This just in . . . "Kitty Goes Postal"

 Poet Sharon Mesmer sends us this dispatch about poetry in an unlikely place:

How often does poetry make the front page of the Wall Street Journal? Poetry by LIVING poets, I mean?  Say what you will about flarf (if, indeed, you've said anything), but it has legs.  And pizza kitties.

The article's title comes from a poem by flarf poet Rodney Koeneke.  Why the reporter didn't attribute the phrase to Rodney is a mystery, but hey -- it's poetry in the Wall Street Journal.  It's FLARF poetry in the Wall Street Journal.  The piece mentions a few flarf poets by name, and features a drawing of Gary Sullivan, and the online version includes an entire poem by me, from my collection "Annoying Diabetic B----."  Yes, that's how they ran the title.  I know, I know: baby steps.

Thanks, Sharon.

-- sdh

Comments

[Eric Bourland]

I am never sure when I am reading flarf. The only time I am sure is when the poet precedes her poem with a statement: This is a flarf poem. Mostly I don't care if the poem identifies as flarf or not. I don't pay attention to the poem's ethnic identity. If the poem moves me, I like it. Does it move me, make me a little thoughtful or pleased or sad or anything. That's the only criterion that matters, to me anyway.

[Jennifer Michael Hecht]

Congratulations Sharon, this rocks.