Letter from Poetry Magazine



	
Letter to the Editor



	

			
Letter to the Editor
		




	

		
	
					by  James  Smolens 			





	
	

				Dear Editor,



I've enjoyed the little innovations in the magazine, especially the lively discussions between writers about other writers. Then comes April, National Poetry Month, and suddenly the magazine takes a shift towards the controversial and manipulative. Gioia vs. Kleinzahler, Familiar vs. Obscure, Grapes vs. Sour, spurring the sort of stupid and endless debate that I despise when it comes to art. Between Gioia's purplish praise and Kleinzahler's (did he actually review the book at all?) sour condemnation of Keillor's Good Poems, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do now. I feel as if I've been pulled out of bed at 1:00 AM for no good reason except to insist that I will not be manipulated by controversy so blatantly stirred up in the same pot.		
Sewell, New Jersey
	


	

		Originally Published: October 30, 2005	


	
		
		

	
		

			
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This prose originally appeared in the May 2004 issue of Poetry magazine


		
			

				
						May 2004
				
			

			
		

			
		


		

			
		


	








	
		
	
	





	



	
		

	
		

		
		


		
				
		
	


			
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