Bissett is a poet-prophet, or at least believes he is. Legalized marijuana, universal love, and the undeniable fact that "nobody owns th earth", are three of Bissett's urgent requirements for Utopia or Heaven on Earth. And the very naiveté of his language and themes, the earnestness and complete personal belief he brings to poems—these make him oddly touching and, I think, worthwhile….

[There] is a core of integrity about poet-prophet-bissett one can't ignore. The reasons why one can't ignore him would be difficult to explain to (say) a panel of fifty middle-aged English profs never entirely weaned from Chaucer, Eliot and alcohol. In many ways, and in my own way, I agree with the things Bissett says in his poems and life. Universal love is the best contraceptive I can think of. It's also agreeable to me that nobody should own the earth, or even 65 per cent...