Why Men Die Poem by gershon hepner

Men die each day for lack
of poetry, a bard
declared, though for a hack
life may be far less hard
without the je ne sais
that added with some quoi
worked well for Rabelais
and hopefully for moi.
I live because I write,
but not to be immortal,
and with Gemütlichkeit
I try to make men chortle.


Carol Muske-Dukes reviews her favorite poetry books in the LA Times Book Review, December 8,2002, and concludes:

It is imperative that we read poetry-and not just what might fashionably be termed the “best of”. Why? It is difficult to get the news from poems, as William Carlos Williams said, yet “men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there”.

\12/9/02