Tom, to answer your following question--
"Another issue might be called a variant of "where there's smoke, there's fire": I have never read once of l-a-n-g-u-a-g-e poetry or confessional poetry or GLBT-identified poetry or the like associated with conservative political viewpoints or agendas. But the "New Formalism=Political Conservativism" equation is consistently associated with the idea of metrical poetry as a "movement." I am not questioning the validity of that assumption. But I DO wonder why that assumption is made so often, so consistently."
--Generally, so-called Language Poetry is identified--and self-identified--with the political left. New Formalists have made no such claim about being politically conservative, since many, such as Charles Marting, are self-described liberals. Labelling New Formalism as rightwing was simply a method used to demonize the group by free versers who felt threatened by the upstart movement.
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