Video of the Week: "Underwear" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Since the fall out from the failed Christmas Day airline attack by the underwear bomber continues to reverberate within the beltway (see here, here and here), I thought Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s "Underwear" poem might come in handy. He writes, "don't get emotional... don't shout.... " Video is from SpokenVerse:

Don’t be deceived

It’s all based on the two-party system

which doesn’t allow much freedom of choice   

the way things are set up   

America in its Underwear

struggles thru the night

Underwear controls everything in the end

[…]

There won’t be no real revolution

And poetry still the underwear of the soul   

And underwear still covering

a multitude of faults

in the geological sense—

strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!   

If I were you I’d keep aside

an oversize pair of winter underwear   

Do not go naked into that good night   

And in the meantime

keep calm and warm and dry

No use stirring ourselves up prematurely   

‘over Nothing’

Move forward with dignity

hand in vest

Don’t get emotional

And death shall have no dominion   

There’s plenty of time my darling

Are we not still young and easy

Don’t shout

Full text of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem is here.