I stand by what I've written, so up yours.

So--here's the series of events as I see it. I posted a poem on January 10, 2013, one inspired by an essay by Wendell Berry. On January 11, 2013, just one day after my post, Mr. Berry spoke at a Baptist college conference and came out in favor of fair treatment of gays, including the right of gays to marry. Soon after the report of Mr. Berry's speech made the rounds, conservatives (religious and political) immediately distanced themselves from Mr. Berry, afraid (I suppose) of catching some germ that would turn them into homosexuals. (Why, in the accompanying photo above, is Mr. Berry surrounded by so much "wood"? is this a subliminal message?) Many of the arguments made against Mr. Berry focused on his supposed mental state. Comments such as "he's gone crazy," it was his "Grandpa Simpson moment," he's "off his rocker," he's "lost it," summed up the substance of the logic against Mr. Berry.

I have come to suspect that this entire reaction is a hidden anti-poetic agenda against my poem. So here, in front of Gawd and ever-body, on this blessed day of January 18, 2013, I publicly come out and say . . . I stand by my poem as written.