My Cradle Was A Shoe.

It's An Attitude Of Superiority. We Are Superior To The Rest Of Life. The Book Of Genesis Says: 'increase And Multiply And Have Dominion Over The Birds Of The Air And The Animals And So Forth.' You Run It; It's Yours; Do What You Like With It. I Don't Know How Old That Text Is, But It Represents An Attitude That Probably Really Got Going With The Beginning Of Agriculture. Before That, The Hunter-gatherers Were Gentler People Than The Agriculture.

My Cradle Was A Shoe.

To Succeed [,] Consider What Is As Though It Were Past, Deem Yourself Inevitable And Take Credit For It. If You No Longer Believe, Enlarge The Temple.

The Divine Comedy Is A Political Poem And When You Say Poetry Is Not About - He's Always Quoted Out Of Context, That "poetry Makes Nothing Happen," That Doesn't Mean You Shrug Your Shoulders And Don't Try To Make Anything Happen. And Dante Felt That Poetry Was Engaged, There Was A Point Of View; It's Not My Point Of View, It's Orthodox Medieval Christianity, And I Have My Troubles With That. He Didn't Feel That You Could Just Rule Out So Important A Section Of Life - We Care About These Things, And It's Out Of Caring About Them That We Write Poetry.

The Attempt To Live That Way, The Attempt To Treat Everybody - It Fails All The Time - But The Attempt To Treat People As Equals Is A Good Attempt. It's A Very Good Attempt. And There Have Been Very Few Governments That Have Come Anywhere Near It In The Past. The Greeks Began To, The Romans Began To - They Both Failed.