Or is Poetry skewing its standards to narrow the range of subjects and style of poems it publishes? I want to like what Wiman is doing with it; I want to find freshness and new horizons. I find narrowness in the last few issues, and an increasingly peevish tone to ALL the work. Does some high-profile editor have on his Cranky Pants? Even the Humor issue had the taint of contemptus mundi. It’s discouraging. I need an ivory tower Poetry. I need Parisi’s unassailable detachment from writing poetry himself. I suspect the current editors of, well, editorializing through their selections.
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Rachel,
always nice to see a thoughtful critique of an editorial reign. But this reminds me I should (again) be reading Poetry — else I won’t be able to join you in pondering whether I should be reading it.
cheers,
d.i.
Hi megalo —
Thanks for finding my blog and having a read. The litsnob in me, too, wants to go back to the good old days when they would never have published the likes of us, we aren’t decorated enough. Well, I should just speak for myself. But if there isn’t a club that won’t have you, what fun is life?
Paris Review is off my list too. There’s still Hudson Review, though — plenty snooty and full of big names, but they can write a very cordial rejection note.
Glad you’re reading! Thanks.
oh, it ain’t just you. this is very well-articulated and something that my dogs and cats and husband and trout just don’t understand. and i thought i was supposed to be on the *pulse* of POetry with this subscription. well, elvis is dead and poetry ain’t feeling too good by all recent accounts of this journal–it’s peevish, petulant, and then some. and what’s worse is that the little litsnob in me wants the same tower, mine ivy-covered, for upper eschalons, top drawers, all that i should be aspiring to, et cetera. and apparently the same thing’s going on @ paris review. oy!
btw, found you roundabout through links via arlene ang and have read you bunches online. had to say *something*