[Anne Bryant-Hamon]

There's so much of anything that's terrible that you can make youself seem terribly wise with very little effort simply by reaching into the vat and pulling out something vile, then explaining to everyone who'll listen why it's vile. Then, if you want to be a pundit, you can extrapolate from that piece of trash to everything. You'll always have plenty of evidence to support your condemnation. But that's a hell of a way to live. There are so many varieties of badness that we can spend a whole life cataloging them and condemning them. Then what?
If you really believe the world is going to hell, pick a more important topic than poetry.

Richard - I'm certain I could not have said this better than you have. But your summation speaks for me. My dilemma is that I want my world of poetry to be a place to get away from the madness of the world - but certain people spoil that for me on a regular basis with the constant interruption of waht I would term "bitch-fests". There are always a few rotten apples to spoil the whole bag of fruit. Poetry spheres are no exception. Perhaps I'll become cloistered and sit and admire and contemplate the greatness of my own poetry exclusively If more people would do their despising of other's work quietly, it would be a much more peaceful world. But I'm not counting on that happening.

Anne