Greatest Living Poet

* Ron's patronizing "Reading is Fundamental" post Friday is vintage Dumb Ron. Young poets are probably doing fine and do not need to voraciously consume books by the handful like Sweet-tooth Silliman: who reads as if books were printed on swedish fish (Mmm, Swedish Fish!). There's lots of things young poets could be doing other than reading (most have to work for a living, but they could be fucking each other or sharing work or go to the movies of the zoo. Poems don't just live in books. They are everywhere and in the glint of a zebra's eye or across slickened genitals in an impossible blue light).

I like the "I gave up big jobs" line--he probably should have taken one so he wouldn't have to overcompensate on his blog like every goddamned day. Oh please hold me to your manbusom and show me what books I ought to be reading, Oh Ron! Tell me more about this New American Poets! There's more like 8 good poets in there and more headscratching then not. Maybe other people like being spoke to like Barney speaks to his parishioners. Suffice to say that one might consider having a little more respect for their audience, but Ron's probably bummed his readership has gone down due to the lack of comments this past week. It's not about you, RS--it's about the dirty rabble. And don't you forget it.

I also like how Ron thinks he *knows* who's got "the chops" to be a writer. All poetry teachers decided long ago that they were also clairvoyants. More likely it's the quiet lady in the back of the class whose work Ron hates that grows up to become the next Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. You don't reap what you sow: you simply get what you deserve in the end. Which is usually boned.