I welcome you to my newest effort -- political poetry or Political Pundoetry. I hope you find it meaningful, helpful, potent, important and, at times, fun.

I have written poetry before, elsewhere, for other reasons. Poetry has often been political, especially in the cafés, the academies, and the more rarefied salons of the political left; also in the lyrics of countless songs played throughout pop-culture. But rarely is political poetry presented as frankly as it is here, especially from a conservative point of view.

A friend of mine, a lesbian liberal poet holding a MFA from one of America's best writing schools, remarked a couple of years ago that the main problem in American poetry is that it is being ruined by the very thing she represents: Unless a poet is homosexual or transgendered, or, ideally, gay, transgendered and Hispanic or Black or Red, getting published is near impossible. And she may be right. But the fact is that poetry is an important medium through which culture is both protected and reformed; that gays and lesbians and minorities are favored by many purveyors of poetry speaks precisely to this fact.

My goal here is to challenge, in part, the current trends in American poetry. I am not admitting in any sense that what I do here is literature: there is a poetry that I prefer to write that leans more to fine art than what will be presented in Political Pundoetry. But I will aim high: I promise that what you find here will not be a waste of words. Or so is my hope.

Let me know what you think. Please.

Peace to you.

Bill Gnade

(also Contratimes.blogspot.com)

Email contact: Contratimes@hotmail.com