. . . same as the first.*
Nothing against Don Share, of course. But “[a]fter an extensive national search” … really? Still, what could we expect from an organization whose “incoming president” could—with a straight face, I’m sure—remark, “Don Share represents significant change as well as continuity.” Just as Poetry Magazine represents good poetry as well as bad, I suppose.
Still, maybe along about January I’ll re-up to see if Mr. Share’s editing “bears the handprint of necessity” (to steal the luminous phrase that Laurence Lieberman, I believe, once used in a review to describe W. S. Merwin‘s The Lice).**
_______________________
* I never thought I’d get a chance to use a line from the old music hall hit reprised by Herman’s Hermits in 1965 and for which I have a juvenile fondness. At least I have something for which I can be grateful to the Poetry Foundation.
** Thanks to David Giannini for calling me on my laziness via email: I failed to look up the source of “handprint of necessity,” choosing instead to go with my memory. Bad choice! The coiner of the phrase was actually James Dickey, who used it in his review of Merwin’s The Moving Target—the collection just prior to The Lice. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to all you birders for keeping me honest?
The Herman's Hermits song was one of the songs we played at our 6th grade party on the last day of school, June 1966. First time I danced. We held the party in the school gym. Oh if we'd only known what lay ahead…
Let's start a new poetic movement: Punsterism!
This comment has been removed by the author.
And I'd easily confuse Don Share with Don Knotts but never with Bill Knott…<br /><br />I know, I know
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dammit,Joe, I thought you'd jump at the chance to use this overworked-to-death line* in here somewhere and give it new life!<br /><br />*"share and share alike"