May 9, 2004

Subject: Michael Holmes' response to Alex Boyd

Dear editors at TDR:

Let me try to explain my perspective here: although I’m involved in the literary community, my day job is with people who don’t give a shit about the poetry of Carmine Starnino or Michael Holmes. They don’t know the name Al Purdy. I want to be careful here in saying I think they’re living perfectly valid lives, but it does mean I’m routinely reminded of our small audience and the public casting rare glances in our direction. With the arrival of the Griffin prize, and the extra media attention, this is a fine time for poets to give half a crap about being outward looking and professional.

Starnino may have sharper teeth than strictly necessary at times, but nothing he’s said (unlike the insult by Holmes) has made me feel embarrassed for the poetry community. If I have more respect for his criticism than the series of statements made about him by Holmes, it’s because Starnino knows the difference between an argument and something the reader is expected to believe simply because it’s bold. The comments by Holmes ­ and in particular the invented insult ­ can’t help but sound like personal distaste. We’re to witness Starnino’s “personal” attack in a recent Matrix magazine, and we’re also to believe there’s nothing personal about “assclown?” We’re to despair at “attacks” by Starnino when Holmes is inventing insults for him.

Michael Holmes has undoubtedly done a lot for poets and the literary community in general, through his work as an editor. But I know an unprofessional remark when I see one, and it can’t easily be dismissed as part of a discussion on wrestling. If he honestly thinks Starnino is suckerpunching people, it doesn’t then become his job to add another act to the circus. But I don’t write this to make announcements about people, I write it to suggest we remember to be professional. Our criticism and comments really need to be more than sardonic fatigue and thinly veiled character attacks. Anything else, and we deserve our own self-fulfilling smallness.

Alex Boyd