*
It's funny how seldom those who ostensibly undertake to write about my poetry, actually do it—
instead they often fixate on absurd secondary matters like the "presentation" of my books, or data re publication formats and irrelevancies like that—really, what's the point of swotting around such trivial minutiae. I appreciate all honest straightforward appraisals of my work, but if commentators focus on side issues other than the merit (or lack of merit) of the poems themselves, I'm insulted.
I can't force anyone to take my poetry seriously, and if they want to indulge in gossip superfluous crap I can't stop them—
But in case anyone is interested in my verse itself, and would like to see a critique which directly and thoughtfully addresses some of it,
I recommend the new book by Stephen Dobyns, Next Word, Better Word / The craft of writing poetry—
in which he offers close detailed readings of three of my sonnets.
(But even if I was never mentioned at all in the Dobyns book, I would still recommend it—it is a first-rate handbook/guide to poetic craft, and everyone involved in writing (and reading) poetry would benefit from it.)
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