I'm skeptical of the methods (and maybe the motivations) of the Lightman fellow. (Blood in the water mindset???) At least from the description of a few of these instances. The French poets stuff seems the least conclusive, at least from what info we have here. The mind makes the same connections along similar trails. The simplicity in some of the works makes coincidence believable. Plus a translation was involved that may have muddied the waters further.
The Mack business seems to be the really silly practice of using the scaffolding of another poem to riff on. In this case maybe it became a crutch. Bad taste, weak art but maybe not as intentionally rotten the Ward ripoffs appear.
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