The English teacher from Texas cant stop lying. Whenever a faculty room conversation catches his attention, dark forces drive Tex to butt in with some dubious fact, interject a tired rightwing prejudice or interrupt with his own screwball theory. Magic mineral and vitamin cures, the liberal/Marxist conspiracy, imaginary personal achievements- his pathological grasp of reality mirrors the crackpot websites he consumes in the late night hours.
When I sent an anti-war poem to a poet I thought I could trust, he sent back an angry email saying he doesnt write political poetry and doesnt like to read it. An American from Harvard, he then lectured how if I want to write polemics, I should write essays. Personally, I prefer reading the lively poetry of a dead Allen Ginsberg to snoring through the dead poetry of a live Harvard snob.
A friend recently published a novel mildly critical of the Japanese Imperial System. At first a leading Japanese newspaper agreed to a review, but when the critic praised the work, higher ups cancelled the review before it appeared.
Robbers never strike at the homes of the poor/Private wealth does not benefit the entire nation/Calamity has its source in the accumulated riches of a few/ People who lose their souls for ten thousand coins.
Cancel All Debts
An art is emancipated and emancipating when it renounces the authority of the imposed message, the target audience, and the univocal mode of explicating the world, when, in other words, it stops wanting to emancipate us.
Jacques Ranciere
When the reviews are bad I tell my staff that they can join me as I cry all the way to the bank.
Liberace
Should you wish to contact the old poet, please go to to the upper right hand corner of the Me Me Me page where you will find a convenient email link waiting. Looking forward to your words.
Regards Tokyo Poet
Tokyo Friday, 03/30/07