Alan and I exchanged poems with some regularity for two years after the first West Chester conference in 1995, and we have exchanged poems sporadically since then (a little more often since we took up the Able Muse gig). It has been an extremely helpful relationship for me--both learning how to criticize and how to accept criticism. I had been working in splendid isolation until West Chester. Alan is indeed very tough, and passionate--he takes your refusal to accept one of his comments harder than a tough comment on one of his own poems. So many poets just want you to admire their work--it takes integrity to say and accept hard things. Eratosphere is a great thing, but it is also good to find others on the same wavelength for more intensive review of your work--better to be humiliated by a friend than to be humiliated putting something bad in print (and boy have I done that!).
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