Of the rich who play at art
in their rich retired homes
Of the powerful who play at peace
in what are pre-war times
Of the healthy men who quote
trite anecdotes to sick
Of the presidents whose precedent
is kindness-killed-by-Dick
Of the sober in the streets
who’ve never bought a drink
whose pride is in their medication
offered up by shrinks
Of the suited men in galas built
for raising funds for poor
impoverished by the gala-builders’
chain of panty stores
Of the popular en masse
who call out every ass
by spreading words that land like turds
in stockings on Christmas.
Of the winningest and best
who dominate the rest
whose every advantage upon the earth
is offered from above
these are the ironies
these are hypocrisies
these are the demons men speak of.

---

 

about the 54 poems written at 27 ::

 

After much deliberation, I decided to keep the whole tradition of doubling my age and writing that many poems in a year. You’ll notice that April Thirtyish has already passed, so I’m late in posting. I’ve gotten about half of them written and will begin posting this week.

I started this whole mess with 46 poems written at 23, most of which are still up on the site and many of which are awful. Those poems I wrote because I read somewhere that the best age for poetry is 23. I was turning 24 and had an existential crisis.

Then I got over it.

Suddenly I was 25 and thought, “Why not do it again?” So I doubled my age and wrote 50 poems at 25. Again, most of these are still on the site and I’m proud of one or two of them.

Now I’m twenty-eight and it’s almost a principle, almost an undeniable fact of life. When the wild Lancelot is in his native habitat and his age is in an odd year, he will be secreting poetry. I do this because poetry is important, because we must take an active role in the creation of new language or else our language dies.

That means I must write, I must learn how to create better poems even if I’m awful at it — everyone must because the fate of our culture’s at stake. For me, this year, that’s 54 poems at 27.

So I’ll schedule these suckers out and give it a go. Follow along with the category 54 @ 27.

---

image by Eugenia Loli

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