What is it about lefty politicians, that they feel the irrepressible urge to express themselves in verse? Jimmy Carter gave us a whole book of poems. Now Al Gore has succumbed to the temptation, further strengthening my longstanding demand for a poetry-licensing system. We don’t let people drive cars or fly planes without a license. Why should we let them write poetry? I’d like to see a rigorous test, in which the applicant has to demonstrate full mastery of alliteration and assonance, imagery and metonymy, amphibrach and amphimacer, rondeau and pantoum, triolet and villanelle. Three failures on the test should result in a lifetime ban.

Should you wish to sample some real, living (mostly), serious, hard-working American poets, I recommend the Swallow Anthology of new American poets, just out from Swallow Press of Athens, Ohio.