A great tempest in a teapot, shitstorm in a seashell, going on at Poetry Foundation, over Matthew Zapruder's essay "Show Your Work." I love what these two people wrote:

Angela Sorby wrote:
Would that critics had the power to create poetry readers. But MZ's initial anecdote disproves his point: he learned to love the Velvet Underground because 1) a cool girl gave him the record; and 2) he listened to it over & over. Likewise, I fell in love with poetry because 1) cool people gave it to me; and 2) I read it over & over. This was a private, ecstatic, non-intellectual process. It could not have been, and cannot be, a matter of didactic instruction. That said, I'll take the Velvet Underground over Sonny & Cher, even though Sonny & Cher (like Mary Oliver & Billy Collins) had a bigger fan base.

Tony Tost wrote:
Poems are pretty easy to get and understand, and most readers don't need a critic to understand them. As Robert Frost said, the best way to understand a poem is to read other poems. You can start anywhere.

I like critics who can make the case for what a poem or poet or poetics has to do with my life, or how I live it.

(I would also just like to say that Roseanne actually was a way better television show than Twin Peaks.)

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