Thanks for providing the link to this unappealing piece of writing by the current Poet
Laureate. I subjected myself to her first reading in Washington DC and found it quite
unremarkable, despite Dana Gioia's attempt to make a case for her. Had the Librarian of
Congress attended to the following sentence from "I Go To The AWP" before choosing her
from 15 candidates selected by previous PLs and Gioia, I wonder if he would have made the
same decision:
"No, I think poets should take the lesson of the great aromatic eucalyptus tree and poison
the soil beneath us."
She hasn't brought in even one poet I'd recommend to anyone as useful or interesting, and
in fact a few of her curatorial choices are mainstream AWP fodder. I look forward to her
departure from this area. Carolyn Forche, Eileen Myles, or Anne Waldman would have been
much better choices.
Barry
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