Quote:
Originally Posted by Siham Karami
Critics, on some level, feel almost an obligation to find something wrong. In their reverse world, that's the only way to get a little respect.
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I rather like Rick Mullen's book; but like Rick I also respect Dawn Potter, our reviewer of this collection - who happens to be a wonderful poet in her own right. I don't know what this 'reverse world' is, but she doesn't belong to it. The trouble with modern poetry reviewing is that almost everyone is busy saying that everything is wonderful
all the time regardless of whatever they might really think. An insightful reviewer prepared to raise questions, politely and intelligently and without having an agenda, is a rarity to be valued. Poetry isn't an art on life support. Your comment is rather insulting to the thoughtful people who do not want it on life support, who regard it as healthy enough to withstand a wee tug every now and then, who write about it because they care enough to do so and who regard themselves as having a duty to the reader and the book, not to either of the authors. Such reviewers
want to praise, and when they do you can be sure they mean it. Your comment also fails to note that - for what it is worth - most of the critics and reviewers of modern poetry are themselves poets. Any poet-reviewer who is prepared to be anything other than full of praise risks revenge reviews now and again in this often rather bloody foolish little poetry world. Those happen.
Moreover, in his modesty Rick slightly overstates the negativity of Potter's review. It is in many ways quite praising and full of admiration - for the poet if not for this particular book. She seems to think he is worth knowing about, and her opinion is worth listening to.