Tuesday, June 22, 1999

SITES TO SEE
Your chance to read some not-so-good poetry
By MICHAEL MCCARTHY


A member of the CONEJO Valley Poetry Society who goes by the name Bhodi has a Web site at www.geocities.com/Paris where he features a number of his poems, most of which fall under categories one would imagine when thinking of poetry: love, frustration or spirituality.

But there are also categories labeled "cops," "beat," "psychotic" and "what the hell?" Bhodi purports to be a 22-year-old philosophy major at UC Santa Barbara and claims to have started his own religion, called "Bobism," which is inspired by Superman comic books and the film "Warlock." He doesn't mention the size of his congregation.

It ranges from about 2 to 5 at any given time, but I'm often surprised at how many people are familiar with the texts. I've had followers of Bob who were computer geeks, fencers (people who poke each other with swords), an even a doctor of philosophy or two. Pretty much anyone who actually took the time to read the texts and has a sense of humor.

Poems in the "cops" category are based on his experience during 14 months as a cadet at the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. These two poems appear to symbolize the frustration cops face on a regular basis: people complaining, being uncooperative, blaming them for their problems and what it feels like to find the dead body of a 9-year-old boy.

The problem with these poems is they are not very good. Words seem to be placed randomly in between each other without following any particular pattern. They just sort of jump out at you like words did during the fight scenes in the old Adam West Batman series.

Pow! Bam!

The "what the hell?" poems are the ones Bhodi claims don't make sense. I found they actually seemed to make the most sense. There is a clever one about the "Energizer Bunny" and all its journeys.

The poem, Energizer, was rejected by my high school literary magazine. I kinda liked it, but its hardly my best work.

Under "The Psychotic Collection" you will find poems that seem to be more representative of rage. I wouldn't argue against vulgarity having a legitimate place in poetry, but many of these poems are powdered with excessive vulgarity, which is a bit immature and adds nothing of value to the poem.

I took a look through that page and here is what I found...

Fuck: 4 times
Shit: 0 times
Piss: 4 times

Most of those were within a single poem, "Rage". I'll admit its somewhat excessive. But judging the entire work by that one example isn't very realistic. "Rage" is a bit vulgar, "Damn Spot" is a messed-up poem about parricide, "Things as They Are" is about child abuse. Far from pleasant topics. That's why I separated them out.

"Beat" is another category of poems which the author claims is intended to provide a beat to the tune of reading them. While some of the poems here are not bad, like "Waves and Tides," I was unable to pick up the beat.

I never suggested that there was a beat to go along with my poetry. In fact, I don't write anything with rhyme or rhythm; I write strictly free-verse. The beat section was a collection of flowing, stream of consciousness poetry.

It was pretty much that way for the entire Web site.

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