Yes, who can fathom the sea of writing that’s lapping at our doors? Maybe it’s the writers, maybe it’s you, maybe it’s the luck of the draw crossed with your sensibility. Etc.

Hi Marly – It may be true that women are doing more innovative writing these days; I don’t know. I’ll be blogging more women’s books than men’s this month for the simple reason that, aside from Howie Good, that’s who responded to my request for review copies at the beginning of March. Over the course of the past year I did get review copies of books by Steven Sherrill, William Trowbridge, Gabriel Welsch and Matt Mason, all of which I’ve already read at least in part and will be re-reading this month. I also ordered Adam Sol’s Jeremiah, Ohio after reading a selection at Poetry Daily last month, so that’s in the pile, too (but it’s going to be an all-day read).

Hi Pamela, I’m sorry you didn’t care for the direction my personal reader-response took, but I stand by it, and I think with this as with most things cultural there is plenty of room for differences of opinion. I’ve always been curious how these “best/greatest” decisions are arrived at, but as I’m sure you must realize by now, such judgements have very little influence on my own — I know too many cases here in the States of writers with relatively minor gifts rising to the top (though quite often those receiving the accolades do deserve them).

I considered not posting anything at all last night, but I didn’t have enough time to read and absorb another book by that point, and I thought I owed it to you to read the whole book and see if I could find something I liked. If I’d known the book was a personal favorite of yours, I certainly would’ve refrained and just skipped a day. I’m awfully sorry I’ve upset you.

The gnomes sound like the flying heads of Mohawk mythology.

I detect some sort of pattern here, for whatever reason. You are drawn to women’s writing. You find it stronger, more interesting. I’ll be intrigued to see what your conclusions are when you look back at the end of the month.

As somebody who has both read and been on the receiving end of reviews, I would say to Pamela that what they say is true: any coverage is better than silence, and that is often all that poetry receives. And Dave has given enough here that his readers can draw a different conclusion–and people are not quite sheep and are, oddly, often allured by a bad review. There is some part of us that must be cold to personal relations when we are reviewed or when someone we like is reviewed. It’s just not personal, even though it feels–sometimes deeply so–that way.