Dear Editor,
I wanted to take the opportunity to write and tell you how much I enjoyed your editorial in the April issue. So much so, I brought it into my workshop at the Ohio State MFA program. I've been trying to find ways of increasing the amount of talk about criticism of poetry in our workshops and classes, and your essay was helpful. The following reviews were exciting to read paired off, and I enjoyed them both. I would take some exception with August Kleinzahler's comments about the "better animals in the jungle." Poets are drawn to poetry, regardless of its disadvantages. I wasn't going to work in movies or the internet just because poetry has been obscured, and I've gone to an MFA program to help myself become a better poet. That certainly isn't the only factor in my development, and it may not even be the main factor. But it can be useful, and shouldn't be so easily dispatched.
I wanted to take the opportunity to write and tell you how much I enjoyed your editorial in the April issue. So much so, I brought it into my workshop at the Ohio State MFA program. I've been trying to find ways of increasing the amount of talk about criticism of poetry in our workshops and classes, and your essay was helpful. The following reviews were exciting to read paired off, and I enjoyed them both. I would take some exception with August Kleinzahler's comments about the "better animals in the jungle." Poets are drawn to poetry, regardless of its disadvantages. I wasn't going to work in movies or the internet just because poetry has been obscured, and I've gone to an MFA program to help myself become a better poet. That certainly isn't the only factor in my development, and it may not even be the main factor. But it can be useful, and shouldn't be so easily dispatched.
Columbus, Ohio
Originally Published: October 30, 2005
Letter to the Editor