The North Beach Poets by William Taylor Jr.
The North Beach poets meet
each Wednesday night at the bar.
They sit at their table in the middle of the place
and drink and talk loudly
in the dim light.
They shout and pound their
fists upon the wood.
They talk of Anarchy
and Communism
and other things that failed.
They talk as if it mattered,
and if you've had a few drinks
you'll almost believe them.
Sometimes they read their poems
in loud and authoritative voices
and their poems are filled with words
like LIBERTY, FREEDOM
and OPPRESSION.
They decry the evils of WAR
as if no one had ever thought
to consider such things.
They read their poems with great passion,
they read their poems as if they believed them,
as if those responsible
for things like WAR
and POVERTY
and OPPRESSION
would cease their shenanigans
if only they would pause a moment
and listen to the North Beach poets.
Maybe this is so but I
have some doubts
and the North Beach poets drink
and shout and pound their table deep
into the night.
Me, I just wish they’d quiet down a bit.
I've got my own
poems to wrangle with
and right now I'm trying to figure out
how to spell the way she laughed
and remember how the night felt as it
came apart in my hands.
William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Broken When We Got Here, his latest book of poetry, and An Age of Monsters, his first collection of fiction, are both available from Epic Rites Press. The Blood of a Tourist, a book of new poems, will be published in early 2014 by Sunnyoutside Press. He was a recipient of the 2013 Acker Award.
The North Beach poets meet
each Wednesday night at the bar.
They sit at their table in the middle of the place
and drink and talk loudly
in the dim light.
They shout and pound their
fists upon the wood.
They talk of Anarchy
and Communism
and other things that failed.
They talk as if it mattered,
and if you've had a few drinks
you'll almost believe them.
Sometimes they read their poems
in loud and authoritative voices
and their poems are filled with words
like LIBERTY, FREEDOM
and OPPRESSION.
They decry the evils of WAR
as if no one had ever thought
to consider such things.
They read their poems with great passion,
they read their poems as if they believed them,
as if those responsible
for things like WAR
and POVERTY
and OPPRESSION
would cease their shenanigans
if only they would pause a moment
and listen to the North Beach poets.
Maybe this is so but I
have some doubts
and the North Beach poets drink
and shout and pound their table deep
into the night.
Me, I just wish they’d quiet down a bit.
I've got my own
poems to wrangle with
and right now I'm trying to figure out
how to spell the way she laughed
and remember how the night felt as it
came apart in my hands.
William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Broken When We Got Here, his latest book of poetry, and An Age of Monsters, his first collection of fiction, are both available from Epic Rites Press. The Blood of a Tourist, a book of new poems, will be published in early 2014 by Sunnyoutside Press. He was a recipient of the 2013 Acker Award.