A reader writes and asks me to choose between Pieces and Crystal Lithium, but not to explain the reason behind my choice. Sort of a postmodern "Proust questionaire." I choose Crystal Lithium.

Here is my questionaire: fill out an "NCAA bracket," but substitute the names of poets, going all the way to the "final four." In other words, start with your 64 favorite poets, arrange them in brackets, and play them off against each other until you have a winner. Poetry is not supposed to be competitive, I realize, but I love top 100 lists and silly exercises like this.

Kenneth Koch's theory of poetic language actually helped me to teach a poem I had not intended to teach, in my hospitalized colleague's course. It was an over-the-top Romantic poem by Ernestina de Champourcín, but I could justify the language in terms of the communicative act: If you were telling death to take you away, then you probably would choose this self-consciously "poetic" language. It has a sort of "decorum" or appropriateness to situation, even though it is not to my taste. Within this style the poem is quite effective, even well written.