2012 BEST OF THE NET

James H. Duncan has informed me that he's nominating my poem "Birthday Letter" for the 2012 Best of the Net award. Considering how much respect I have for him and his poetry, I am humbled and honored. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. And I published my first poem almost thirty years ago!

So I would like to thank James and Hobo Camp Review for making 2012 a most memorable year for me. If you want to read some awesome poetry and prose from the road - feel free to take a long peek:

http://hobocampreview.blogspot.com

My wish is that 2013 will be a happy and productive year for all. Thanks for reading!


BIRTHDAY LETTER

Fall is almost over.
Last night
(although you condemned it),
I read Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters,
and liked it a lot.
After I'd finished,
the soft rain returned,
gently bringing me back
to the hard place I'd escaped from:
I am mending. I am mending.
Yesterday, a kind
stranger spoke to me in the market,
and I did not turn away.
I'm beginning to see it was you.
The old crushed season is almost over;
I'll no longer mourn its early passing.

Poem © 2012 by Dylan Mitchell

HELLO

I want to see the
sea of your eyes
Deep and blue in the
moonlight forever

Poem © 2012 by Dylan Mitchell

FOOL'S CHRISTMAS

This kind of Midnight Mass is not what I need:
Two bearded dwarfs in leather tear up the floor.
The sharp tongue of a dark god makes my ear bleed.
All Madonna's virgins are decked out like whores.

How this thick smoke burns my eyes! Whatever
happened to snow? This intense heat is a river
of flames I try to dance on forever:
I stumble and fall down hard. Some unknown lover

hauls me up before I drown in the fire.
The half-remembered poem I recite reminds
me of school: Lear's Fool could not be a liar
and disappears forever, while more unkind

players tell pretty lies and survive the play.
This bar is a stage; this stage isn't holy:
They make me get out. I haven't a cent to pay
for the long ride home, alone in Hell's folly.

Poem © 2012 by Dylan Mitchell

LITTLE GIRL BLUE

So large on the stage
Her voice like thunder and rain
Little girl blue so alone

Haiku © 2012 by Dylan Mitchell

THE MAN WHO QUIT MONEY

Mark Sundeen's THE MAN WHO QUIT MONEY gets my vote for Best Nonfiction Book of 2012. I actually read this amazing paperback twice. That's how good it is. In fact, it nearly broke my heart to have to return the book to the library. But I did the right thing. Forty people were on the hold list. That should tell you something.

It has been twelve years since Daniel Suelo gave away his life savings, and decided to live without money. Suelo (Spanish for soil) does not live on welfare or receive food stamps. You won't find him on a busy street corner asking for spare change. He forages wild foods and knows which dumpsters are best for a healthy meal or two. He gets around on a humble bike, and walks more miles in a week than most folks walk in a year. And he is sheepish about sleeping at homeless shelters. In fact, Suelo's home is a small cave in Utah. And he's not insane.

If you are wondering why a sane man would choose to live without money, then I strongly suggest you read this compelling book. You might learn a little something about yourself, and it will be a good little something. Why do we live as we do? Is it really healthy to have to hold down a job we dislike, just so we can pay car insurance, rent an expensive roof over our heads, and buy things which are bad for the planet? What would happen if we suddenly threw away the credit cards, learned to grow our own food, and made the choice to never own a car?

Suelo already knows what will happen. And his life is better because of what he has learned. THE MAN WHO QUIT MONEY is one hell of a book. And Suelo is like a modern prophet returning from the desert to remind us that happiness is not found in expensive things, but by connecting with other people. And this doesn't cost us a cent.


Nonfiction
Riverhead Books, 2012

Reader Rating:
10/10

Review © 2012 by Dylan Mitchell

THE BEWILDERING SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

If Christ came back today
what would He see? People
talking on cell phones

instead of to each other?
As they mindlessly
sidestep the homeless on the

downtown sidewalks: American
Idol is about to begin! Security
guards would kick Him out of

stores for looking too down
and out. And after He started
talking about helping

instead of judging the poor
He'd be carted off to the
nearest psych ward,

and given massive amounts
of shock treatments and drugs
for the psychotic ones.

He'd be considered no different
from those that insanely think
they are Beethoven or Hitler

or Marilyn Monroe. Christ might
return only to be tossed in
jail or the state asylum.

Who will save the Savior?


Poem © 2009 by Dylan Mitchell