Poetry vs Money

Money: printed on paper. Poetry: printed on paper.

Money: a form of exchange. Poetry: a form of exchange.

Money: can’t eat it. Poetry: can’t eat it.

Money: based on both the value of the commodity and the credibility of the promise to redeem it for the commodity. 

Poetry: based on experience, perception, intellect, feeling, & fire. 

Money: the more you have, the more you need more of it.

Poetry: the more you have, the more you need more of it.

Money: everybody worships it.

Poetry: everybody hates it.

Money: acquiring it is difficult & requires a lot of aggressive behavior to maintain it.

Poetry: writing it is difficult & requires a lot of aggressive behavior to get people to read it & hear it.

Money: can be pulled out of the air at any time by the Federal Reserve Bank.

Poetry: can be pulled out of the air at any time by anyone with an affinity for language.

Money: buys power, politicians, sex, drugs, private islands, & cultural influence.

Poetry: buys nothing, has limited influence, & walks around on eight legs building webs & sticky metaphors.

Money: big demand, limited supply.

Poetry: no demand, infinite supply.

Money: responsible for wars, famines, oppression, crime, income inequality & technological solutions that make things worse.

Poetry: raises the intellect, disdains easy solutions, questions everything, reverses logic, subverts authority, promotes loitering & daydreaming, enriches the enigma that is existence, responsible for visions, religions, & drug addiction. It doesn’t make things better, or worse; it just makes things bigger, fleshier, wetter, intensified, cockeyed, codified, magnified, bona fide, occupied, stratified, amplified & glorified.