PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

(for Kim)



As I walk through the bookstores of madness,

I hear the groans of the pompous minds,

begging from the pages of hard-bound volumes:

"Read me! Read me!"--

They terrify me with their endless reviews

and their immense heap of knowledge and they all

want to teach me something with their outpourings of

profundities--they are the experts,

the prophets of the New Age--with numerous

lists and titles--and they have all done readings and

lectures and interviews,

and they are all so very important,

I've seen them all in newspapers, magazines

and on the national talk shows, advertising their

latest masterpieces which have made

the New York Times Book Review

list of bestsellers...

There is something sickening about it all,

and I'm filled with tears as I look

at one of those glossy covers

of a book by some "great" author--

with OVER MILLION COPIES SOLD

written on it--

A million copies of what? I wonder

as I think of some stinking salesman of "love"

and "passion" in this antiseptic

world of coffee-drinking mannequins

who are up on every latest book...

No! Get it all away from me!

I'm suffocated by all the publicity,

by all the greatness, by all the prophetic visions

of some new social order--

I have no more insight than a dog urinating at

a fire hydrant--

I have no serious or controversial message

to relate to anyone anymore,

except that I love a girl who's

somewhat frightened by what I have to say

about human nature unless I say it

in some socially acceptable manner,

so I turned to this crazy business

of writing poetry just to say

that I love her.

                                

                   March 21, 1991