I originally came upon this poem when I saw it on the album cover of the "Mott" album by Mott The Hoople. That was over thirty years ago and it has been stuck in my brain ever since. It is a terrific way to view the work of making change.
A Sane Revolution
If you make a revolution, make it for fun,
Don't make it in ghastly seriousness,
Don't do it in deadly earnest,
Do it for fun.
Don't do it because you hate people,
Do it just to spit in their eye.
Don't do it for the money,
Do it and be damned to the money.
Don't do it for equality,
Do it because we've got too much equality
And it would be fun to upset the apple-cart
And see which way the apples would go a-rolling.
Don't do it for the working-classes.
Do it so that we can
all of us be little aristocracys on our own
And kick our heels like jolly escaped asses.
Don't do it, anyhow, for international Labour.
Labour is one thing a man has had too much of.
Let's abolish Labour, let's have done with Labouring!
Work can be fun, and
men can enjoy it; then it's not Labour.
Let's have it so! Let's make a revolution for fun!
- D. H. LAWRENCE
1 comment:
I saw it on that Mott the Hoople album too when I was but a lad, and remembered only the words; not the author or title. It wasn't until my later, decades later, when I was able to google it, that, that I found it again.
Vive la Révolution!
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