Watch the ‘poets’ guzzling booze
grinning enviously (they never refuse)
the book being launched has a title that is easy to wear
‘Sonnets from Spooky Silent-Sessions with my Snakeskin Teddy Bear’
Rebecca Frost is calling the poets to order
switch off your cellphone & personality disorder
tonight’s dreamy poet reads like a Pope-on-Tour
a trendy-sonnet Pope rhyming ‘Teddy Screams for More’
and next up to set gums on verbiage heaving
Stopping By Joe Woods On A Snowy Evening
So, if you go round to Joe Woods tonight
be sure of a big surprise
if you drop into the launch tonight you’ll never believe your eyes
for every poet that ever there was, will whine before they wine
because today’s the day the poets are having a book launch
The congregation sit devoutly, the poet barks and stands quite stoutly
Becky Frost’s presence controls the scene
you dare not talk, nor act obscene
‘Tonight’s poet will be happy to sign what will
become a collector’s item: each book is so fine.’
All drink up cheer and talk so loud
except for Frost’s Ex—a well-behaved crowd
in arrives another late comer
he won’t buy a book: what a bummer
with hand-on-chin, rehearsing a line
he avoided the reading and only wants wine
he’s an Eng. Lit. Minor-Major Poetry-Trasher
the proverbial book launch crasher.
‘Who’s he?’ the back row ask. ‘Him?’ Becky replies, ‘I know that fink
he’s editing The Little Book of Printer’s Ink
that fellow is sliding, definitively down the slippery slope of doom
the sort of guy that would turn up at the opening of anyone’s slim voloom.’
So, if you go round to Joe Woods tonight be sure of a big surprise
if you drop into the launch tonight you’ll never believe your eyes
for every poet that ever there was, will whine before they wine
because today’s the day the poets are having a book launch
Joe closes the night with a few misquotes
from Two Poets Diverged in Yellow Footnotes
a poem of his that gets very few votes
those who can pay go hunting for food
in the cheaper dives and take-aways
while Becky and Joe hit uptown cafés
Kevin Kiely., Poet, Critic, Author; PhD (UCD) in the Patronage of Poetry at the Edward Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University; W. J. Fulbright Scholar in Poetry, Washington (DC); M. Phil., in Poetry, Trinity College (Dublin); Hon. Fellow in Writing., University of Iowa; Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship Award in Poetry; Bisto Award Winner.