Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I've enjoyed the little innovations in the magazine, especially the lively discussions between writers about other writers. Then comes April, National Poetry Month, and suddenly the magazine takes a shift towards the controversial and manipulative. Gioia vs. Kleinzahler, Familiar vs. Obscure, Grapes vs. Sour, spurring the sort of stupid and endless debate that I despise when it comes to art. Between Gioia's purplish praise and Kleinzahler's (did he actually review the book at all?) sour condemnation of Keillor's Good Poems, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do now. I feel as if I've been pulled out of bed at 1:00 AM for no good reason except to insist that I will not be manipulated by controversy so blatantly stirred up in the same pot.