Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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A poem about greed, laziness, and betrayal of the big idea. Written and performed by Alex Sheremet in the ario poetic form.

A note on the ario form: Bruce Ario (1955 – 2022) was a Minneapolis poet who created the “ario” poetic form, a 10-line poem with 3 stanzas of 3 lines each, concluding with a final line that inverts that which preceded it. For more information, check out our video, ArtiFact #35: The Life & Times Of Bruce Ario: youtube.com/watch?v=ycAD9s57Re8

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Background footage from Rob Reiner's "This Is Spinal Tap": youtube.com/watch?v=O0MGZTdcgx8

Tags: #shorts #poetry #money #poem #art

Text of poem:

THOUGHT OUR FILM WOULD SAY IT ALL

And then some scumbag wanted money for the footage
Of my friend. Well, HIS friend, as a fact
Was a ponderer's poet, while he cannot

Think. Well, he IS thinking
Of himself, bobbing down a perfect sea
Storm loosened from the surface

Of our lens. Guess which had a brain
Injury and you'd guess wrong. Say CHEESE
Bitch! Or that's what HE did at any rate

Offered. Not even poets deserve riches.