Defending Ron Silliman

Over at his blog today the Irascible Poet (Raymond L Bianchi) goes after a certain Dr. Michael Theune for going after Ron Silliman/experimental poetry.

Here's an excerpt from Ray's post:


Dr Theune continues his vituperative attack by accusing us of being deceitful and being people of privilege because we champion Experimental Work. This is rich from a man who has degrees from Oxford, Iowa and Houston and who teaches at an elite private school in central Illinois.

The realities are that all three presses and anthologies he attacked are run as shoe string non profits with most of the operating capital coming from small donors or from the editors pockets.


At first, reading this post, I was really excited. It's always exciting when someone's passionate about something. And when they're defending Ron Silliman! Well, everyone knows Silliman's my man. So, beat that with a stick! Mmmmmm.

But then the wistfulness set in with a vengeance. I remembered that I haven't dreamed Ron in so long. My tail hanging low low low down between my legs I went to my long-neglected Dreaming Ron Silliman blog (no dreams to post,.. like a ghostly ruined building. a church...sigh...) and read through those dreams. And I sat here, in front of my tormented Van Gogh poster, and began to cry.