Huuklyeand Cinquor on Poets Sounding Out Their Voice

No, no, you’re doing fine 
Mates, plumb no deeper— 

You’ll find that buoyant 
Voice you’re looking for bobbing 

Right here near the surface, not 
Sinking at the end 

Of one last desperate line. 


Moderator’s comments: Cinquor twitching like a catastomid on the end of a gaffe(sic)—this guy doesn’t know Trout Fishing in America from The Compleat Angler. Why he presumes to be such an authority on the murky current state of American poetry is anybody’s guess, but there’s a strong possibility it might have something to do with his piscine-sounding name.

A Coronach for Niedecker

There’s a livelier shine on the dead 
Leaves of autumn than in this lair 
And many a time my bonny 

Lorine had seen it there.

Incredible Evidence Reexamined: The Porchia Memorandum

All these things I have seen, how 
Could I not have seen them? 

Pathetic Fallacy at Ground Zero

Aspiring leaves spiraling 

Soon to be fallen, 
Look out if you will 

On a sky without bottom. 

Huuklyeand Cinquor on Satiated Corpuses

[…the poet’s] entire body promises to satisfy our every whim and fancy

while we wait for his creative juices to start flowing once that first course arrives.*

You say

This fare is a bookworm’s

Unforgettable delight

Easily digested, my friend—

If so, why then

At the end the taste

Of gritty grubs ruminating

On tips of tumescent tongues?

*Blurb by one Randall Cann Standall on back cover of the Complete Poetical Works of X.S. Wasserbildj-Vandersluis, publisher unspecified.

Moderator’s comments: I don’t know about you guys but I’ve just about had my fill of Cinquor’s tasteless and tiresome efforts. The next time he sends me something like this, I’m going to return it to him with the following instructions (in block letters) on the envelope:  DROP DEAD, WRITE LATER.