On Poetry

On poetry: Curiously, it is almost impossible to find such modest assessments when one turns to contemporary poetry. Indeed, the problem of neglect or insignificance evaporates in a situation in which, in spite of the vast numbers writing (800 to 1,000 books of poetry are published in the United States per year; thousands of other poets publish in journals and quarterlies), we have no minor poets. Everyone today, like those above-average children of Lake Wobegon, is brilliant and sui generis.

See also: David Orr on poetic greatness and "Internet 'is causing poetry boom'." Personally I'm partial to the Bookninja correction: Internet is causing "poetry" boom...