Poem of the Week By Karlostheunhappy
Biography:
Karlostheunhappy lives in the Forest of Dean, England, but was born in Newport, Wales in the early 70’s. He created BeatSurreal, an underground lit zine in the 1990s for which a best of is due shortly from the Gloomy for Pleasure press: the BeatSurreal Annual No.1, with articles on Kerouac and Brautigan; how the British Beats connect to the Angry Young Men and Beatnik folk jazz scene of the 60s; a host of deep-dives into the likes of the late Michael Horovitz and his family of poets based on a long interview with his poet-son, Adam Horovitz (entitled ‘The Ginsberg Skid Kid’); Mimi German (Beat Poet Laureate Oregon); the inimitable and prolific George Wallace; Midway Poet and Stuckist artist Bill Lewis and a new voice of extraordinary subtlety in Ye Ye, as well as a selection of original BeatSurreal contributors plus a host other new curate work from a wide range of writers. Gloomy for Pleasure also published Karlostheunhappy’s first collection, Oblivion (200 seasons of pain and magic) in 2021, as launched online by the National Beat Poet Foundation. In 2022, Karlostheunhappy was named Beat Poet Laureate (England) by the National & International Beat Poetry Foundation (USA) who previously recognised the likes of Beat luminaries David Amram, Andy Clausen and Anne Waldman among many others.
Backstory:
Well, this was a cynical response piece written in a week of crazy news where there’s just too much going on not to be angered. The poem is an oral poem rather than a page piece, which is generally where my style is perhaps more at home, but poems of protest lend themselves to the voice aloud.
REAL EASY
killing is way cool
it can make you rich
feel great
help you get what you want
yeah, killing is cool
I know it is
it says so on my t-shirt
I’ll tell you why killing is so cool
killing is cool
because it has neat upgrades
and is on the news all the time
killing is so cool
even my granddad did it
and he lived to 80
that’s what I’m sayin – killing is real cool
I tell you, I dream of it all the time
I even voted for it
and don’t worry, it’s ok
killing is nothing to be ashamed of
we’ve been doing it for years
everyone’s at it
so why aren’t you?
are you some kind of fucking hippie?
©2025 Karlostheunhappy