Everybody's trying to make us
Another century of fakers


Maurício Nogueira Lima, Rhythmic Object 2 (second version), 1953

Poems by Kenneth Patchen:

The Way Men Live Is a Lie

The way men live is a lie.
I say that I get so goddamned sick
Of all these pigs rooting at eachother's asses
To get a bloodstained dollar-Why don't
You stop this senseless horror! this meaningless
Butchery of one another! Why dont you at least
Wash your hands of it!

There is only one truth in the world:
Until we learn to love our neighbor,
there will be no life for anyone.

The man who says, 'I don't believe in war,
But after all somebody must protect us'-
Is obviously a fool-and a liar.
Is this so hard to understand!
That who supports murder, is a murderer?
That who destroys his fellow, destroys himself?

Force cannot be overthrown by force;
To hate any man is to despair of every man:
Evil breeds evil-the rest is a lie!

There is only one power that can save the world-
And that is the power of our love for all men everywhere.



A Vision for the People of America

The poets with death on their tongues shall come to address you.

The fat nonsense will end.
You will drown in your rot.

The poets with death on their tongues shall come to address you.

The slimy hypocrisy will end.
You will go down in your filth.

O the poets with death on their tongues shall come to address you.



What There Is

In this my green world
Flowers birds are hands
They hold me
I am loved all day

All this pleases me
I am amused
I have to laugh from crying
Trees mountains are arms
I am loved all day

Children grass are tears

I cry
I am loved all day
Everything
Pompous makes me laugh
I am amused often enough
In this
My beautiful green world

There’s love all day