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Cut-Price Poetry

Why am I drawn to this scowling girl selling her poems in a Shinjuku underpass? Every Tuesday she is here, next to a Nikon ad, threatening commuters with her cyclostyled angst. Busy people keep up with the times, do a tap dance on their smartphones. Only drunks buy poetry. Grubbing for their last, sweaty coins, they mock her with every purchase. First published in Eclectica Magazine

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Darlene De Beaulieu

Date: 3/19/2025 10:01:00 AM

Hello Alan Ireland, they should not have mocked her. It was a wrong thing todo. If a person likes her poetrhy and they are not drunk, they should not mock her. Enjoy your day my friend. /Darlene/

Patricia Cresswell

Date: 8/12/2017 9:39:00 AM

A vivid picture painted with your words. It puts me there and as a poet may heart reaches out to her. What whirlwind of emotions created by this scene. I will come back to read it and your other work because it touches me and that is talent.

Alan Ireland
Date: 8/12/2017 5:54:00 PM

Thanks, Pat. Actually, the "girl" was a young married woman with a couple of kids. She became quite well known, as a Japanese weekly magazine ran an article on her.

Alan Ireland

Date: 4/10/2017 3:23:00 AM

This poem was first published in Eclectica Magazine.