I just read Candice's astounding post.

This really is getting very, very weird.

I would ask that people refer to my post sent through Mark Weiss and my
follow up commentaries. The person who wrote under the second email address
bearing my name [[log in to unmask] ] was not me. I have never done
anything of the sort at any list. Further, though I had communicated with
David Hess in the past, I had nothing to do (Candice seems to suspect this
was a plot between the two of us!) with the virtual holy war he declared on
me and the list three days ago. I feel that my response to him under the
circumstances was quite dignified and reasonable.

I now know who created the false email account and I will be pursuing the
matter on my own. I was mistaken in first assuming that it was David Hess.
If I choose to write an article about the slander launched against me here
by that person, it's not because I'm trying to win a medal for poetry
journalism, as Candice implies, but because such a matter needs to be
addressed as an issue of principle. Candice's angry confusion is evidence of
the kind of havoc such on-line tampering can cause: The perpetrator set out
in personal vendetta against one individual and ended up psychologically
hurting others. This is why I am going to pursue the matter and expose it.

Candice mentions my past behaviors on other lists. As I said to Robin
Hamilton back channel, it is unproductive to revive those issues here, and I
have no desire to further discuss them, but since Candice keeps bringing "my
history" up, I'd like to offer the following in brief "perspective," for
what it's worth:

I have been on three other email lists in my life: Poetics, British Poets,
and Subsubpoetics.

Along with a few others, I was kicked off Poetics in 1999 in the wake of an
extended discussion concerning list censorship. My appraisal of those
events, titled "Buffalo '99," is available in print and on-line. It was
shortly after I published this article that I was expelled from Poetics. I
am proud of my stance in the context of those events.

Earlier this year I was "suspended" for a month from the British poets list
after a controversy around a series of over-the-top poetic posts entitled
"Dear Lacan", written between myself and Jacques Debrot. These are available
on-line, along with a series of post-parodies of reactions to them from
members of the British list. These parodies were written entirely by Jacques
Debrot, though I was fully aware he was doing so. An appraisal of those
events by Alison Croggon is available in the same issue of the magazine
(VeRT), along with an accompanying response from me. My feeling remains that
the whole affair at British Poets was a result of rapidly escalating
misunderstandings on both sides. I take responsibility for letting my
indignation (whether justified or not) contribute to the misunderstandings.
I now regret consenting to add the parodied posts to the the VeRT
publication. I have not attempted to rejoin British Poets and do not intend
to.

Subsubpoetics was recently closed down by its owner. The archives can be
consulted for those interested. I was an active participant there. I was
involved in a sharp exchange with the list owner at the time of his decision
to close the list. There is a history there, as there is to everything. I
take no responsibility for the closing of Subsub.

I joined this list because I had heard it was one of the most vibrant places
of poetry discussion on the internet. Before the recent events, I tried to
contribute to those discussions. Now, after a bizarre burst of psychic
energy from the virtual blue, we are suddenly here. I will simply say once
again that I have not come on here to disrupt or trash Poetryetc. The simple
truth is that Candice has been hoodwinked and now she has fallen into making
false accusations, something the creator of the false emails is no doubt
relishing.

I'm going to stick around and let people judge whether my "intentions" are
good or bad. I don't say I won't piss some people off with my views or the
ways in which I sometimes offer them. But I assume that is understood.

I request, Candice, that you don't make any more accusaitons or innuendoes
against me pertaining to the events of past few days. I know we have locked
horns in the past over different topics, and you are alwasy an eloquent and
tough customer in debate. But in this case, you are unintentionally putting
out misinformation and disrupting the very list you are partly responsible
for overseeing.

Kent

------------

I want to apologize to the list for my hissy fit yesterday and appeal to
Peter Howard, to whom I've already apologized back-channel, to return to it.
We need Poetryetceteras of his quality more than ever now. This list is just
the latest venue for Kent Johnson's "performance art," and maybe it will
make my own actions more understandable (though not excusable) if you know
that for me it's the third such list. But because, it's Poetryetc, which is
very special to me, I overreacted to both his provocation and the judgment
Peter Howard seemed to be passing on me without even having read all the
relevant posts and discovered that the "mail bomb" action was merely a bit
of counter-performance art undertaken in hopes of getting Kent to leave the
list voluntarily, which he did briefly and semi (under only one of the two
e-addresses he was using by then).

If he felt encouraged to return yesterday, it could only be due to the
continued willingness of some listees to engage with him, front-channel or
back, and while I wish that wasn't the case we are all free to talk to
whomever we please obviously. And if some of the very same Poetryetceteras
whose BRITISH-POETS posts were hijacked for publication by Kent without
their permission as part of his performance on that list are still inclined
to tolerate his antics here, it's not my place to say they shouldn't. Nor,
after bailing managerially on them yesterday, to take issue with Alison &
Chris's decision to remove only David Hess (the sit-com spinoff of the KJ
act, as I see it anyway). In my opinion, Kent will have to be removed sooner
or later anyway because that's what he wants, and if he stays true to form
(going by his "program" on those other two lists and how virtually identical
his current one appears to be), he will pursue that goal relentlessly here.
Needless to say, I hope he proves me wrong. Last night, after being asked by
Alison to back off--a request reinforced in a b-c message of my own--he
reportedly pestered listees back-channel with self-pitying missives of the
"gee Officer Krupke" sort, but these too are part of the performance and
will feature in the eventual publication he'll get out of it, no doubt. This
is what he does, along with getting himself displayed in published
interviews, for publication.

The "warning" part of my subject heading relates to something besides Kent
per se, though. We are beginning to pick up subscribers from the
Subsubpoetics list in the wake of its near total collapse (I gather, having
left it myself weeks ago), a collapse for which Kent can't be exclusively
blamed but to which he almost certainly contributed. While I liked and
admired many of the Subsubpos I encountered as a listee there, they did tend
to have a far more aggressive socio-discursive style than we're used to at
Poetryetc and that list tended to be much more tolerant than this one of
front-channel personal abuse ranging from the dyadic
attack-and-counterattack to the multi-listee free-for-all. Which is just to
warn you of what may ensue here if the numbers drifting over from Subsubpo
are sufficient for an effort to remake the Poetryetc public square in the
image of that other one. Whether such an effort, if made, will succeed is
really up to you.

As for me, I'm going to stick around (and many thanks to everyone who urged
me to stay in spite of my huffing and puffing yesterday!), but in lurk mode
until I get through some ordeals in my non-virtual life that have left me
less than fit company online and off-. All the best to you--and watch your
backs now!

Cheers,

Candice

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