Reposting from Dispassionate Doubt.
My crank goal is to write
poetry banned
in Southern USA states,
especially mine,
a few up north;
Russia,
China,
and every country
in Islam.
Find me
on the Catholic Church
shit-list so only Bishops
and Cardinals may
read my magic without sin.
May they touch themselves
with impure thoughts. May I
make a Baptist want a martini.
I want the ghost of Spiro Agnew to
haunt my poems as blatant
anarchist propaganda that threatens
to sap our national strength,
(unlike criminal conspiracy,
bribery, extortion, and tax fraud).
I want priests, rabbis, and mullahs
to denounce my freedom
five times every day from
their pits of pull on up to
minareted gravelly loudspeakers.
Let me be the de Mello or Merton
of modern skeptical letters. Bless me
with the censorship of weak minded
control freaks. May the young
bogart tabooed copies of my posey
into secret unsanctioned rooms.
Damn me to literary dungeon-hood
till the cows come home
and the ravens
overtake Capistrano.
Let sweet Jesus find me
one toke over the line, sitting
in a downtown railway station,
eyes opened, hoping
the literal reality freight train
is on time.
Let them hate me
for my
country mile honesty
about reality.
Gloss: In the first line (title), Crank in the sense of having or expressing feelings of joy or triumph.
Agnew was investigated for those crimes (and subsequently resigned as VP of the USA), but that is essentially what he had to say about the song, One Toke Over the Line (which was also banned).

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Extra: Yeah, right. If you wanna hear from a couple old folk rockers (older then I), and the story of their one hit, the video is not high quality and about 7 minutes, but not bad. I watched the video of the Lawrence Welk Show number they mention being sung. The ironic humor is beyond great and they agree.
Amen! Honesty works for me.
Thanks for the video, too ๐
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2022 and it still happens. Interesting to see a couple of old boys still singing a song almost fifty years later.
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Yes, it does. And yes, the old boys still got it ๐
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Yes, with this one, I, too will enjoy with a martini. ๐
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Glad you liked it, Kathrine.
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Watching the LW version. They didn’t change the beat at all, and yet it works as a spiritual.
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Yep. They had no idea at the time. ๐
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Now, that sounds like a life plan. Thanks for reposting, Bill.
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Thanks for the read and the comment, ๐
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Saw these guys open for Blood, Sweat, and Tears, in the capitol of the Old Dominion when I was but a youngin’ –thanks for the vid and that poemin’ manifesto.
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Nothing makes me want a thing more than to be told I can’t have it. ๐
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