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Unread 10-14-2002, 03:34 PM
Richard Wakefield Richard Wakefield is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Federal Way, Washington, USA
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Len and Michael:
I haven't checked to see if the review is archived at seattletimes.com, but it would be worth a look because I know sometimes they are.
As for the reasons behind the choices, I too pondered. Even a random selection wouldn't have been so resoundingly awful. There are perhaps six pretty good poems, but they're all by big shots, and that leads me to suspect that certain folks just couldn't be left out for political or personal reasons. The rest? It's anyone's guess: former students? potential lovers? students of friends? potential lovers of friends?
It's distressing to speculate because I always try hard to believe that people can disagree with me and yet be neither stupid nor duplicitous. I'd like to learn what principles or tastes were at work to come up with a selection so different from what I'd have offered. But these poems are so awful, so embarrassing, so inept, that it's like entering a parallel universe of poetry where all standards are inverted, as they are for Milton's Satan. And then, supposing the bulk of selections could be explained, how the hell did half a dozen good poems get in there?
As Huck says, it's one too many for me.
Richard
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