"To the Censors" by Jan Luoma - poem defending Intellectual Freedom

Don't tell me what I cannot read,
The Color Purple, or perhaps Candide.
Don't tell me that The Grapes of Wrath
will lead me down some obscene path.
Or perhaps you believe The Catcher in the Rye
is nothing but an implausible lie.

Don't take the books I adore,
Of Mice and Men or The Chocolate War.
And then there's Beloved or perhaps Christine,
the great Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
I know you banned And Tango Makes Three,
because it's not about a "normal" family.

Don't take my books down off the shelf,
no, not Chris Crutcher or Sylvia Plath.
Or perhaps you thing we should conceal
the truth about Anne Frank that her diary revealed?
Nor should we dream or understand
of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.


There are many more books that I must note,
Death of a Salesman and The Crucible,
The Call of the Wild and Arabian Nights,
The Martian Chronicles and Athletic Shorts.
There's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ulysses too,
and Joseph Heller's satire, Catch 22.

The list goes on, there is no end,
to all the books you think will offend.
Whether they conform to your ideas or not,
when reading a book, we learn a lot.
So whenever you think it's time to heed,
stop and remember, it's our right to read!