Dear Andrei Codrescu

Are you kidding me? You contribute to our anthology and then you write this at Exquisite Corpse? :

"Poets Bookshelf II, edited by Peter Davis and Peter Koontz, Seattle: Barnwood Press. This is a book about what poets influenced the poets in the book in case somebody wants to be a poet like one of the poets in the book and read all the books that influenced that poet – that’s known in the trade as a Circle Jerk. I’m in this book saying something to the effect that too many people influenced me to sort them out now, plus I’ve influenced a lot of the people that were in both. Vol I and II, but they are too pretentious to know it, so they pretend that they were influenced only by people like Guy Debord and Edmond Jabès, which sounds really impressive, esp. since I am reasonably sure that they haven’t read more than one page of these resonant names’ works. Most poets are not only liars, but have an inflatable organ that swells them to ten times their real size as soon as you ask them a question like, Who Influenced You?, which makes them the size of squirrel poop (inflated)."


My God! You're that one guy at the party who says, "Everybody here is so lame." You think other contributors have inflated egos and yet you're certain that you've influenced "a lot" of them who are too "pretentious" to "know" it? Yes, Andrei, they have inflated egos. You aren't anything like all those other poop-sized poets! Still, you sound a little bitter about not being mentioned more. But remember every vote for Guy Debord, Edmond Jabès, and any number of "resonant" names is really a vote for you. So really you were mentioned a ton! It's a shame that you are the only one who knows how many times you were mentioned via pseudonym. If you let me know, I'll be sure to make a note of it to correct for future editions.

Sincerly,
Peter Davis

P.S. the co-editor is Tom, not Peter, Koontz