Round 49

Yusef: "Poem for the Novelist Whom I forced to Write a Poem" by Daniel Nester

Bob: "Sonnet" by Charles North

Nester's poem is quite charming and has been growing on me over the past week. There is a gaffe, when he calls his novelist friend "a Greek goddess / descended from Cavafy." I'm not sure why this rubbed me the wrong way. The idea is that poets leave out details which novelists put in. Nester brings in Frank O'Hara explaining why he is not a painter. I wish I could read the poem the novelist wrote alongside of this.

North writes in the hermetic mode of the early Ashbery. These lines could be from Some Trees:

It expresses its reluctance as virtue.
It is reluctant to intrude, like minds into
the fleetingness they concede.

When it is convenient to me, I make a great show of overcoming my prejudices: for some reason the New York poets I love have tied or lost throughout this game. If I go back more than three times between the two poems, as in this case, I must declare a tie. North's poem makes fewer mistakes, but is less interesting and engaging.

After 49:

14-26-9