By Thomas Lifson
American Thinker | March 21, 2005

Poetry is a window on the human soul.

Sad to say, American poetry has fallen on hard times. At least that branch of it represented by the dozen or so poets recently outraged by an article we published which dared to criticize anti-Israel poet Ammiel Alcalay. Judging by the communications we have received, and by the ‘guerilla’ tactics employed against us, these poets, many of whom teach at respectable universities and colleges, are a pathetic lot. Incapable of reasoned argument, spewing epithets, pretentious, paranoid, and stupid enough to conspire and provide cause for legal action right in public, they embody, in James Taranto‘s phrase, a ‘toxic mix of self-pity and thuggery… characteristic of an alienated political minority.’

We were happy to publish immediately the first two letters of complaint which we received on the article. The first one came from Lisa Jarnot, ‘assistant professor, Brooklyn College, Dept of Creative Writing,’ whose only approximation of substantive criticism was ‘you are totally out to lunch.’ The second letter came from someone claiming to be ‘M. Arnone,’ and employed sarcasm, as well as the adjectival form of a vulgar word for sexual intercourse which we duly censored in publishing it. Our contributor Herb Meyer even wrote us a letter about Professor Jarnot’s communication, which we also published. Continue reading “Dense poets society” →

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