Any robust art form will often have its health called into question. Take English theater, for example. American visitors to London commonly discover that theater there flourishes as in no American city--and that newspaper reviewers are constantly issuing mournful prognoses and wistful elegies for some dim golden age. Conversely, when an art form is regularly praised for its strength, you naturally grow a little apprehensive.
By this measure, American poetry must be ailing. Is there any other art form in this country whose vigor is more dependably extolled? Literary organizations both large and small are forever "celebrating" someone or something--Midwestern poets...
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