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Scott Hamilton: << Let's use the good ol political analogy: can anindividual 'have' both (say) socialism and fascism? Only if the words 'socialism' and 'fascism' lost all real meaning, all connection to real life, for him. Part of the point of being a socialist is rejecting fascism, and viceversa.Similarly, part of the point of liking Martin Johnston is HATING Les Murray. It's not richness you're advocating but poverty. >> Scott, I don't want to speak to directly about Johnston v. Murray, but, tho I hold strong opinions about poetry/poetics, I find it possible to admire wildly divergent poetries for wholly different reasons: Fornamlist/Neo-Formalist Contemporary Free-Verse/Mainstream Innovative/Language/PostMod Poetry Performance/Slam Poetry I could readily name several poets in each broad category whose work, for different reasons, I admire. Zero-sum thinking is certainly not necessary when it comes to "reading" poetry. When "writing" poetry (& in criticism) one often lines up under a particular flag/standard of shared aesthetic affinities (and similar politics). Finnegan %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%