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Writer's pictureGerard Sarnat

Oh Well [What the Circle of Hell]










So it (just perhaps maybe) DOES turn out

That those psychology class bummer tropes

--Sadder But Wiser and Depressive Realism--

Simply ain’t true, leading toward other old conclusions

About Positive Illusions’ ability to enhance our performances

By bits of self-delusion which are helpful for getting through life:

Gerardo must believe in yourself a little more than reality warrants

Per minister Norman Vincent Peales’s 1952 Power of Positive Thinking.


 

Gerard Sarnat won San Francisco Poetry’s Contest, Poetry in First Place Award, the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of 2021 and previous Pushcarts/Best of the Net Awards. Gerry's published in Tokyo Poetry Journal, Buddhist Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Northampton Review, New Haven Poetry Institute, Texas Review, Vonnegut Journal, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, Monterey Poetry Review, Los Angeles Review, and New York Times as well as by Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Chicago and Columbia presses. He’s authored the collections Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), and Melting the Ice King (2016). Gerry's a physician who’s built/staffed clinics for the marginalized, Stanford professor and healthcare CEO. Currently he's devoting energy/resources to deal with climate justice, and serves on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids/six grandsons, and is looking forward to future granddaughters. gerardsarnat.com

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