[New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count

[Rsgwynn1 at cs.com]

In a message dated 7/1/2008 6:39:07 PM Central Daylight Time, millb at aol.com 
writes: 
> Marianne Moore certainly crafted worthy poems out of newspaper clippings, 
> as did Sylvia Plath and TS Eliot and probably more, but I cannot think of any 
> right now. Certainly Shakespeare drew on Mirror for Magistrates and 
> historical stories for his plays. What's wrong with CD Wright perhaps being inspired 
> by something less than throwing herself into volunteer work on the 
> battlefield?
> 
I don't recall that Moore proposed herself as a witness to social injustice, 
unless you mean her great unwritten poem protesting the injustice that sent 
Sacco and Vanzetti to the electric chair.  As for Plath and Eliot I can't say; 
can you be specific?  Plath witnessed the concentration camps by comparing them 
to her father and her marriage.  What did Eliot claim to witness?  Pound 
certainly did; witnessing the sad fall of his hero, Il Duce.  And Shakespeare, as 
far as I can recall, was writing plays, not lyric poems.  I don't recall his 
claiming to have personally witnessed what happened at Bosworth Field or 
Agincourt.  

Jesus, I'm not talking about political poetry or poetry of social protest.  
I'm talking about uninspired journalism posing as poetry.  Have any of you 
actually read the book under discussion?  If so, please let me know.   
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