Denial Poem by gershon hepner

Although maniacal denial
makes people seem to be a fraud,
with optimism it’s a style
that causes people to applaud.
If pessimistically you should
admit your weaknesses you merely
confirm what they already would
have known. That’s if they love you dearly,
for if they don’t, why bother with
denial? No one cares the least
if what you say is true or myth,
not even rabbi, preacher, priest,
for all men want to hear from you
is words that do not make them sad,
some happy words that, though untrue,
ad glibbed, should make them feel more glad.


Dave Itzkoff writes about Amy Poehler in the NYT, March 18,2007 (“Please Don’t Tell Her She is Funny for a Girl”) :
Ms. Poehler is especially good at impersonating powerful women like Senator Clinton (“I like her quiet fury, ” she said) , but she also has a soft spot for precocious children like the actress Dakota Fanning and an overstimulated preteenager named Kaitlin, a character she created with Emily Spivey, a writer on the show. “When I was that old, I was a little wound up myself, ” Ms. Poehler said. “I like that age, where you’re not quite into boys yet and really think you can be an astronaut, a teacher, a doctor and a roller skater. That girl and I live in the same world.” Some of that affection is being channeled into “The Mighty B, ” an animated series Ms. Poehler is producing for Nickelodeon in which she provides the voice of the title character, a girl she described as “superoptimistic and a super spaz.” Grown-up fans can also see her in the forthcoming Will Ferrell comedy “Blades of Glory, ” in which Ms. Poehler and her husband, Will Arnett, play a brother-sister figure-skating duo who share a mysterious if undeniable friction.“She’s funnier than most dudes I know, and she sort of demands that people don’t look at her as a funny lady but just as a funny person, ” Mr. Arnett said. “She’s able to command that.” Ms. Poehler is reluctant to dwell on any aspect of her success for too long, for fear of convincing herself that she doesn’t actually deserve it. “You have to be in a state of cautious optimism and egomaniacal denial at the same time, ” she said, laughing off a momentary lack of confidence. “Believe you belong there, and then go home every night and feel like a fraud. Isn’t that how comedy works? ”


3/18/07