Deb, if you're still in need of a beta, I'd be happy to take a look at it.

(Hang tens Victor for that article) Seems to me poetry's always being declared dead by someone or another, and someone or another's usually wrong.

I have sooooo little patience for all the hacks who declare the death of poetry, be they nobodies like Bruce Wexler or annoying somebodies like Harold Bloom.

[link]

I've made it among my literary missions to point out just how ridiculous this particular logic is.

Anne, will send.

Victor, I agree. And pronouncements like "this is dead" or "this is the New Wave" is yet another reason I avoid the entire literary discussion deal like the plague. Because, shut UP, people, as long as there are human beings writing, and processing, there's going to be this output.

What Mister Black Beret Guy really means is "I need to justify the ludicrous amounts of money I spent on grad school and oh, yeah, while I'm at it I need to define some sort of 'cultural' gestalt because I feel a desperate need to make my mark on the mass memory and I'm sure as hell not going to do it any other way, damn, what'll work, something, ooooh! POETRY IS DEAD! ALERT THE MEDIA!"

I'll pass on that one. Silliness.

You just made me think of the silliest fic, ever, Deb. I'm too busy to write it, but, speaking of writing, my latest is here. I considered making a Press announcement, but this seemed more fitting. Hope you like it. [link] Edited to fix botched link.

erika! It looks gorgeous. Beaming with pride, since I got to beta the piece, too.

This is true. Thanks, Deb. And thanks to Betsy, who spotted the market for me. I had to dump a lot of stuff I really cared about, but I got to keep the expletives. Fuck, yes.

erika, that piece absolutely rocked. You covered so much, and with so much honesty -- I loved it. Go you! An you should definitely make a Press announcement, or at least something in Beep Me.

t /my two cents

I believe very firmly in the right to mock my pain before anyone else gets to. It's a thing, AmyLiz. Thanks for the compliments. I might put up an announcement. Might as well. I've already admitted that Crush Guy was right about it being publishable and stuff after I said "Not in a Million years." Yep, I've got my fingers on all the pulses.

Oh, Erika. Laughing and crying, indeed. Yes, yes, this should be announced far and wide.

And I want all the parts you had to dump. Because this is amazing, and I want more.

Ah, Harold Bloom. You know, I actually really enjoyed the guy's books on Shakespeare and some of his stuff in the Modern Critical Views series, I just wish he didn't feel this ridiculous urge to run around blathering against anything he didn't like, i.e. Harry Potter, Stephen King's National Book Award (which led to a rant in which he attacked everything he doesn't like in no particular order, including apparently every female writer ever), and apparently Slam Poetry. Is he aware that he looks like a hateful snob with nothing better to do than whine at the rest of us from his Ivory Tower?

He does own a stuffed wombat that belonged to Dante Gabriel Rossetti though, so I can't quite hate him.