Round 60

Yusef: "Translating" by Maura Stanton

Bob: "Self-Portrait with Critic" by Ira Sadoff

There is a verisimilitude problem in the Stanton poem (for me as a Spanish professor.) I don't believe that the particular words the speaker finds in "this novel / published in Barcelona in 1901" would really be found in a novel published in Barcelona in 1901. I don't believe that she would have found this novel by accident in a house she had rented. This does not diminish from the charm of the poem, however. Sadoff's critical self-examination describes what a lot of us do: "tinkering around / in a minor key, since no one's listening." Sadoff is leaner and more intense, but I have hard time dismissing Stanton, so this one is a tie.

Will Creeley win an absolute majority? There are fifteen rounds left, and he needs 38 wins (6 more).

After 60

17-32-10