Greatest Living Poet

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It's all about the Clevelands!! Is Kent Johnson (among other things) a Foet? His buddy Tony Tost seems to have been among the jury that picked him for ILLINOIS ARTS COUNCIL 2006 LITERARY AWARD! A thousand dollar prize! How cosy! It's so disillusioning to have straight-shooters like Kent Johnson end up being careerist fakers. And just yesterday on Lucipo Kent wrote:

In fact, I've never entered a single poetry contest in my life, now that I think about it.

Here is a pretty thorough e-mail from Tost about his end of it.

But:

1) How did Tony get invited to be a juror by this committee? How did they know to be in touch with him? There are lots of other poets in the world. [Tony tells me there is a nominating process for jurors. Well, who nominates them?]

2) How does Kent keep on winning awards that he doesn't have to apply for? Isn't that weird? He was entered *twice*! [Note from a reader: an official release for the 2004 Illinois Community College Trustees Association Outstanding Faculty Member that was hosted at highland.edu as recently as yesterday has been suddenly removed.] {Kent does the Radioactive Monkey Dance at Lucipo} [Without the glasses, President Cleveland *does* kind of look like Kent Johnson, doesn't he?]

Check it: morning after pill & non-embryo killing stem-cell research on the same front page on the same day. What will they complain about now?

1. Mexicans.
2. Gay Marriage.
3. That not enough people really, really want to invade Iran.

More at avantasaurus.blogspot.com

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and how am I to convince you?

Starring me and Gina Myers

Can this man make you a better poet?

A poem by the reviewer.