THE MORNING NEWS

Woodland Pattern's Poetry Marathon

this past Saturday. A fund-raiser of theirs every year at the end of January. Each poet brings in at least $25 in sponsorships, and gets five minutes to read. It is non-stop poetry from 1:00 p.m. until midnight. Quite a gathering of poets.

Mary and I went down to Milwaukee for my slot in the 3:00-4:00 p.m. hour. I read my "Get Your Jesus Wallpaper" poem, a little uncertain how it would be received, since it's not very nice to Christian fundamentalists. "Laughter at all the right places," Mary said afterward. When I finished reading the poem, I explained: "I wouldn't have had to write that, except we have criminals in the White House."

I also read a poem from Phil Hey's How It Seems To Me, "Harvest - New Style," and one from Mark Vinz's Long Distance, "Eighth Grade." I published both those books and wanted to call attention to them, for these poets should be more widely read than they are.

During the hour and forty-five minutes Mary and I were at the Marathon, I was surprised by how many of the other poets were unhappy with the current predicament of this country. Some of them were LOLITS* who write rhyming poetry; and it was clear they are not any happier about the direction this country is headed than I am. (I heard at least one of our LOMITS** read his work, too.) There was more anger and discontent in the room than I'd imagined possible, even considering that poets self-select to skew leftist-communist-pinko, you know. George W. has some answering to do to this group regarding the mess he's made of everything.

The final poet in my hour, Harvey Taylor, read a stinging indictment, then said: "That isn't the kind of poem I like to write; it's the kind of poem I have to write." He did go on to read some of the kinds of poems he likes to write.

I came away from the reading with reason to hope that this fall there will be a lot of Republicans put out of office. If we sweep out enough of the bastards, perhaps we can begin talking seriously about impeachment. Certainly Bush's crimes are far greater than playing house with an intern in the Oval Office.

I didn't raise any record-setting amounts this year in terms of sponsorship for my five minutes. We gave over a total of $250 when we signed in, money that will be used to support Woodland Pattern's programs for the coming year. The marathon is always a reminder for me of the important work that Woodland Pattern is doing; and it is an opportunity for me to contribute to the book center's continued success.

And it is an opportunity, sometimes, for me to vent my anger at Bush and his cronies.

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* Little Old Ladies In Tennis Shoes.
** Little Old Men In Tennis Shoes.

Comments

[MB]

Heaven's just a few dollars yonder
and we can take you, take you there.

Zing!

[Tom Montag]

Thanks, MB. I see you were listening!