Thanks for that support, Lance. I've been hanging back from this thread, having conflicted thoughts.
Walter asks, up top, whether the quality of the latest issue has something to do with the tastes of the new editor. It seems too soon to rule, but: I did go to hear Don Share read, and I did buy his book, and I feel safe saying that musicality is not what he's mainly after, left to his own tastes. We'll see what happens.
In answer to Bill's question, I feel the way Jim B. does: how can anybody think of poetry as all one thing? I also find myself wondering what "now" means. To Poetry, "now" apparently comes a month at a time. Flarf one month, landays (which were amazing, I grant) another month, whatever gets attention--because the new, different, and exciting generate buzz, which sells magazines.
But the new, the different, and the exciting seem not to be what I enjoy most in poetry, so I get weary of keeping up with trends. I hate to sound like an old fogey, but there's so much old poetry I still need to learn about! Conversing with the people who show up at the Sphere has done more for me than trying to keep up with Poetry.
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