The Poet’s Hierarchy
for Galway Kinnell and the Poet Populist Movement
It’s as if, here too, there’s a hierarchy:
a Poet’s Heaven, where the favored few
live, feeding on fame, Pulitzers and paychecks
on parties, applause and booksignings
in the midst of endless wine and crackers and cheese.
O the celebrity! O the throngs!
And then there are the rest of us
also in love with the word, the mystery:
we dance, unnoticed, in the alleys of the world
we dance, barefoot, on the pavement, in mud —
we are the peasants, the gypsies, the beggars
dancing outside the Poet’s Heaven,
dancing, nonetheless, under stars.
Pesha Joyce Gertler
