The Return of Look Who Else Failed the Blake Test

December 14, 2004

So there I am, just surfing along, when I come upon this crapola -- this guy's a writer? "E e e e e e e e e e e e"??? Noam, my chimpanzee, could do this while rolling over and cutting the cheese.

http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/

(Those etymologist among us would notice that the name McCaffery is probably Irish -- he would probably read this "A a a a a a a a a a a a." The literary among us would suspect a Joycean pun in there somewhere -- Aristophanes? Either way, it's hooey!)

And then there's this sh*t -- all monosyllables! There isn't an allusion to Dante or Lorine Niedecker in the whole run -- what happened to the American tradition. And she's a woman to boot! (Sorry that I haven't mentioned any women yet in this post, I guess I'm just a bit imperfect, like everybody.) These lines would never work in a book -- that's why she has to "dress them up" so to speak -- with lights and t-shirts! Fat chance!

http://www.guerillaone.com/

Blake would vomit. Then call his lawyer.

This guy's clearly been looking at Rob Grenier -- where else would he get this idea? (And what did Grenier write about singing from the diaphragm? You can't even hum this.) You call this a quatrain? I call it FRAUD!

http://www.zwirnerandwirth.com/

I thought I had put all this behind me -- and then I find this tripe!
Numbers again -- these poets are getting so a-political! What a travesty of the Language tradition. Why, why, if I were editing an anthology now... this guy would be banned to the Poetics section! I don't care if he gave me a ride to a Stephen Rodefer reading in Berkeley 1974 once, when my wife was sleeping and the baby and Kathleen were sleeping -- all saliva under the bridge! Basta!

http://ger-www.uia.ac.be/

There's a grand canyon of difference between the tight quatrains of Kit Robinson and this turgid mess, which looks like it was written by a computer for a computer. (And "unbound pages"??? Didn't Rob Grenier do this in Sentences? What happened to honor among thieves?) I think I may have to give up poetry after all.