Leaking out some meant-to-be-tough-love from poet I'm no longer in touch with.

Making this communique from earlier in the year public because it indicates how some in our poetry scene (and perhaps yours too) tend to react to complainers (guilty).  Human nature indeed.

Crying "poor me" all the time is boring and only hurts YOU. Once you have been branded, its hard to make it go away...its like an unwanted nickname, human nature and american social structure feeds that sorta bullying and as long as you keep playing the part, you will continue to be held in that regard... and believe me, from the folks that i [know in the SoCal poetry community].. most now, because of your attitude, consider you little more than comedic entertainment. Again.. im not saying these things to be HARSH.. im saying them to help you come to grips with the reality YOU have CREATED for yourself. no one else is responsible but you.. no one has the power to make the needed changes but YOU.. I am taking the time to attempt to help you realize that perhaps you are WRONG, and i do it out of respect for your support of my past endeavors and that i feel that for some reason (unknown to me) you have some regard for my opinion. Admitting being wrong is a trait that our culture really frowns upon, and being humble enough to admit when you have said or done something way outta line and stupid will gain more respect than anything else i know.




[SoCal poets' names redacted] and others you have issues with have traveled the country and the world and have performed their words for micro cultures of many different sizes and creeds.. their opinions hold merit, and should really be LISTENED to..sure they should be taken with a grain of salt, but they have experience and have learned things about the poetic experience that you have not, and their opinions hold keys and things to be learned..ignoring that is just stupidity. why would you NOT be interested in their opinions?? Poets as a general breed, are honest.. if they say something to you and you take offense to it.. its probably because you cannot handle criticism very well, and again this comes back to YOU.. not them. You are the one with the problem.. they do not have a problem, you do.