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Recorded Reading (2:11): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3ysxygu0c381qlqcfo4by/Fringe-Benefits.mp3?rlkey=cqhejmybwxbw0x4pi36zyepr9&dl=0

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Fringe Benefits

Ralph Waldo Emerson was most upset
Because his friend Henry David Thoreau
Would not consent to from his cabin get
And to some major seat of learning go

Ralph’s admiration for philosophy
Thoreau about civil resistance wrote
He felt would benefit humanity
If but authorities its tenets note

He could not comprehend the benefit
To self and others brought shy Thoreau by
Burying self amid the woods with it
The sole publicity he cared to try

Thoreau, however, stayed right where he knew
His Muses spoke, and he in peace could hear
The messages they whispered him unto
And visions to his inner eyes appear

Well, good it be for us that so he did
He left us young, tuberculosis by
Had he relocated as he was bid
Likely still sooner would have come to die

It happened that an isolated script
Of his words on nonviolent protest
Found itself in the literary crypt
Of a small college in the British west

Accepting applicants from India
One later notable was Gandhi named,
Introduced there to academia
By this obscure manuscript was inflamed

With inspiration for his future fame
With the oppressed and the impoverished —
That single tiny, isolated flame
Had set a fire as big as could be wished

Nor ends yet its influence in the life
Of every one of this world’s citizens
On Gandhi’s calm example midst dread strife
The Rev’rend King’s life ministry depends

And more: the newer generations of
Who clearly see the benefits of love

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Homeless until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ this poet presently lives under perpetual threat of towing with all possessions should her 23-year-old van stop running for any reason.

She is badly in need of a modest reserve with which to field any emergency which might occur.

Donors may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S. It does take several days for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

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