couple things at Bemsha Swing. the Shapiro poem he mentions, "On Learning that your Favorite Poet is a Homosexual", sounds like a parody. there's a whole "On Blah Blah Blah" genre of poems, creakily going way back, and in fact intentionally hearkening so, and this poem would be the 'modern' entry. not that it is parodic, I'm sure, and I'm not ignoring the cruelty inherent. such a poem nowadays would be tantamount to someone like Ron Silliman saying some female poet's photo is flat out sexy, or something just as unlikely. I know zero about KS, maybe negative zero for I'm pretty sure I don't like him, but I haven't read him. I hardly read any of that crowd. my initial immersion in poetry was almost immediately into post-modern, just the way it happened. while I had culture shock with the PMs, whenever I read those Oscar William sor Louis Untermeyer anthology entries from the 40s and 50s, I wondered why they bothered writing their poems, and why anyone took notice. I don't know if Berryman is read much outside of Grand Fenwick but declare he ought to be. I don't especially enjoy him but do get off on his cage rattling. he's got style. Lowell's just too dusty for me, fretted over extrusions. tho hey, Grenier studied with Lowell, of all the. I've mentioned it before, going over Lowell's "Skunk Island" in class with Grenier, syllable by syllable as if it were a Zukofsky poem. we weren't reading it as Lowell's poem, but Grenier's translation of it, I guess. that whole area of poetry, tho, that whole crew, just never reached me, nor could I reach it. I guess I'm just riffing here.