April Is Poetry Month

In circumspect of Poetry Month I offer up the following:

I dream of a life I've yet to live,
In some far spring or fall,
Pray who is Honda, Cap'n Crunch,
And what is Underall?


If the stanza above (once credited to J. Keats) should at all intrigue you, then check out a copy of Neal Barrett, Jr.'s cult classic, The Hereafter Gang. Pay particular attention to the beginning, middle, and end of the fable and you'll no doubt be rewarded in the "Thereafter."

Pete and Petula: Downtown

from Downtown sung by Petula Clark:

"The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares"

 from Downtown written by Pete Hamill:

"There I was, at the crossroads of the world, with the breaking news moving around the face of the Times Tower and the waterfall flowing between the giant nude statues of the spectacular Bond Clothes display and smoke rings floating perfectly out of the mouth of the guy on the Camels sign. The sidewalks were jammed with sailors, pimps, cops, streetwalkers, dancers, actors, musicians, and tourists. Where Broadway crossed Seventh Avenue, traffic was a raucous, noisy show, big yellow taxis honking their horns like staccato punctuation from Gershwin, trucks and buses bullying their way downtown, and big New York voices coming out of the din: Whyncha watch where ya goin', ya dope! Dis ain't Joisey!"