Ani Difranco Self-Evident poem
On September 10 Ani Difranco’s new album will be released. The album features Self-Evident which reverts back to the classic Ani stand-up, poetry style. It’s an excellent piece. I’m posting a live rendition of this poem for anyone interested in checking it out. Ani Difranco - Self-Evident (live in Bloomington)(right click >Save Target) Click Read More below to read the lyrics to Self-Evident.
self evident - by Ani Difranco
yes,
us people are just poems
we’re 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it’s part of a pair
there on the bow of noah’s ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please
and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky
and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i’ve seen so far
so far
so far
so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
over ‘oh my god’ and ‘this is unbelievable’ and on and on
and i’ll tell you what, while we’re at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that’s been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk’s plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there’s ash on our shoes
and there’s ash in our hair
and there’s a fine silt on every mantle
from hell’s kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour
so here’s a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq
el salvador
here’s a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore
here’s a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman’s voice
here’s a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner’s guillotine
who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream
cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don’t take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he’d deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever
and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i’ve got no room for a lie so verbose
i’m looking out over my whole human family
and i’m raising my glass in a toast
here’s to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face
give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll
yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
so it’s time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else’s desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever
cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall
and while we’re at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn’t even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?
can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!
it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody’s face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn’t have a clue
look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole’s passion play
so now it’s your job
and it’s my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn’t die in vain
sshhhhhh….
baby listen
hear the train?
19 Comments, Comment or Ping
I heard Self evident for the first time yesterday and I fould myself in tears to actually know that there are actually ppl out there who have the same views that I do about 9/11. I am south afican…I too share the views she has.
I am an ani convert…thank u Ani.
Sep 13th, 2002
whew!!! i have heard self evident a couple of times on wmnf radio here in tampa bay florida, but on the morning of sept 11th i was driving to work at the pinellas park public library in the pouring rain and yet when randy wynne played the live performance i had to pull over to the side of the road to catch my breath and listen closely…..ani, you are a goddess…..bless you….the giraffe meaphors and the realistic politics (george bush did not win the election and amerika has been strutting for a century never saying thank you and never saying please…etc etc etc….i am 53 and still have my 60’s ideals…..i could go on forever….i posted that poem to many of my e-mail correspondents and have had positive feedback…..the area where i live has had mucho flag waving god bless amerika type crap….fortunately we also have wmnf radio to give us a different view…..and thank the sun, moon and stars for ani difranco……..love & peace, john jago
Sep 13th, 2002
it rocks…..and rolls!-my eleven year old can’t stop quoting it and i sooooooooo want to share it with my 7th graders but have to be oh so careful………..
Sep 18th, 2002
I LOVE YOU ANI! I can never get enough of Ani, she is so incredibly talented. This poem took my breath away…So true..im glad that there is someone else out there who has the same view!
And the way that she recites..so heart felt you can tell Ani is a true poet!
Rock on girl!!!
Oct 14th, 2002
i have been listening to ani for years. and for years, i have been enjoying her poetry in all forms. it always just gets better and better.
“self-evident” is perhaps one of the most poignant things i have ever heard in my life. is we can all just whisper a little, every one of us, maybe we can all be heard when the sound of our voices merges in synergy. ani’s words are the drums beating for us to rise up and protest the tyranny; not just for ourselves but especially for those who have no means of defense, our children of this world. this goes for all the world’s children, no matter how many times they may have been around the sun.
Oct 15th, 2002
I have never heard such a load of overwrought drivel in my life.
Oct 16th, 2002
This was an amazing poem I shared with my Lit. class after 9/11. It gave everyone another veiw of what happened, and that was greatly needed after the media had fed them the answers our govn’t wanted them to hear.
Oct 21st, 2002
“the media is not fooling me”
Ani is amazing, and Im happy to know Im not alone in the things that I think.
Oct 26th, 2002
It’s so nice to hear someone says what I’ve been saying for the last year. Thank God for someone in the public who was willing to speak the truth about our messed up “government”.
Oct 29th, 2002
I cried when I heard this poem, because I lost my hero. Ani difranco is the reason why I write, and for the week after I heard “self evident” she was the reason why I didn’t write. More suprising than Ani’s disrespectfelness is that people will continue to blindfully follow her like we always do. Ani difranco used to say whatever she felt regardless of if it pissed people off. Now she just says things to piss people off. She is so left wing she’s left the room! I can’t believe that ani of all people saw this as anything but 3,000 inocent people dying, instead she took advangtage of her influence to spew anti-american words and blame this on our politics! They didn’t attack our politics they attacked us, including her! This was about people dying! Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters! Not about a presidential election. I love how you all follow her because she’s saying something no one else “has the guts to say”, but that’s just because she’s the only one who hasn’t realized what a tragedy this is. She says the opposite of what everyone else does becase she needs some sort of reaction. I will never buy another Ani Difranco albumn. If anyone’s capable of pushing the envelope off of the table it’s her. I used to hang on her every word, because she seemed to be fighting FOR us, now she’s attacking us. I wonder if any of those 3,000 were as big an Ani fan as I once was. I wonder how they’d feel about her now. “I know I should be mature, keep my feet on the floor, but for some reason, I just can’t take you anymore.”
Nov 11th, 2002
They attacked us because of our politics. The poem plainly describes anger toward our government, our politics. As someone who has lost several people in the WTC, I do not find this to be disrespectful to the lives of those lost in that tragedy. I find it disrespectful that our government won’t give us the details of what provoked such an atrocity.
I find it disrepectful that the world shows no empathy to all the lives that have been lost before Sept. 11 and after Sept. 11, not only Americans, but all civilians that have been used as pawns for political, govermental gains.
The idea that people only delve into one side of a story is naive and disrespectful on it’s own.
Nov 11th, 2002
Tomorrow i’m going to deliver ani’s poem to my speech class. I’ll let you know how my class responds. I want to thank everyone for thier responses above—agreeing and opposing….this is exactly the kind of dialogue we need, and unfortunately are lacking right now–which is deadly. Don’t stop communicating and reading everything…all sides, even the shit that isn’t printed on the front page.
ani, thank you for the inspiration. sincerely.
Nov 18th, 2002
Tomorrow i’m going to deliver ani’s poem to my speech class. I’ll let you know how my class responds. I want to thank everyone for thier responses above—agreeing and opposing….this is exactly the kind of dialogue we need, and unfortunately are lacking right now–which is deadly. Don’t stop communicating and reading everything…all sides, even the shit that isn’t printed on the front page.
ani, thank you for the inspiration. sincerely.
Nov 18th, 2002
What an excellent subject to deliver to an entire class. The best way to try to continue prying open people’s minds is to keep trying. Communication is the key to everything. Although many people disagree with this particular poem, as many people disagree with the state of foreign policy, it’s pertinent that everyone hear EVERYTHING. Not just what’s on your front page and what your government continues to feed a nation that hears nothing else. Let me know how your speech went.
Nov 19th, 2002
I don’t think Ani Difranco is forgetting that 3,000 people died. I think this poem is very compassionate about that loss. I think she is looking at why it happened and how the U.S. is involved. There’s two-sides to everything. The terrorists don’t just randomly hate us. Our government has done things to harvest that hate. I don’t agree with this poem 100%, but it is interesting and thought provoking. When someone says something you find hard to hear, your reaction shouldn’t be “I’ll never listen to this person again!” Instead you should be thinking about why you don’t like it and where that person disagrees with you. Obviously, April, Ani has been a big source of inspiration to you. Why give that up just because she has said one thing you don’t like? No one is perfect.
Mar 19th, 2003
your page is inspirational
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Feb 6th, 2004
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Feb 28th, 2004
Genius hath electric power which earth can never tame.
May 2nd, 2004
Anyone can learn from pain.
May 3rd, 2004
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