Zeke Snirer, poetry critic
Zeke Snirer.
he’s young. ish.
he’s got something to offer the world:
he’s the best judge of poetry. ever.
this is his sincere opinion.
so he’s obliged to tell you. often.
in case you missed it.
he’ll take on any other poet.
invited or not.
especially celebrated ones.
he’ll even interrupt their own poetry readings
tell them how bad they are
and offer to read his own poems
to prove to the audience
what poetry should be.
he’ll grade Shakespeare’s sonnets
and tell you the very few
which are nearly as good as his own -
perhaps, just perhaps, better in some ways
though of course not in others
if he were interested,
he would grade you Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed,
and himself,
if he got into that line of business.
he’s a great spectator sport –
you can read him now on the internet –
if you like that sort of thing
and if you’re not one of his punchbags
for he’s like a boxer who announces a title fight
(to which he’s not entitled)
against a heavyweight opponent
(whom he hasn’t actually invited) :
then in the ring, it’s him
and a punchbag with his opponent’s name on it,
he hits it for a round or two,
claims a knock-out,
awards himself the title.
and afterwards says the other guy’s a coward
for not being there in person..
Bur does his abrasive whizz-kid act
aid poetry itself? does it shatter
the undeserved reputation,
the accepted status of the famed,
the thoughtless infill of the poetry
that sounds like poetry, but is no more than that?
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
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