
Easter is that liminal space
Outside Jerusalem on a hill
Expunging guilt for all our race:
Assent to it with heart and will.


Easter is that liminal space
Outside Jerusalem on a hill
Expunging guilt for all our race:
Assent to it with heart and will.


Ginsberg’s boomers ramble on
Micromanaging the muse
Inflicting on poetic crowds
Futile and postmodern views.
Born of crackpot meditation,
Formless poems, hippie dreams.
Useless psychedelia-lite:
Poetry as empty as it seems.
MFA meets beatnik-Buddha
(Lord, what fools these mortals be)
Fouling the Colorado air
Forcing on us weak green tea.
Punk-rock poetry is dull—
Neo-Buddhism much worse;
Please do not conflate the two
By bigging-up your boring verse.

Echoing footsteps, near Port Authority:
One bad decision enhanced by beer
Recalling the mishap in anteriority:
I needed a healthier dose of fear.
Clueless young wallet, easy prey
I bit at the apple of urban bait
I was her golden goose to waylay
All because Amtrak departed late.
What if the door had been locked in that hall?
What if the lady had used a knife?
I wish I could blame it on alcohol . . .
Thank God I escaped with my life.




HELLO POETRY is a user-friendly and uncluttered website. It is easy to comment and message other poets. It’s a sort of lyrical Facebook without the bells and whistles. They provide a count of how many views a poem gets over time. One never knows if these stats are truthful, or just algorithmic hype, but accepting the bean counters at face value, here are my ten most-read poems since I began posting at the site in 2015. They range, top to bottom (if one believes the stats), from 40K+ views down to 9K+ views.
John Greenleaf Whittier’s Snow-bound (1865) comes in at number one with 43K views.
