No, his own:
The underlying thrust of this essay has to do with a particularly antagonizing person in the form of Chicago Poetry’s C. J. Laity. This single individual has as of late done much to sow dissension, distrust and anger among a considerable segment of poets –particularly those who participate in open mic readings. Much, if not all of his venom takes place on his popular website. More poison is widely distributed through email blasts to supporters and past participants in his reading series. And while disagreements and heated arguments must happen, it takes on an entirely different, even insidious tone when it has the purposeful disconnect of cyberspace. It is worse when only one side of the disagreement is re-contextualized, then widely e- disseminated to an audience. The very fact that there is an audience is in itself disturbing- because being heard or in this case, read, the audience, even as passive recipients, amount to enthusiastic support. The singular root of this particular problem is not solely Laity’s outpourings of venomous defamation, and vituperative opinions. It’s the leveraging of the pseudo authenticity of a web site that purportedly acts as a clearing house for all things poetry being applied as a bully pulpit for an array of petty beefs that Laity has with individuals within the poetry community. Insult is added to injury because in using the web and mass email correspondence, those he has beefs with are caught blindsided, placed on the defensive in an e- war of words- in which only one side –Laity’s is actually read.
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