This is exactly how I read this poem -- another one of my favorites.

"Art is a man-child boy-girl compromise" is my favorite line. along with that great coyote-howl in the end. Art should be free of all this...but it isn't. Well done!

I remember from the workshop, and was one of the active critters there. I think the poem got better along the way, and it wears well now, when I haven't seen it in some months. My congratulations to the author for patience and persistence. It's a keeper.

Alan

I gather the polls are almost closed, so I'll close, too.

Rosey and Timmy, this has been a most enjoyable party. I loved not knowing at first who wrote the sonnets (then I started to really want to know).

Shortly after I posted "Art" in the workshop, Reginald Shepherd posted this over at the Harriet blog (here's the link and an excerpt): http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/...a_short_n.html

So I asked Reginald if he'd read "Art" and he hadn't, and he wrote his post a year before I wrote Art. So that quenched my qualms about the scar.

Thanks, John Whitworth, for easing my anxiety about "circumstance." I do feel like I read the Chesterton quote years ago - it sounds familiar - but it certainly wasn't in my mind when I wrote Art.

G/W - I wonder if you'd read about subjectivity in The Writer's Almanac? Because I believe the day before you posted here, the Almanac had that very quote about subjectivity. I'm so glad you felt the emotional impact.

Alex - Yes, this was exactly how it was - this really happened. Art was clutching a bible like a drowning man and trying to be brave. Thank you for such kind words.

Tim - Yeah, you guys were very tough on me. Luckily, I still think you're a sweetie, sort of.

Anne - think of Satan's claw as a gun, and as the opposite of the Word.

Nemo - thanks, dollface.

Peter - enjoyed the Hien.

Thanks, Janet, Paulie.

G/W - not at all too obvious to mention. thanks.

Carol - nope.

Thanks Cathy, Marybeth, Alan.

Rose - Listen, don't we often find our friends by loving their poems first? So you shouldn't feel guilty about picking poems by your friends.

Can't wait till next year! This has been a fascinating lesson in taste and judgment, not to mention a great party.