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Nate: >the reviewer says the symposium on >the state of poetry today is made virtually worthless because everoyne >agrees it's in a terrible state but no-one has the courage to actually name >any particular poets they thought bad or overrated Yes, the Emperor's Clothes syndrome has become chronic. Ever since I got into the small press game with Terrible Work I have faced the problem of focus. The scene does not like it when you approach the big picture - an approach which obviously is going to tackle things like literary ideology & history - but it dislikes it even more when you actually focus on an individual's work. Nobody wants to do it. The mainstream's 'enemies' never want to dirty their hands by looking closely at the work of one of the mainstream's big stars - both their good and bad poems get lumped together as 'that stuff' (and vice versa) so next to no discussion or analysis takes place. This then leaves the mainstream promoters free to carry on parading their naked emperors. Tim A. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%