May 7, 2004

Subject: Alex Boyd asks is TDR helping to make the Canadian poetry community appear "small, bitter, and useless"?

Dear TDR and Alex Boyd:

I agree: "if you're going to be a sniper, at least take the time to prove what you're" saying. I thought I provided the QED problem solving stuff in giving a three-part definition of assclown. But it seems, for Mr. Boyd at any rate, I was too subtle. 

Okay, fair enough.

Folks, please consider: Starnino's personal attack on Christian Bök in recent issues of Matrix. Starnino's "consideration" of Al Purdy's contributions to our cultural heritage in Canadian Notes & Queries. And pretty much anything Starnino's had to say on the "merits" and "value" of postmodern poetry or poetics.

For my part, there's nothing "small and bitter" about it. Facts are facts. Carmine's made his choices. He's staked a claim to the ridiculous CanLit poetry pundit thing -- suckerpunching his way to the critical fore. And that's just, as Stone Cold Steve Austin would say, "the bottom line."

Best,

Michael Holmes