Wow, Jorge, that poem "Bunker" is fantastic. The syntax is so wonderfully manipulated, moving like an accordion from short to long sentences, and all the rhythmic comma-laden bumps and jerks along the way. Excellent work...

What's more, you have that killer poem in the new Columbia Poetry Review--I love the 'machine', my man...

Well, I do however, have to disagree a little with your mantra. Craft, in my mind, doesn't save idiotic content, no matter what. It's hard to imagine a poem which functions in such a way (we'd have to suppose anyone who 'mastered' craft would be intelligent enough to not engage in the asinine) but if one did exist, I would not grant it a free pass on account of its merit.

Art as an act is political. There's no doubt about that.

I worry about art with a message, though.

The challenge, I think, is to engage in political questions without becoming preachy or propagandistic.

Art tends to complicate things.

Politics seeks definite answers, answers to act upon.

These contraries might be the source of so much of the stickiness inherent in the marriage of the two.

By the way, I seriously loathe Forche's pretentious horseshit. Rich I can live with, mostly...

But hey, at least the Cubbies just put up a 10-spot on the Redbirds. Nine straight hits!