Eric Morago's tact-challenged review of Alex Frankel's latest poetry book.

Full disclosure: I had a Little Red Book published years ago by Lummox Press.

http://poetix.net/reviews.htm  (see May 2014 for the full review)

Key passages of Eric Morago's review I took exception to (highlighting by me):

Birth Mother Mercy does not feel entirely whole to me, or rather, actualized. I say this for a few reasons: there are poems, and even a whole section, which feel quite disjointed from both tone and theme of the collection’s best work. This results in jarring the reader in a way that I don’t believe is intentional, and undercuts the strength of the really good poems—the weight they give to the collection. And what of those really good poems I speak of? Frankel has a handful of them in this book, mostly all about the passing of his father—his processing of that loss and the anger he feels towards his father’s widow. They’re all quite good. So good in fact that Frankel had them all published already in a chapbook entitled, My Father’s Lady, Wearing Black, put out by Conflux Press. Now there’s nothing wrong with pulling from past chapbooks, or even having a whole chapbook serve as a section of a full-length manuscript, if it fits the collection—especially if the chapbook was published years prior, has long been forgotten about, and/or is out of print. But here’s the thing—My Father’s Lady, Wearing Black was published in 2013…the same year as Birth Mother Mercy.
So upon learning this, as a reviewer, as well as a reader, I’m left asking myself: “What warrants these poems’ being republished so soon in a full-length collection only two-thirds more the size of the original chapbook—a two-thirds which is arguably not as strong.
Follow up questions I ask myself are: “Why should I buy the same poems twice?” Did Lummox not know? Was Frankel trying to pull a fast one so he could get two books out, or did Lummox solicit him for a full-length manuscript and, not wanting to turn the opportunity down, took his already balanced chapbook and flushed it out with some other miscellaneous work, thus creating a lopsided Birth Mother Mercy?

Why do I assume there was no editor for Birth Mother Mercy? A couple reasons. First, there’s no editor accredited, which leads me to suspect no one filled the role. Second, the poems that are in the chapbook, My Father’s Lady, Wearing Black, appear as exact copies in Birth Mother Mercy. This suggests Lummox had no editor to offer possible changes the second time around when it came to publish the poems once again, which only begs the question yet again: Why should I buy the same poems twice? (Even the blurbs on the back of the two books are the same.)
Why is an editor so important? Their job is to help the poet shape their manuscript—to understand and support the poet’s voice, while at the same time offering a fresh perspective in order to ultimately build with the poet a collection that is the best representation of their work. The end result should be a polished manuscript that feels fulfilled—that feels labored over by more than just the poet themselves, but by editor(s) and publisher alike.
Alex M. Frankel is a talented poet and puts good work out there, but Birth Mother Mercy is an awkward representation of his strengths, especially with My Father’s Lady, Wearing Black situated as the more attractive older sibling. Perhaps if some different (possibly editorial) choices were made with Birth Mother Mercy, the collection would stand out more to me as masterful than mishmash.

Something Eric Morago and I have in common.

What's that something, you, the poet, might ask?

Both Eric Morago (don't know him personally, but he's a Name in Long Beach/OC and occasional reviewer of poetry books for www.poetix.net) and I have been beneficiaries of anonymous attacks.

Recently, Mr. Morago took to Facebook and discussed his situation (a remark left on the Goodreads site).

Here's the remark intended to wound his pride:
To draw comparison Eric Morago is to poetry what Colonel Sanders is to food. You see it everywhere but it's cheap and tasteless.

Another poorly-written and uninspired work. This author has no concept of the desires of the human condition implied by the title because of the priveledged status he enjoys. Due to being personal buddies with
people in local venues and publishing he has no incentive to produce anything good.His arrogance and those of his croneys are just shameful.
If you listen critically to him next to other poets he's shown-up every time.
Those who respect the art do not respect Morago.
He'll be forgotten.

Read the book review by Jason Thornberry in the "Adirondack Review".
It's an impartial review because this critic is not part of the local poetry circles that cater to Eric.

Here are a couple of responses to Eric's post (which you can see in its entirety on his Facebook page/wall):
Andrew Hilbert--Fuck that guy. Sounds like an insecure poet who is jealous of having friendships within the community. I hear these gripes of cronyism all the time. Having social relationships with like-minded people isn't exactly ground breaking. It's the nature of nearly all human friendships. This guy just doesn't like to smile and perceives people who do as arrogant. I'll say it again: Fuck this guy.
[oddly enough, that could be used to describe me by some people]

Danielle Mitchell--Hey E, I feel for you and I totally understand your desire to speak out. Remaining silent when you are attacked is the worst thing you can do for yourself. It's like being attacked twice, once by the insecure, jealous low-life and once by yourself. So I hope you continue to speak out whenever and wherever you come across bullying efforts such as these. That said, after reading these "reviews" it's pretty clear this guy isn't a brilliant writer, in the reviews written under the name "Emmet" there are multiple typos. And all of them are clearly biased, ridiculous, and petulant outbursts from a feckless bully. I don't think anyone who comes across them on their own will put any confidence in them. I hope that gives you some comfort at least. Stay strong and know that you ARE loved and respected by your poetry buddies! Always.

Now my opinion: I'll agree with Danielle on the remark about remaining silent when attacked being "the worst thing you can do for yourself."  And I'll disagree with Andrew a bit on his remark defending like-minded people (which can also be translated into words like clique and circle).  Oftentimes, we fail to comprehend outsiders with issues when we are part of a circle of "like-minded people."  I can testify to that myself during my early years in the poetry community of SoCal (roughly 1998 to 2002).  When you're "in", you regard those who are out as one-dimensional losers.  And, to be honest, the allegations of cronyism may not be totally off-base as the community shrinks in membership and becomes more intolerant of perceived amateurism and greater conformity on what is or is not "good" poetry.

At the same time, anonymous attacks deal out unnecessary stress and anguish to their victims.  Eric Morago is handling it in a more restrained way than others would, thankfully.

But perhaps it's time for his nonfan to sign his/her name to the criticism and start a rhetorically nonviolent conversation as to why he/she feels like a misfit in the LBC/OC area.

The art of full disclosure when writing poetry book reviews.

First, I'll start with a full disclosure of my own: I once had a book published by Lummox Press and was included in an anthology of its Little Red Books series.

G. Murray Thomas, who reviews books for Poetix.net (alongside Eric Morago), knows the proprietor of Lummox and has toured with him in recent months. 

But Murray routinely reviews poetry volumes published by Lummox and even more routinely fails to offer any kind of full disclosure.  This modus operandi has also occurred with books from Write Bloody.  There, the ethical conundrum gets a bit stickier because Derrick Brown's Long Beach-based small press recently offered up the NEWS CLIPS AND EGO TRIPS anthology, based on the NEXT....poetry magazine edited by....G. Murray Thomas.

Once again, I'm aware that a certain segment of the SoCal poetry community views itself as small enough where friends write reviews of each other's books and few people don't care to see this as any kind of an issue.

And I'll give Murray the benefit of the doubt and guess he does his best to be objective when writing reviews of Lummox and Write Bloody offerings.

But, if the poetry community in SoCal wants to trumpet its idealness more convincingly, then it should avoid too many occurrences of even the appearance of conflict of interest.

UPDATE 6/5/12: Heard from Murray privately (sent him comminique via Facebook); essentially, his response is that "most people" know he knows people from local presses and that he's not interested in full disclosure.  Case closed.