the following poem, a dark satire, some time in the mid-Seventies at a reading in support of world peace at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Half way through my reading, some guy in the front row suddenly jumped up, pointed a finger at me and shouted "Death to all Jew haters!" and then stormed out. I admit it rattled me a bit and I think I reacted like Jack Benny's character playing Hamlet in the 1942 black comedy, "To Be Or Not To Be", when he paused a moment in disbelief as he watched a patron walk out in the middle of his soliloquy.
After I had finished reading my poem, there was the usual polite applause. But as I was leaving the stage, Cecil Williams, the progressive advocate and pastor of Glide (who died just last month), came up to me, took both my hands in his and said, "The truth never dies."
PROGRESS WAS MADE ON THE WEST BANK TODAY
terrorist or extremist
extremist or terrorist
it gets confusing if you think about it
so let's be sensible for a minute
a Palestinian terrorist
is certainly not the same as
a Jewish extremist
such labels are meant to be defined
for although both types set off bombs
and without much discretion
it is the terrorist
who causes fear and godlessness
while the extremist
promotes belief in a civilization
with advanced views
the separation here is crucial
and the opinion of the facts are plain
the terrorist bombs on the front page
the extremist bombs on page 12
this is done
so you can tell whose side
you're not on
--Paul Fericano. from "Commercial Break" (Poor Souls Press, 1982)
I see the end says from Boring, Oregon. I grew up there. Always had to tell people it’s a place not a state of mind. I lived in. More rural area not very close actually. But when I was growing up our address Route 1 Box 502, Boring, Oregon.
Amen, brother. Amen. Your powerful poem from the past helps me recall my own contribution to the H.G. Wells time machine capsule.
I read the following poem, a dark satire, some time in the mid-Seventies at a reading in support of world peace at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Half way through my reading, some guy in the front row suddenly jumped up, pointed a finger at me and shouted "Death to all Jew haters!" and then stormed out. I admit it rattled me a bit and I think I reacted like Jack Benny's character playing Hamlet in the 1942 black comedy, "To Be Or Not To Be", when he paused a moment in disbelief as he watched a patron walk out in the middle of his soliloquy.
After I had finished reading my poem, there was the usual polite applause. But as I was leaving the stage, Cecil Williams, the progressive advocate and pastor of Glide (who died just last month), came up to me, took both my hands in his and said, "The truth never dies."
PROGRESS WAS MADE ON THE WEST BANK TODAY
terrorist or extremist
extremist or terrorist
it gets confusing if you think about it
so let's be sensible for a minute
a Palestinian terrorist
is certainly not the same as
a Jewish extremist
such labels are meant to be defined
for although both types set off bombs
and without much discretion
it is the terrorist
who causes fear and godlessness
while the extremist
promotes belief in a civilization
with advanced views
the separation here is crucial
and the opinion of the facts are plain
the terrorist bombs on the front page
the extremist bombs on page 12
this is done
so you can tell whose side
you're not on
--Paul Fericano. from "Commercial Break" (Poor Souls Press, 1982)