In the Fall 2009 issue of American Poet, I came across an ad for Donald Revell‘s new collection The Bitter Withy. The ad quotes TIME magazine’s praise of Don: “It takes guts to write more poems about peace, war, God and children.” Now, I admire Don’s poetry but have to wonder about the times we live in when TIME can call it gutsy to write about such topics. I would argue it’s gutless not to write about them.