doing the same thing

I don’t dismiss a poet for being prolific, but I am suspect of rote output.

belongs here

No poem can escape a critical cubby-hole.

against fiat

Critical reputations are made on grand claims. Yet I’m suspicious of all grand claims, finding hedged hypotheses sufficient to most subjects, conjectures able to brush past any exceptions.

taken aback

After reading her poem in the workshop group she could hear a scuffing sound as chairs pushed back a little ways from the table.

first concern

Whether the assessment is positive or negative, the critic’s first task is to make the reader care.

book as wallet

Like opening your wallet to find it filled with ones and fives, the book didn’t seem to carry any poems of higher denomination.