Mike Snider: "either he's {I am} delusional or the students he knows are functional illiterates to whom all writing is equally opaque."

Yes, indeed, they are readers unused to any poetic writing at all, for whom any such writing would be equally opaque. The amount of effort that it would take to teach them to read Tennyson is approximately the same as the amount of effort it would take to teach them to read Bruce Andrews, ceteris paribus. Not only that, but they would quickly see that Andrews is speaking of issues relevant to the present day. Silliman would be far easier to teach to them than Tennyson. K. Silem Mohammad's flarf poem in the BAP could reach students quite easily. They might not accept it as poetry, but that might provoke an interesting discussion. I think students would enjoy poems by Arielle Greenberg in the BAP as well, with very little special training, and many others. It is not writing that is opaque but readers who are closed off to new possibilities. Opaque readers, as it were. It is not so much a lack of intelligence as a lack of open-mindedness.