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Sucking Up (My Morning Vitriol)
“The Contradiction” (by David Spear) Why am I not surprised that Michael Robbins, in “reviewing” Lyn Hejinian’s My Life and My Life in the Nineties, begins with a truth (that Language poetry is boring), then accurately characterizes Hejinian’s approach: “writing as a paradoxically polished automatism.” Robbins is obviously a bright guy. Of course, calling Hejinian’s approach paradoxical doesn’t explain or justify it; in fact, it unmasks it as an exercise in cynicism: polish gives the lie to the writing’s ersatz automatism.Read More
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Knott Politics
I don’t believe in censorship, but censure is sometimes called for. In this case, it’s a piece of pseudo-political dreck by Michael Robbins, who—in a poem tantalizingly entitled “To the Drone Vaguely Realizing Eastward”—attempts to avenge the 200-plus children so far killed by drone strikes. Here’s the first verse: This is a poem for President Drone.It was written by a camel.Can I borrow your phone?This is for President Mark Hamill. Maybe one has to be drunk on Sterno to write this way, or maybe all it takes is a PhD from the University of Chicago.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2018, has published 17 books, including a translation of flash fictions by Mexican author Miguel Lupián, and co-edited two anthologies. He lives in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. He teaches at the University of Denver's University College, where he currently directs two programs: Arts & Culture and Global Affairs. 
