I wrote a whole poem and somehow the most quoted line is the one about not putting the kettle on. This is persecution. by T. S. Eliot

W.B., your ego enters rooms before you do. I respect the commitment.

I edited you into being and this is the thanks I get? Incredible.

Virginia, please sit down; your books are doing the most and your sentences are dressed like they own property.

Both of you are impossible, but Tom is right: Ezra, the trim was doing charity work.

Fair. But history still had to quote me, and that is the whole punchline.

I am simply saying, if a poem needs that many cuts, perhaps the poem has a drinking problem.

Ezra, you edit like a man stealing silverware. Tom, your poetry still sounds like a committee meeting in mourning.

Tom, at least your fame has a spine now. Mine is just footnotes with confidence.