Schadenfreude Poem by gershon hepner

When about myself I’m feeling Schaden-
freude people say I need a shrink,
but I don’t think my failures call for pardon,
but for a singly malt we both can drink.
Let’s all deplore the stale convention that
it is success, of which I’m an avoider,
to which we should, applauding, raise our hat.
From out failures let’s get Schadenfreude,
getting pleasure from occasions when
we fail. Since God made us with feet of clay
He must have wanted us to know real men
should not when falling feel the least dismay.

Inspired the opening comments made by Neal Ascherson, in his review of A. S. Byatt’s “The Children’s Book, ” in the NYR, December 17,2009 (“Love in a Moment of Hope”:

About once in each century, the British allow themselves to hope. The humorous resignation slips away; the people described as the only nation to feel Schadenfreude about themselves feel that they can transform their lives; the air of a rainy springtime fills British lungs.

1/20/10