Here’s a comment I made in reply to a post by Travis Nichols on the Harriet blog. Yes, this is a post about a post to a post! And it contains a riposte….
I posted this reply to Greg Rappleye’s “Not again, Billy” post
“Logan continues to be one of the nastiest, shallowest reviewers around. He wears his cleverness like a cheap cologne (remember English Leather?), and the odor—part anger, part envy, part groundless vanity—is overwhelming. His atrocious poetry gives off the same reek, laced with a dash of sour malaise. His writing in either genre makes me want to take a mental shower, which I’m going to do right now….”
I did take that shower, by taking down my worn-out copy of O’Hara’s Collected, which fell open (I kid you not) to page 240 and this posthumous riposte:
THE BORES
Detraction is their game.
Like parrots, they caw forth
the ennui of the last time
that was theirs, and always
will be, empty. Unaware of what
is, or what’s moving toward,
with their sharp wings over
their eyes and tongue on palate
and beak on seat, they take each
singular event for someone’s
dear convention. Use an eraser
to take notes for their article.
The difficult is foreign and
the simple vulgar, to them.
They entertain each other.
Not O’Hara’s best, but certainly apt when considering Logan. From now on I’ll take notes with an eraser whenever I read him.