Comments on: Poets Laureate

By: Travis Nichols

Travis Nichols — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:02:49 +0000

Right, well the original link I looked at which is now dead identified him as Tennessean. Perils of collage reporting, no doubt. “Give Tennessee Credit for Music,” sang Carl Perkins.

By: D. A. Powell

D. A. Powell — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:31:11 +0000

Hey TN,
I wasn’t accusing you of being sudophobic. I just thought it odd that Tennessee was being singled out, and I assumed the singling was being done by the news agency.
Reading the original article, though, I see that it only identifies the man who asked the poet laureate question as “a former Iraq veteran and poet” (how does one becomes a “former” veteran), but it doesn’t identify him as a Tennessee man. He could have been a native of any other state or territory. Why not assume he was from Massachusetts?

By: Travis Nichols

Travis Nichols — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:13:33 +0000

No slight of the Volunteer state intended. The McCain Town Hall meeting took place in Tennessee, so the man who asked was a Tennessee Man. All of that was clearer in the original story, which I didn't quite convey as clearly as I could have. Apologies. Here's another link: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/03/poetry_question_stumps_mccain.html

By: unreliable narrator

unreliable narrator — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:08:58 +0000

The late Joseph Brodsky was given to claiming that he only wrote one couplet during his entire gloomy tour as PLOTUS:
I sit at my desk,
My life’s grotesque.
Alors, why on earth would any poet in her/his right mind even *want* such a position? —Oh wait, I just answered my own question.
Bravo, by the way, for defending Tennessee (home state, of course, to the likes of Randall Jarrell, Charles Wright, John Crowe Ransom, and James Agee–who would have taken a mighty dim view of such a cheap shot at the “uneducated”).
PS–are we misspelling Robert’s name as “Pinksy” on purpose? Because that’s how the Man from the US misprounced it? The original link has disintegrated….