Alan Sondheim left Poetics list, as he announced on Wrting-l and elsewhere. what kept him? well, better chance to change a place if you are part of it. but Poetics is so much deadville that it just aint funny. anouncements can be handy but they shouldn't be the core of the list. the discussions are just plain shitty on the level of thought provocation. add the sneaky smelly racism, anti-semitism and other covert and overt operations that have clogged the list and and one sees that the list just doesn't have life to talk about. it may be that listservs have served, and another mode arises. blogs fill a need, for instance, tho I won't say exactly so, nor suggest that blogs are better than listservs. I know blogs have their weaknesses, some of which I like to exhibit myself. Poetics just aint allowing the strengths of the medium to arise. which sucks!. the lumpy complaints about Sondheim's contributions to the list give evidence of a tired whiny corrective. he gave a steady and wide range of pieces to read, offered occasional poetics type commentary, and stayed on topic. Poetics loses. and just to add here, I've reinstated the commetns box. the point is to cheer me up with lavish compliments. you may begin now.