Entry 444 — My Latest Pop-Off
In case the morons at Poetry don’t post my pop-off, and they haven’t yet, here is approximately what I said (unfortunately, I failed to keep a copy):
Why should anyone care what one third-rate knownstream critic has to say in praise of poetry that has been acadominant for over twenty years now (although only recently noticed by Poetry Magazine), so-called “language poetry” (which is just collections of non sequiturs with none of the significant focus on the aesthetic uses of grammar that real language poetry has) compared with what another third-rate knownstream critic has to say in praise of the kinds of poetry established long before that when there’s innovative poetry extant to explore far from the tired interests of such critics–and Poetry Magazine.
Hmmm, I think I improved it. I definitely made it nastier, out of annoyance for Poetry’s not posting it. I now think it would have been interesting to have added a challenge to Poetry and its readers to visit my infraverbal mathematical poems at Tip of the Knife or my mathematical poems at the Otherstream Unlimited Blog and tell me why they, and poems like them, don’t deserve recognition. My poems rather than anyone else’s because I feel I can argue more knowledgeably for them against the Philistines than I can for any others. But also because of my growing egocentric need to yowl for me!
Later note: my comment was posted. It was followed by a comment consisting almost entirely of a quotation of Adorno which seemed to me nothing but meaningless subjective gush.
Bob, You should give us a link to your post
Sorry. I didn’t think any of my readers would be interested in anything posted at Poetry Magazine’s blog. aside, possibly, from my reaction to it. But here it is http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/241856.
–Bob