Sherman Pearl
Sherman was born and raised in the Boyle Heights community of East Los Angeles, where he began writing poetry as a child.  Since his  retirement from journalism and freelance writing he’s devoted himself full time to poetry.  Sherman is immediate past president of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center and was on the founding committee of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival.  He also served as a co-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets and as co-editor of California Quarterly magazine.  His work has appeared in more than 50 literary publications and his awards include the National Writers Union Prize, the Anderbo Prize, the Margie Review Editor’s Prize, the White Mice Prize of the Lawrence Durrell Society, and 2nd prize in the Strokestown (Ireland) International Poetry Awards.  His new book, "Elegy for Myself" is his sixth published collection.  He lives in Santa Monica with his wife, artist Meredith Gordon.

Elegy for Myself

                         News of my demise
was among this morning's obits.   
I was worthy of two columns
and a photo of who I'd meant to be.
I served God and country and fed
the hungry and uplifted the fallen,
all the while making the fortune
that funded my philanthropies.
My failures weren't mentioned,
proof there probably were none. 
I passed away peacefully, it said,
surrounded by my former selves.
Cause of death was notification
that I'd won a Pulitzer; my heart
couldn't take it.  I was pleased
to read that I'd turned out better
than my beloveds predicted. 
On my post-mortem walk the sky
turned suitably gray.  Birds sang
my praises, a passing car honked
condolences.  I hurried home
to console my wife and compose
this elegy.  I will be missed terribly.

 

Sherman Pearl was a Featured Poet who read his poetry at the August 2015 Second Sunday Poetry Series