[Catherine Chandler]

Jim, Since you asked . . .

Don't you just love that studied pose with the pipe?

Doesn't he just look the poet/philosopher?

Isn't that "ceci n'est pas un poème" personal statement simply TOO COOL?

Well, at least he got something right!

[Mark McDonnell]

Hey Jim,

I just spent 20 minutes on the Twitter thread you linked to. I think he's funny, charming, clever and with a heart clearly in the right place. It would be a churlish chap who thought he wasn't making the social media swamp a better place.

Thanks.

[Jim Moonan]

Yes, I feel as you do, Mark. The murk of social media does nothing to advance ideas, find solutions or forge new perspectives -- but poetry does. It is at the very least admirable that Bilston uses it to cut through the muck.

This was the first poem I read by him and, although I don't go in for clever "now read this backwards" poetry (Ha! I remember a poem you posted where someone pointed out that yours could be read from end to beginning - Ha!) But I found this one the exception:
Yes, I feel as you do, Mark. The murk of social media does nothing to advance ideas, find solutions or forge new perspectives -- but poetry does. It is at the very least admirable that Bilston uses it to attempt to cut through the muck.

This below was the first poem I read by him and, although I don't go in for clever "now read this backwards" poetry (Ha! I remember a poem you posted where someone pointed out that yours could be read from end to beginning - Ha!) But I found this one the exception:

REFUGEES
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

[Jim Moonan]

Catherine, Yes, I wonder if that's him or not - Avatars are all the rage these days, you know. I think it's all tongue-in-cheek. He's playing with the poet stereotype/persona.

[Eric Mwathi]

OMG, I love him already. His work is brilliant!

[Jennifer Reeser]

And where, I ask you, Jim, was the public outcry against that one, as met that poor soul suffering at The Nation?