Archive of Poems Banned by America Online

The copyright to all poems included here is held by their respective authors


Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 08:48:57 -0400
To: stephenw@escape.com
From: Ismahan@aol.com
Subject: TOSsed Poems

Forwarded Message:

Date: Fri, Jan 5, 1996 10:24 AM CST
From: Poet Rebel
Subj: OneWldChld's TOS
To: Astralan

Subj:Well, whaddya know ...
Date 95-12-15 14:39:16 EST
From: OneWldChld
To: Enuftalk
CC: Poet Rebel, JaneOaks, Astralan, Amajo5
CC:InstiKafka, Carbure53, Babycat939, Tiobrad515
CC:Ismahan, LooseSox

Friends --

Check this out...I'm starting a slow burn...


Subj: posting
Date: 95-12-15 13:46:08 EST
From: THopeB
To: OneWldChld

Hi there,

This posting was in the "Cuisineart Corner XXVI" folder on the Poetry
Corner message board. It's been removed because of vulgar/profane language
("fucked") and sent to the appropriate Terms of Service department.

Tracey, Writer Club
---------------------------------
Subj: Chop this, please!!!
Date: 95-12-11 13:41:09 EST
From: OneWldChld
Posted on: America Online

Here's one fresh off the keyboard....in dire need of surgery...hope I don't
get TOSsed.

THE WAR (*this is the unrevised ed. -- OWC 12-15)

Outside kids are playing stil
in the cold glow of a streetlight,
waging war on time
fiercely fighting night.
Snap and freezeframe to black
rewind my whole life back
to days gone by,
years long outta sight
I remember when
minutes were long
the future, my friend ...
seems a long time since then.
Thought it's good to be alive
nothing's the same now
since dreams I had died
along with my pride....

Funny how this house
just isn't a home...
Fucked up, fucked with
left to fend on my own
down backstreets
and alleys
of a soul left alone....
tatters of skin
fragments of bone.

Outside all the kis
have packed up for the night
the streetlamp's burnt out,
now well past twilight...
Screen dorrs screech shut
down the neighborhood, but
the war's not lost, not quite.

OWC


My first official TOS....I'm so proud of me. Y'know what's really funny?
They yank a good piece with the word "FUCK" (oops, twice) and the damed
piece doesn't even make the slightest reference to fucking....whereas I've
posted steamier, seamier, lustier and lewder material that hasn't even raised
an eyebrow. Riddle me this...

Has anyone on here been offended by this word and the usage thereof??? I
never received a post on the board or a letter in my mailbox. If so, I
apologize profusely. What a F***ing joke....

Astralan, sir...if you desire a sharp-tongued Sergeant at Arms...let me
know...I'll send you my resume...

Yours,

OWC

*********************************

Forwarded Message:

Date: Fri, Jan 5, 1996 10:24 AM CST
From: Poet Rebel
Subj: Carbure53's TOS
To: Astralan

Subj: Fwd:TERMS OF SERVICE
Date: 95-12-17 17:41:17 EST
From: Carbure53
To: Poet Rebel

Trina....you're involved in this war, eh!!! good little soldier!...at
Astralan's request, here is my TOSssss for "Spoons".....dummo what you're
gonna do with it, but there it is....also, what's CCA (or something like
that)?...Stan said Ishould join....I'm not much of an activist, much of a
pacifist....HOpe you are well and in god spirits....Love...Marie

In a message dated 95-11-30 14:23:08 EST TOSBoards1 writes:

<<Subj: TERMS OF SERVICE
Date: 95-11-30 14:23:08 EST
From: TOSBoards1
To: Carbure53, Fun40frch

Dear Member:

As this mail has been sent to all of your screen names, you may have already
read it under another screen name. If so, please disregard this copy.

We have received a copy of a messge that you posted in one of our message
boards. As this message violates our Terms of Service, we would like to
remind yo that these terms prohibit harassment, vulgar or sexually oriented
language, discussion of illegal activities, conducting commercial business,
and any other activity that may impair the enjoyment of our members.

We have placed a note of this incident on your account history and consider
this a first warning. We suggest that you do not undertake such activities
in the future, and we also suggest that you read the Terms of Service by
going to keyword "TOS". If you have any questions or comments regarding this
situation, please feel free to write.

Regards,
ANTHONY
Terms of Service Staff
America Online, Inc.>>

Trina .... this was for : "spoons"

Spoons Cuillere

Your ass, Ton cul
Your stupid ass, Ton cul
stupide,

To my hanging belly: Contre les
rides De mon ventre;

The warmth Le confort
Of spoons D'la
cuillere

Unfucked On baise
pas
we sleep. On dort.

11/17/95


****************************

Subj: Disappearing poems
Date:95-12-17 09:57:33 EST
From: Dr swan
To: Poet Rebel

This one got pulled from insane asylum (2) with no THopeB Note OR TOS
warning. Just vanished.

Outta Horn

Did I ever tell you how I was there
the night Trane ran outta horn ?
Ther he was onstage

his sax hangin around his neck
screamin into the mike
beatin on his chest
and everyone was flippin out on it

Well, it was the night I ran outta words, too,
that's probably why I remember it so well.
It was ten, eleven o'clock, and I'd been hustling rent
and paying piper all day down at the Blue Bell,
and who can even think of writing
after ten hours of BLTs, hold the mayo, bad tips,
and all that, but I was a poet, after all,
and even though my dogs weren't just barking,
they were baying at the fucking moon,
I got me a cuppa instant, switched on the lamp,
and sat my ass down to write. But when I open my notebook,
my God, what do I see ? Turds! I'm not kidding !
Page after page of them. Feces, excrement, shit,
you can call it what you want. Fuck ! I mean,
just that morning there had been stanzas, titles, metaphores,
even rhyme and meter ! (Remember, it was '66.
We still slept with our dogeared copies
of New Poets of England and America
beneath our pillows, hoping to be imbued as we slept
with exquisite quatrains of deft ironic restraint.)
But damn ! Where was that clever trope on "umbrage"
I was working out? Or that line where "sticks" so subtly evoked
both Charon and the Rose of Sharon?
I even flipped to an empty page
and tried to rewrite "...oh sticks of flowering
thorn, riverman..." but black blobs
of feculent ink kept oozing onto the page,
and I sprang up beating my chest
and screaming that I was nothing but
a big goddamned digestive tract
all mouth, stomach, dumb intestines
taking stuff in one end
and shitting it out the other
like some blind earthworm squirming all over the page
and I probably even threw some slim vloumes
at the wall, it gets a little dim at that point,
but the next thing I know, my old man,
he slipping me a five spot
jut to get me outta the house, outta
his hair. No, I could dig it, it was cool,
I can still feel how the January air
slapped my burning cheeks
as I fell into the street, it was like
Bogie slappin' some sense
into some hysterical borad

and so I proceed uptown into the icy wind
and end up in this jazz joint,
way in back because it's so crowded,
and it takes me half and hour to get to the bar
for a Miller High Life which cools me out enough
to realize it's Trane, and

he's playin like
the most far out incredible music
you ever heard, man

and then he's banging on his chest and screaming
just like I was before,
except there's no shit here, man, anywhere,
and this guy's outta horn because he's played it all,
every last possible and impossible note,
and now the fucking horn is as empty
as a golden Nirvana hanging there on his chest
and with all the smoke in the joint
it looks like he's standing on a cloud
all scoured out by that god that's been passing
through him and outta the horn all these years.
an now he's ready to go on back up to heaven
where he blongs, and me,
I'm ready for the outhouse or the diarrhea ward
at Bellevue or worse,
and six or seven Millers later somehow I'm waking up
next ot my old man, the alarm clock's making a bad pun
on Blue Bell, where they're waiting for me
for their eggs over easy and a side of toast
an I'm thinking about how I need
a new notebook, pens, and that if Trane
can run outta horn
maybe I'm never gonna run outta anything
quite like he did
but I sure as hell can try to run outta shit.

11.25.95

******************************

--------------
Forwarded Message:

Date: Sun, Jan 7, 1996 6:03 PM CST
From: Poet Rebel
Subj: I was TOSsed/pulled/ts
To: Astralan

Think I sent this, but just in case:
Subj: Poet Rebel: Post - Silence - "Original Poetry" Folder
Date: 96-01-04 11:28:30 EST
From: BENEDICK1
To: Poet Rebel

Hi Trina -

I have removed the following post from the above library. Our policy here at
The Zetigeist is not to accept posts that discuss the goings on on other
bulletin boards or from other information providers.

If you wish to repost the poem portion of this post, please feel free to do
so.

Benedick1
Afterwards Host
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subj: Silence
Date: 96-01-04 01:55:02 EST
From: Poet Rebel
Posted on: America Online

Silence
~~~~~
I cannot hear the wind today.
No cricket sings sweet melodies.
Birds are silent in the trees.
The reeds are quiet bent.

I feel cement beneath my feet,
wait patiently for an echo
that never comes.
Children do not laugh or call
as they play.
Traffic passes
without a screech, honk
or motorized hum.

At the cafe on the corner,
the band's vibrations
jar my bones
in silent air.
I want a particular song --
feeling it will be enough --
but the ink of my note fades;
I have no way to ask for it.

The waitress looks expectant,
lips never part.
My mouth moves
issuing mute words.
I must point to my choice, but
pages have been torn from my book.

Fireworks light the sky,
no familiar bang follows,
and I wonder who
celebrates this deaf world?

Soundless sobs wrack my chest.
I would give anything
for a bit of noise ....
the chirp of a cricket,
serenade of a bird,
laughter of children, or
at least,
the words to make it happen.

(c) 1995 Trina

***************************


Is this a TOS? No matter, I feel it's censorship of SOME form.

--------------
Forwarded Message:

Date: Thu, Jan 4, 1996 10:28 AM CST
From: BENEDICK1
Subj: Poet Rebel: Post - Silence - "Original Poetry" Folder
To: Poet Rebel

Hi Trina -

I have removed the following post from the above library. Our policy here at
The Zetigeist is not to accept posts that discuss the goings on on other
bulletin boards or from other information providers.

If you wish to repost the poem portion of this post, please feel free to do
so.

Benedick1
Afterwards Host
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subj: Silence
Date: 96-01-04 01:55:02 EST
From: Poet Rebel
Posted on: America Online

Silence
~~~~~
I cannot hear the wind today.
No cricket sings sweet melodies.
Birds are silent in the trees.
The reeds are quiet bent.

I feel cement beneath my feet,
wait patiently for an echo
that never comes.
Children do not laugh or call
as they play.
Traffic passes
without a screech, honk
or motorized hum.

At the cafe on the corner,
the band's vibrations
jar my bones
in silent air.
I want a particular song --
feeling it will be enough --
but the ink of my note fades;
I have no way to ask for it.

The waitress looks expectant,
lips never part.
My mouth moves
issuing mute words.
I must point to my choice, but
pages have been torn from my book.

Fireworks light the sky,
no familiar bang follows,
and I wonder who
celebrates this deaf world?

Soundless sobs wrack my chest.
I would give anything
for a bit of noise ....
the chirp of a cricket,
serenade of a bird,
laughter of children, or
at least,
the words to make it happen.

(c) 1995 Trina

Please, don't let this happen to our world. A folder has been started in The
Writer's Club (keyword: Writers, click on message boards, list topics, The
Poetry Corner.) The folder, WWIII, is there. It is an ongoing
discussion/debate regarding freedom of speech and AOL's TOS policies. We
have formed the Creative Coalition on AOL (CCA) to request that AOL provide a
TOS-free area for artists to post their works. This area, we are requesting,
will be under Parental Control so parents can block children from entering if
they wish.

I am inviting you all to join CCA and/or to enter the debate in WWIII. For
information or to join CCA, please e-mail me or CCA MEM. Please, don't let
this world become a silent one.

Trina Stolec

*****************************

Date: Thu, Nov 30, 1995 8:09 PM CST
From: Enuftalk
Subj: Fwd: TERMS OF SERVICE
To: Proctor20

As you can see, no explanation for the specific violation was given, though I
expect it was for the War posting of half-cocked.

love,
Carrie.

--------------
Forwarded Message:

Date: Thu, Nov 30, 1995 1:19 PM CST
From: TOSBoards1
Subj: TERMS OF SERVICE
To: Our Corner, Enuftalk, SS Patrol9, Briglight

Dear Member:

As this mail has been sent to all of your screen names, you may
have already read it under another screen name. If so, please
disregard this copy.

We have received a copy of a message that you posted in one of our
message boards. As this message violates our Terms of Service, we
would like to remind you that these terms prohibit harassment, vulgar
or sexually oriented language, discussion of illegal activities,
conducting commercial business, and any other activity that may
impair the enjoyment of our members.

We have placed a note of this incident on your account history and
consider this a first warning. We suggest that you do not undertake
such activities in the future, and we also suggest that you read the
Terms of Service by going to keyword "TOS". If you have any questions
or comments regarding this situation, please feel free to write.

Regards,
ANT
Terms of Service Staff
America Online, Inc.

and here is the poem:

Half-Cocked

I need to be with you again
feel your lean, hungry body next to mine..
if only for a moment,
if only in some stolen time.

I want to suck your cock.
I want to make you beg for mercy..
cry out, "God, don't stop!"
then not release you, even when you come.

I want to feel your need
against the torment of my flesh.
I want to bite it, make it bleed,
then comfort it against my heaving breast.

I want to take your pain..
etch it in the cold stone of your heart.
Make you wonder for eternity
just what the blazes ripped our lives apart.

Carrie. 8/95

*******************************

Date: Fri, Nov 10, 1995 9:13 PM CST
From: THopeB
Subj: posting
To: Astralan


This posting was in the "Freedom Writers Unite" folder on the Poetry Corner
message board. I've given you the benefit of the doubt re postings through
e-mail warnings. However I cannot believe that you would not know this
posting violates Terms of Service; it's been sent to the appropriate TOS
department.

Tracey, Writers Club
*****************************
Subj: True meanings......?
Date: 95-10-15 02:11:06 EST
From: Astralan
Posted on: America Online


isa suggested I post this here.....as requested.

word murder

fuck is a four-letter-word
so is love
so is hope
and duty also has four letters.

cunt is a four letter word
as is hurt
as is maim
and kill also has four letters.

cock might just pass
as might dink
as might dick
and shit -- it just happens.

piss is not quite acceptable
nor is tits
nor is fart
but you can stab
or poke
or beat
upon any heart.

so here's the list
for all to see:
fuck
love
hope
duty
hurt
maim
kill
cock
dink
dick
shit
piss
tit
fart
stab
poke
beat

Just for fun, now
read them all
and make for me
a list of which you see
as being dirty.

Astralan/Stan

*****************************

Date: Fri, Nov 10, 1995 9:34 PM CST
From: THopeB
Subj: posting
To: Astralan


This posting was in the "Freedom Writers Unite" folder on the Poetry Corner
message board. Do not post any message that contains vulgar/profane
language. Go ahead and repost if you like, but without the profane language.

Tracey, Writers Club
***************************
Subj: The big question
Date: 95-11-02 22:39:21 EST
From: Astralan
Posted on: America Online

An open letter to America OnLine


Well let's see.......the world's biggest lies....

The check is in the mail....

I'll love you forever......

This is just a cold sore.......

I promise not to come in your mouth.......

You'll get over it in time........

AOL's street sweeper does not discriminate and eliminates two folders a day
according to the amount of use.

Now I can live with that first lie...we all get short at times.

I can live with the second lie....it's good to hear, no matter how untrue.

I can live number three as long as the teller eventually gets their just
deserts....having their organs ripped out and eaten while they watch might
suffice.

Number four is never meant, never really believed, and doesn't hurt anyone.

Number five eases the pain some when it's too intense to handle.

Number six.....well, now. Let me see. When you spend about three hundred
dollars a month to subscribe to an on line service that is often a total
joke....response time of a constipated turtle... underpinnings so slight that
it cannot begin to handle the subscriber load.....changes made without much
regard to whether they will be acceptable to the people who keep the
corporation alive....and just general anemia (the iron in the blood turns to
lead in the ass), one comes to expect and live with a great deal of mediocre.

But when that same *service* (personification here please) tells you a damned
lie repeatedly....don't you have to wonder what the hell is going on and who
is afraid to say what it is?

We are told in the AllOverLacking introductory that folders are eliminated
two a day according to *least* usage.

How about this......

Poemas folder.................................86 posts in a year and fifteen
days....
Last posting
10/7/95......still open
Inspirational folder.....................92 posts in about 13 months.......
Last posting 10/22/95 ...still
open
Poetry Mag folder........................100 posts in 13 months.............
Last posting
11/2/95...........still open
Insanity folder..............................142 postings in 18 months
Last posting
10/28/95......still open
Love Poems................well hell! There has to be at least one of these.
118 postings in 14 months
Native American folder.............140 postings in 12 months
Last posting 10/28/95
Abuse..................................................225 postings in 2
years and 2 months
Last posting 11/2/95

Any one of the folders above would have been eliminated at least 12 times if
the damn lie we are told was the truth.

So, the question.....Is this stupid corporation that is so greedy for our
dollars lying to us for fun, for profit, just because we don't mean shit to
it, or just because it can get away with it?

And the people who perpetuate this lie....do they really believe us all to be
morons with attention spans of traffic lights?

I have seen folders containing beautiful poetry just disappear (ChanSuChinII)
(Silver Lipstick). I have seen folders with controversial subjects disappear
(the Penis folder) (fill in your best remembered folder here). This has
happened when the above mentioned folders were more active than any of those
listed at the beginning of this letter.

So, after spending my $3,600 on AllOverLacking this last year, I want the
answer to just two questions.....Who the fuck is making making these
decisions? And why does the company persist in their damn lie?

Open Mike:

Say what you think below.

Astralan/Stan

*****************************

Date: Fri, Nov 10, 1995 8:39 PM CST
From: THopeB
Subj: posting
To: Astralan


This posting was also in the "your black eyes beguile" folder on the Poetry
Corner and has been deleted for the same (vulgar/profane language) reason.

Tracey, Writers Club
***************************
Subj: Number Forty
Date: 95-10-28 12:17:13 EST
From: Astralan
Posted on: America Online

Ismahan, your black eyes beguile.....40

God forgive me!

I had forgotten this part.

The rushes of pure feeling.

The colors in your cunt.

The taste of silken hair

The touches of a nipple tight

Forgive me......please forgive

my not remembering

the glory of you....

the delight

of black, beguiling eyes.


(c) Stan Crooks

*******************************

Date: Fri, Nov 10, 1995 3:06 PM CST
From: THopeB
Subj: posting
To: Astralan


Stan,

Please remember that Terms of Service apply to the message boards.
This posting was in the "Paynegod and works" folder on the Poetry Corner
message board. Do not post any message that contains vulgar or profane
language. Any TOS violation that post-dates this e-mail will be sent to
Terms of Service.

Tracey, Writers Club
******************************
Subj: I am underwhelmed.........
Date: 95-11-05 13:03:44 EST
From: Astralan
Posted on: America Online


There comes from out the dark and stormy night...usually just once in a
lifetime....a talent so bright and wondrous it behooves us all to bow in
homage.

Accordingly, and recognizing that nothing I ever write will have substance or
meaning after having been in the light of a talent so great as yours, O
PayneGod, I leave my homage below.

If only I could bring to their knees
lovers of poetry such these
you have attracted here, O God Of Payne
but my powers seem to be on the wayne
and I only seldom now can get
and older woman or wet nymphet.
Sloshing organs and bouncing tits
are the place: the at, where it's.
And all I find in other folders
is solitary, lonely, organ holders
There is no joy in Mudville now
nor in any other town, I vow.
You have won the gashes and the slits
of every poetess with really big tits
and all that's left to me and the rest
is hearts and minds and subsidiary organs (not the best)
I bow to you, O God Of Payne, and admit
I have never seen this poetry shit
done so well.
O Hell
I guess I'll have to quit.

Astralan/Stan

How'd I do, Swannee?

*****************************

there is more.

isa.