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How to Create an Enemy by Sam Keen

Discussion in 'Lounge' started by #1 fan, Feb 21, 2011.

  1. #1 fan

    #1 fan Well-Known Member

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    Dec 20, 2007
    miami
    Does anybody recognize this poem? Or if there is any significance behind it?

    I'm asking because this poem recently turned up in my mail box at work. It was only the poem, with no name attached and it's creeping me out.

    I teach literature at a university, so it's not uncommon for me to recieve poems in my mailbox. However, this came with no name, and there is no assignment that would call for something like this.


    How to Create an Enemy by Sam Keen


    Start with an empty canvas
    Sketch in broad outline the forms of
    men, women, and children.


    Dip into the unconsciousness well of your own
    disowned darkness
    with a wide brush and
    strain the strangers with the sinister hue
    of the shadow.


    Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed,
    hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as
    your own.


    Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
    Erase all hints of the myriad loves, hopes,
    fears that play through the kaleidoscope of
    every infinite heart.


    Twist the smile until it forms the downward
    arc of cruelty.


    Strip flesh from bone until only the
    abstract skeleton of death remains.


    Exaggerate each feature until man is
    metamorphasized into beast, vermin, insect.


    Fill in the background with malignant
    figures from ancient nightmares – devils,
    demons, myrmidons of evil.


    When your icon of the enemy is complete
    you will be able to kill without guilt,
    slaughter without shame.


    The thing you destroy will have become
    merely an enemy of God, an impediment
    to the sacred dialectic of history.
     
  2. #1 fan

    #1 fan Well-Known Member

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    Dec 20, 2007
    miami
    Ok, its from a coworker. Nevermind.
     
  3. Tone_E

    Tone_E Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    That's not a poem....it doesn't rhyme. :shifty:

    Glad you squared that away though, it would have made me uneasy if I received something like that anonymously as well.
     
  4. I was thinking someone had a crush on you :lol:
     
    NaboCane likes this.
  5. Conuficus

    Conuficus Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Well away from here
    Send another poem to everyone you know:

    Roses are red, violets are blue, I got your little poem smartass and f you too.


    :lol:
     
    Tone_E likes this.
  6. Bumpus

    Bumpus she is calm, she is beautiful, she is ...

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    Creepy.

    Good idea, though. I could see me sending this anonymously. :lol:
     

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