Greg, I was wondering if you had any thoughts of the wonderful poets who have published in TRINACRIA and are members of Eratosphere as well, and how you might square your demeaning swipe at that journal without tainting poets who post poems regularly here? Hmmm? You may not like the politics of the publisher but why disparage the poets who wish to publish in a good formal journal? There ain't that many formal journals around, and I, for one, resent your implications. It is beneath a man of your standing, don't you think?

Charlie.

You misconstrued my comment to a quote by Andrew. He said he was going to vet publishers before submitting to them. Seeing that Salemi's name came up in this thread, I pointed out a journal that is doing the "extreme vetting" in the opposite direction.

I apologize for the lack of clarity in my post. I have published poetry at The Classical Poets Society so I was feeling Andrew's pangs of frustration.

I don't have any thoughts about the poems or poets that Salemi publishes. I am not invested in the schism that others take quite seriously around here. Sorry you felt slighted, but honestly, I really don't know how you took it that way.

Sincerely,
Greg

My apologies, Greg.

Crimpt and reactionary.

But was Whitman a "rhymer"?

As Whitman aged, he became a rimer. So do we all.

Richard

To return to Sally Cook. Like Rick Mullen, she paints as well. I like her paintings. She puts them on her books. I have to make do with my daughter's painting on my latest book. I'm joking. It is a quite beautiful painting.

Putting aside any thoughts on the relative poetic genius of Whitmore and Whitman, both of which have in abundance, I'd say Whitman's mug is a better look than Whitmore's -- though Whitmore's eyes look more kindly at me, so I like him more.
But the kicker for me was listening to John's voice. He sure can read a poem -- which counts in my book. After all, what would a Tom Waits song sound like without his trademark gravelly voice?

Sally's is a partisan poem. Rave away. That's what formalists are prone to do, no? There is an audience for each and an audience for both.

Seeing John and Walt side by side is my favorite thing about this poem. The two photos look good together.

I also enjoyed these lines: "To ramble on for pages on the pinprick of a thought,/ Which makes word choice irrelevant", which reminded me of this limerick:

There was a young man of Japan
Whose limericks never would scan
When asked why this was
He said "It's because
I always try to cram as many syllables into the last line as ever I possibly can."

When asked why it was,
He answered, because...

Whitworth > Whitman, eh? Well, I like Whitworth, but as a thesis I think it's utterly bonkers. (And as a poem immensely tedious.)

But hey, enthusiasts must enthuse, I suppose. And trainspotters will spot trains.

I'll still read Whitworth with pleasure, though.