Life is fundamentally a mental state. We live in a dream world that we create. Whose life is truer, the rational man of action pursuing practical goals of personal happiness and wealth or the philosophic man who lives in a world of theoretical and metaphysical ideas? We ascribe the value quotient to our lives by making decisions that we score as either valid or invalid based upon our personal ethics and how we think and behave.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

DECISIONS

So today I had to make a tough decision today.

And in the age of social media and freedom of speech, the very things that I believe in ? It was a difficult one. But sometimes when you repeatedly see certain disturbing behaviors trending on Facebook & Instagram you eventually realize that it was for the best. As the editor of a small poetry press ( Dead Man’s Press Ink Albany NY) and as a writer myself for over thirty years you tend to run into these types of issues & situations as well as people. Poets who aren’t actually poets but who care more about their fragile egos and not really the actual poetry and who say & do anything to try to take over the limelight. And there’s been plenty of them. They come and go. But in this particular case the poets and their use of social media was far worse than the usual. A poet from New Jersey who is a part of this group put a post out on Substack stating quote “That he was a better poet than Charles Bukowski”. Why? He says because Bukowski was a misogynist. A man who hated women. Now, we all know that’s old news but what the Jersey poet left out was the fact that him and one of his buddy promoters have been using porn pics and degrading women themselves on Instagram for quite awhile in their ads/memes to attract more followers (yep, mostly dudes of course) thus making his Bukowski statements and his Substack post completely irrelevant. And another massive lie.

Can anyone say hypocrite?

So, after a bit of reading and taking in all of this garbage over my morning coffee I came to the decision to post this in our Dead Man’s Press Ink Albany NY Poetry Facebook group. Then? I simply blocked them. There were sadly other reasons for it though, like for instance also the fact that the writer of the mentioned article was also constantly bashing other poets in the writing community as well as bashing the significance of long dead poets who of course cannot defend themselves against people using them inappropriately. So perhaps it’s time that we as writers, poets & spoken word performers all join together and start getting rid of, blocking and denouncing these kinds of individuals who seem to take pleasure in demeaning & destroying others to get likes and followers and who are attempting to separate poets and the poetry community in their own self interest and shallow journey for mass popularity. And it’s too bad that their actual poetry cannot speak for itself because one of two of their poems I read, heard were pretty decent. But our small press supports all poetry, diversity and other small poetry presses but we draw the line on trolls & egotistical assholes. No exceptions.

So here’s the post in it’s entirety.

Thank you for reading and caring about poetry.

Ok.

Well, We’ve Tried To Be Polite.

But Let The War Begin. ; )

I’m currently reading a post on Substack by a ridiculous & absolute shallow hypocrite who considers himself a better poet than all others let alone he believes himself to be some sort of leader of his own “poetry movement” enlightening his poetry community. Here’s a perfect example of yet another “faux social media ass clown” that’s soooo desperate for attention that he goes out of his way to attack and degrade other poets (mostly the dead ones who can’t fight back, of course) and yet when he advertises his own poetry events on Instagram he is using memes depicting & debasing women in “pornographic, lurid sex scenes” as if they are enjoying his poetry as simple toys & entertainment to get more followers & likes. So here we have your typical version of another egotistical phony “King Shit” debasing other poets & other poetry generations in his lies & statements to glorify his own worthless, untalented writing. He’s nothing but a hypocrite, let alone an absolute fucking con artist. And it’s actually rather pathetic & sad to watch someone using the forum of poetry to meet his own ends and selfish needs as he tries to separate a poetry community that matters with nothing but lies, dishonesty & insulting garbage. And in these times of book banning and petty infighting, an actual concern as to where our country is going ? We don’t need that garbage or lack of humanity. What we need are poets and writers, spoken word artists who are contributing to what matters the most.

The Poetry itself.

Honestly?

Poets who’ve actually been working very hard, creating and promoting poetry open mics and writing for years have seen his kind come & go and he’s just another minor annoyance that we all easily see through. And there’s no place for fake assholes or more useless trolls in our lives or our community. He’s not promoting poetry or standing up for it. His statements have no true meaning or cause. And he’s merely taking advantage of poetry as a vehicle and a forum in his attempt to get recognition from those who don’t see the truth via social media.

So for him ?
Unfortunately?

He most likely doesn’t have much of a future in the world of poetry. But hey, don’t be discouraged. There’s hope. I’m sure they’re looking to hire busboys in New Jersey to clean up after other people’s slop. None us are fooled by your self serving antics. So please. Stop the public bullshitting and accept your own mediocrity. We don’t need a useless and embarrassing ” Donald Trump” of Poetry.

Because simply put?

You’re a fake. A grifter. A con artist.

And most certainly not a poet or someone who actually cares about poetry or where it’s going.

Because it’s obvious that you don’t stand up for anything or any cause that truly matters. Your only cause is yourself and your own ego gratification.

And there’s already too many assholes and not enough saints out there in the real world. So try being a real human being. Maybe it’s even possible that one day you’ll reach maturity, Or?

For that matter

Puberty. ; )

See Ya !

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