'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.

This poem was first published on poetrysoup.com to celebrate the banned books week.

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