Here’s the next installment for 31 Days in Seuss. I’ll just say that I sure would appreciate some commentary, if only to let me know whether or not I should keep soldiering through this very difficult challenge. Is anyone reading this? Hello?
Also, again, if you’re participating in this Challenge with me and Ideas Man, PhD, please let me know so I can be sure to read (and link to) your entries!
MY HATE
Hate is a word I don’t use too often
Preferring instead those words that can soften
The things and people that make us perspire
With vitriol, disgust, venom and ire.
But since I’ve chosen to poetically rehearse
Those things that prompt me to feel love’s inverse
I’ll make an exception, just in this case
And tell of the hates I usually efface
Bigotry, prejudice, and postures sardonic
(I know, hating “hate” is profoundly ironic!)
But I simply cannot underestimate
My hatred of those who don’t tolerate
The difference that makes this world so enriched.
When I hear them, I become slightly unhitched
And can’t help but despise the haters that hate
And longingly plead that they NOT procreate.
Really, who needs more of that kind?
Their wills undisciplined, their minds unrefined,
They whine and they bind and they decline to sign
That precious social contract keeping us all intertwined.
I hate ignorance, too, thinking that is hazy
Principles based on a relativism lazy
And those who simply will not condescend
To defend their positions, who can’t comprehend
That a concept, or any ethical schematic,
Can never be totally idiosyncratic,
Theocratic, static, or stupidly automatic
And who can’t see why that’s so problematic.
If there’s one thing that stymies the spirit democratic
It’s a demos that’s thoroughly, blindly fanatic.
In smaller hates, I’ll note that I also dislike
The poetry of Beats, and Cognitive Psych,
Celtic music, tomatoes, capitalist elites,
Meetings where all that they serve is sweet sweets,
Scary movies, standstill traffic, and all things suburban,
People who look down their noses at bourbon,
Commitments for which I did not volunteer,
And bars that want to put fruit in my beer,
The people who never get up and dance,
Anything resembling those dumb capri pants,
Undercooked chicken and overcooked steaks,
Those who remind me of all my mistakes,
The smell of vanilla, the taste of champagne,
And any and every crime inhumane.
On reflection, I’ve more hates than I imagined at first
But at least they seem nicer when all rhymed and versed
Seuss-like, as was the call of this test.
Still, the list can’t help but make me a little depressed.
Tough assignment…Seuss & hate are two words that don't seem to go together. You quickly hit on an important point, though, and that is we'd all like to use gentler words and speak in more conciliatory tones, but once we start listing what we "hate," we find there are things we really do hate…or at least intensely dislike. Some of the things on your list raise my hackles by the way, as I would expect would happen if I made my list. Such is the way with the things we hate.
I'm sure a lot of followers (as myself) are enjoying your hard work on this blog. I'm doing it from Buenos Aires.
Hate, as you experienced it, in the last verses of your "poem", is a natural feeling just like love. What you do with it is what makes the difference. I'm sorry if my english wasn't good enough.
OK these are awesomely genius but the reason I have not commented is that the amount of work and energy it would seem to take is rather overwhelming and induces sensations of inadequacy.
Keep it up! 🙂