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    Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: Poems
    Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: Poems
    Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: Poems
    Ebook88 pages32 minutes

    Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: Poems

    By Paul Vermeersch

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    About this ebook

    It is the Third Millennium. The 20th century is a memory. Humans no longer walk on the moon. Passenger planes no longer fly at supersonic speeds. Disinformation overwhelms the legitimate news. The signs of our civilization’s demise are all around us, but hope is not lost. In these poems, you will find a map through our dystopia and protection from all manner of monsters, both natural and human made. Only the products of our imaginations — buildings and movies, daydreams and wondrous machines — can show us how to transform our lives. Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy is a survival guide for the Dark Age that lies ahead.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherECW Press
    Release dateSep 4, 2018
    ISBN9781773052175
    Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: Poems

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      Book preview

      Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy - Paul Vermeersch

      Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy

      Poems

      PAUL VERMEERSCH

      for Bianca

      Being human is itself difficult, and therefore

      all kinds of settlements (except

      dream cities) have problems.

      Jane Jacobs

      Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed,

      but nature does not depend on us.

      We are not the only experiment.

      R. Buckminster Fuller

      Contents

      1

      The Country of Previous Enthusiasms

      The Country of Previous Enthusiasms

      Without Architecture

      Without Agriculture

      Without Transportation

      We Were the Sentinels

      The Thought That Counts

      The Used Future

      The Imaginary World Is Preparing for a Revolution >

      The Prophets Want to Know If They Were Close

      2

      Don’t Wait for the Woodsman

      Grendel’s Mother

      The Modern Novel

      The Wilhelm Scream

      The Vanishing Point

      Liberty Warning Series #1

      The Modernist Canon

      Tinnitus

      Don’t Wait for the Woodsman

      3

        Rhymes for Nuclear Children

      Doctor Doctor Oppenheimer

      Hide Away, Anne

      Enola Gay

      Jack’s Car

      Neil Flew to the Moon

      First Centaur in Space

      America Has Everything

      Hush

      4

      Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy

      On Being Wrong

      Bad at Flowers

      Immortality

      Liberty Warning Series #2

      Blue Lobster

      Standing in Front of Antlers Mounted on a Wall so It Looks Like They’re Growing from Your Head

      The Failure of the Human Body as an Art Form

      Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy

      5

      Extinction Schedule

      The Buzzing Is Incessant

      Motel

      Detroit

      There Sure Are a Lot of Sirens Tonight

      Long Pig

      Ideal Workforce, Fig. 1

      The World Is so Difficult to Give Up

      Extinction Schedule

      The Birthday Chamber

      6

      Leviathan

      The Animals We Imagine

      My Friend Can Imitate Pretty Much Anything

      The Monument

      Liberty Warning Series #3

      Repeat After Me

      The Constellationification Effect

      How to Protect Yourself from Monsters

      Leviathan

      Notes

      Acknowledgements

      About the Author

      Copyright

      1

      The Country of Previous Enthusiasms

      The Country of Previous Enthusiasms

      The grandeur of their Expos was familiar:

      their pastime was commuter rail departing

      from geodesic spheres, and grand arches built to span—

      if only allegorically—disparate ideals.

      The elders of our nation found it quaint.

      Their designers were philosophers. Ours,

      engineers. In their country, with its globular buildings,

      and lanky, finned automobiles, the people

      might have been happier, but we

      have more efficient use of space.

      They would chat with their neighbours about

      such bric-a-brac, and visit their landmarks

      in eager groups. When they finally reached

      the age of shortage, overcome by harsher facts,

      their assimilation was all but certain.

      There could be no treaty. It isn’t just

      the Apollonian need to set things square.

      There was always so much waste, even in the way

      they walked. Our incursion was immaculate.

      We are a decent people who only wish

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