I am happy to admit that, again, I recommend a friend's poem. And what I like even better is that one of these poems appeared in a workshop Sean and I had together. I don't mention this out of some sense of propriety. The version of "Tribunal" appearing in Mid-American Review (29.1) is pretty much in the same place I remember seeing it then.
I'm more interested in this strange argument that people raise regarding MFA programs, and how they only seem to produce one "workshop" poem. Maybe some of the people with that concern would say that Sean's poem is just that, a "workshopped" poem. I don't think so. In fact, what I would argue is that good poets go through workshops so that they can learn more about their own poetry, and good poets, like Sean, know what advice to disregard, and what advice to follow. I don't think this poem needed a whole lot of guidance. There is an exoticism to the scene, a hovering threat, an implied violence. And there's a torquing of language (cliched language, even) that carries a political statement.
I don't want to use Sean's poem as too much of a platform, because I think it deserves a recommendation free of platitudes. I'm just getting frustrated with some people blaming MFA programs for the publication of so many bad poems. There are other mechanisms in the poetry publication machine that deserve some critical attention. John Barr, who is so fond of grandstanding in Poetry against graduate creative writing programs would be good to check his own publication.
Related Links:
Mid-American Review (worldcat search for Mid-American Review)
Gulf Coast (where Sean is Associate Editor)
