The Thirtieth Anniversary of Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week Thirtieth Anniversary
By Elton Camp
That some books are contemptible I must agree
But that’s not some fanatic’s call, but up to me
When books the government undertakes to ban
That type censorship can quickly get out of hand
Judith Krug of the American Library Association
Was, in 1982, responsible for the week’s creation
A “challenge” is a request some book be banned
Surprising ones have been subjects of this demand
Golding’s Lord of the Flies has seen banning tries
And To Kill a Mockingbird has been called unwise
Orwell’s Animal Farm has been said to bring harm
Since self-appointed censors satire does alarm
Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl is called unfit
By those who, in righteous judgment, try to sit
Even though Mark Twain was liberal for his day
Huckleberry Finn some have tried to put away
The American Heritage Dictionary was not fine
Because “objectionable words” it chose to define
Catch 22 and Salinger’s classic, Catcher in the Rye
To bring about censorship quite a few will still try
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 about censorship is one
That the “righteous” have put under the critic’s gun
Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath was once even burned
Because vulgar words the censor’s anger it earned
What gives others the right for them to try to decide
What books are unfit to read and then them hide?
Sex and violence the Bible often candidly tells about
For it to be banned will we someday hear that shout?
When bad about some writing a critic has said
It is likely that by a young person it will be read
Copyright © Elton Camp | Year Posted 2011
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