# 31 Mister Hatter's Clientele.

# 31 Mister Hatter's Clientele

   Mister Hat designs Stetsons for jetsetters,
   And those with bats in the belfry,
   Delusions of grandeur. He's beset
   With baby boomers, his flashiest hats
   Are for the scummiest yuppies.
   For yippies he makes Mao's little billed ones,
   Anarchists get black and red plaids.
   Hippies get beads and embroidery.
   For back road putters he designs aviator
   Caps and sturdy helmets, pimps get fedoras.
   Matadors get black to go with their red
   Capes and muletas, for clowns he crafts skull
   Caps, in their eyes he puts gloom. He tears
   Them all apart in his mind. For his own
   He wears a welder's cap-with stitches
   That bleed into small threads of death.

Leonard Cirino (Springfield, OR). The poet who lauds Bukowski and bashes Stem I differ with. Stem is one of the few "respectable" poets who is also very good, as is Kunitz whom I also admire. The Buke is an old puker who should listen to himself when he talks of the beats. He wrote about five types of poems-beer and barf, bar whores, dirty underwear, race tracks, and classical music. He did this quite well for a while but became a mimic of himself-and remember he was very wealthy when he died-he had given up the old life and became a bad poet. Stem and Kunitz on the other hand have kept true to their vision and remained real. That's my gripe with these 'Pukers and my opinion which isn't too popular. You're right about the "liberals" for sure though. They would pat you on the head with one hand and stab you in the back with the other. The exchange with Espada's wife is very interesting. Creeley was a lousy poet and a creep as far as I'm concerned but Espada I trust a little for a well-known poet. Let's hope all those bastards and the whole administration ends up in prison convicted of crimes against humanity by the international court. These pieces are from a long poem titled "Mister Hatter's Matters" that I'm just finishing. It's 72 poems now and is after, in a way, John Berryman's Dream Songs. Keep fanning the flames of discontent as they used to say-I think it was the scum bag Pulitzer who said, "A newspaper should have no friends" and that goes for a lit zine as well. Fight the good fight!