Arising from Bean Newton's exposure to self-help books after his third hospitalization for clinical repression, the series of poems from which these are excerpted show an influence of the pseudo-philosophical, pseudo-zen approach so popular in that genre from the 1970s forward. Newton's poem is both homage and spoof, I suppose, but it penetrates deeply into the both the self-help idiom and the facile truth it contains. -- E.W. Wilder
Bean Sélavy
In the men's room at the place I work, there are two urinals. One was built by a genius, and it is beautiful, singular. The other was built by an idiot, and it is artless and crude. When I pointed this out to a friend, he exclaimed with some astonishment, "But they look just the same!"
"Yes," I said, "they do. But I interpret them differently."
The Jolly Bean Giant (Ho-Ho-Ho) - Or A Piece of Advice
Never yell to a giant while he's striding through the air over your house "Hey! You Giant!" or he'll tear the shit out of the place.
I have a feeling our current fear of giants has come from idiots who yelled this.
I'm glad the old, yellow metal shed I hid in took the blow so well as it fell back to Earth.