Smiles Poem by gershon hepner

Smiles

Rating: 5.0


A frown that greets a thought becomes a noose
which, pulled, will strangle all unstiffened styles,
but when you loosen up you can reduce
the risk of ruining a thought with smiles.

Adam Gopnik writes about E. M. Cioran in The New Yorker, June 19,2000 (“The Get-Ready Man: The civilizing power of thinking in French”) . E. M. Cioran was a Romanian writer who died in 1995. He moved to France in 1937, and wrote anti-Semitic propaganda that supported the Iron Guard in Romania. In 1944, he started to study French and wrote his first book in French, “Précis de Décomposition, ” in 1949, transformed by the three “F’s” more powerful than Wilson’s four: fornication, food and French. His books are now read because of their aphorisms, like: “Every thought should recall the ruin of a smile, ” “There is a God at the outset, if not the end, of every joy, ” “Skepticism is the elegance of anxiety” and “A civilization evolves from agriculture to paradox”. He once said: “It is just possible to imagine God speaking French, but never Christ. His words do not function in a language so ill at ease in the naïve or the sublime.”

6/25/00,2/11/09

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Marieta Maglas 09 November 2009

the risk of ruining a thought with smiles. 10

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