Friday, March 20, 2009

Taylor Mali on Poetry



There was an ill-fated period in my life when I attended a lot of poetry readings of this sort, and yes, pretended that I liked them. That is, after all, what you do when you're a 19-year-old English major at a liberal arts school attempting to prove that you're intellectual. After suffering through numerous monotone readings populated by a room full of people with thoughtful looks plastered on their faces--could they really care about this guy's traumatic childhood and subsequent pretentious musings on life and death, I still wonder to myself--I appreciated this dude's gentle mockery.

After perusing some of Taylor Mali's other stuff on youtube, I also discovered this hilarious bonus video on political poetry. Again, funny because it's so, so true, and particularly hilarious to me because I am (bizarrely?) such a sucker for passionate political songs/speeches/poetry at all times.

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1 comment:

Dr. John Maszka said...

White, Straight Male in a “Feminist’s” World
By
John Maszka

Once again, she ignores me—calling on everyone else, just not me.
She waits for someone else to speak…Anyone at all; as long as they’re female or gay or a different color than me. Even when she acknowledges me, she tells me to wait and then never allows me to speak.
I don’t know why I even try.
I’m invisible and yet still, she targets me with isolation.
She’s obviously very angry,
Her passive-aggression gives her away.
“Did you have your hand up?” She asks the others but never me.
“Do you have something to add?” Words I’ll never hear. Not here anyway.
My opinion is not welcome.
My offense has nothing to do with what I’ve done, and everything to do with what I am.
I’m a white male—
And heterosexual too!
I might as well be a leper!
“Unclean!”
Ostracized by the “feminist” who claims to champion the unempowered
but she uses her position of power to oppress and silence.
Her thin veil of hypocrisy, yellow like her teeth, barely conceals her cowardice.
Are you the “son of a Swan?”
or the abandoned offspring of a harpy?
The goddess Diana resents your name.
You preach about ethics, but look what you do.
You’re not a feminist, you’re a liar—and the worst kind…
pretending to be a victim as you wipe the blood from your lips.

March 20, 2009 at 5:24 PM

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