Scarriet

I want to give a shout out to my ‘bro, Nootch, who helped to make Scarriet’s March Madness a success.  He contacted the actual poets themselves who were selected for the tourney and got tons of positive feedback.

The final order of the invitational tournament was as follows:

1. Billy Collins….Billy won it all…this guy simply has the best ‘good poem’ percentage of any poet around.  “Composed Over Three Thousand Miles From Tintern Abbey” No surprise he’s on the Scarriet Power List, the Hot 100 at NUMBER NINE!
2. Reb Livingston took her “That’s Not Butter” and wooed the crowds all the way to No. 2 in the Tournament!
3. Janet Bowdan and “The Year” which was like the only good poem Rita Dove picked for the 2000 volume…WHAT A FREAKIN’ HAUNTING POEM THIS IS.
4. William Kulik…Look out for this guy…He’s not on the Hot 100…YET, but this List will change….!  NARCISSUS AND APHRODITE, BABY!
5. Stephen Dunn!!! DUNN IS ALMOST BILLY COLLINS-LIKE WITH HIS ‘GOOD POEM’ BATTING AVERAGE
6. Bernard Welt!!!!  His “why I stopped writing poetry…” sums up our age….ONE OF THE BEST SOUL-SEARCHING MID-TO-LONG POEMS EVER
7. Lewis Buzbee!  Rumors are swirling that Tarzan was nursing an injury, otherwise “Buzz” Buzbee would have won it all…  GIVE IT TO TARZAN
8. Margaret Atwood!!!  A poem, “Bored,” of poignant regret…BORED… BUT SO MUCH MORE!!!!   #65 on the Hot 100.
9. Harry Mathews “Histoire”   PERHAPS THE BEST QUIRKY POEM OF THE 20^th CEN
10. Robert Pinksy  “Pleasure Bay”     PINSKY DESERVES HIS REP WITH THIS POEM ALONE!!  He’s on our HOT 100 List # 11
11. Brad Leithauser  “A Good List”    WE LOVE LISTS!!!
12. Dean Young….’The Business of Love is Cruelty…’  now, Dean ‘Forever’ Young knows it’s also the Business of SPORTS which is Cruelty…BEAT AT THE BUZZER BY BUZZ BUZBEE!!!!   But Young is #35 on the Hot 100.
13. Louis Simpson…”The People Next Door.”   THIS POEM IS A MASTERPIECE
14. Kenneth Koch…One of the longest poems published by BAP…self-indulgent…maybe…but IT ROCKS….”Time Zone”   !!!!
15. Franz Wright…the SULTAN OF SINCERITY…”A Happy Thought” gonna make you cry!!!!!  Made the Hot 100 List at #91…
16. Alan Shapiro singing his Cowboy song….sweet sixteen you can’t go wrong!!!
17. Donald Justice, “Invitation to A Ghost”  INVITATION TO A GREAT TOURNAMENT!!
18. Dorianne Laux  “The Shipfitter’s Wife”   Robert Bly picked this gem…it is a gem.
19. Rebecca Byrkit “The Only Dance There Is”    The Only Dance is March Madness!!!
20. Susan Wood “Gratification”    Did alright…No. 20 out of 1,500 has to be gratifying…
21. Jorie Graham  “On Difficulty”   All that controversy about 16^th seed faded away when play began and the poets began to sweat…  Jorie is # 18 on the Hot 100
22. T. Allan Broughton  “The Ballad of the Comely Woman”    Almost an Albrecht Durer poem…just amazing…
23. Louise Gluck “Time”  Might be her best poem…could have gone further…farther?…oh hell…  This current Yale Younger Judge is #5 on the Hot 100!!!
24. Carl Dennis  “History”  Like Billy Collins, a fully fleshed-out idea before the poet begins his poem….
25. Donald Hall  “Letter With No Address”   What can you say about Donald Hall?  Beautiful.
26. Yusef Komunyakaa  “Facing It”   One of our greatest war poems.
27. Nathan Whiting  “In Charge”    Knocked off Ashbery!!!  Has John forgiven him yet?
28. Ron Koertge  “Found”   I’m glad I found this poem…Alligator Shoes…I’ll never forget it.
29. David Yezzi  “The Call”    Just a wonderful poem…
30. Vijay Sheshardi  “Lifeline”   This guy writes highly contemplative, intense poetry…
31. Ted Kooser  “The Hall of Bones”   is going to the HALL OF FAME, BABY!!!!!
32. A.F Moritz  “April Fool’s Day, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery”  An Updated Gray’s Elegy…
33. Galway Kinnell  “When One Has Lived A Long Time Alone” was upset in the first round, but this poem will be around a long time.
34. Sharon Olds  “The Wellspring”   Shooting to the stars…  Did we put her on our Hot 100 list?  We should have…
35. David Kirby  “Ode to the Personals”  A tour de force, predicted to go far, but tripped up in round no. 1…
36. James Tate  “Distance From Loved Ones”   Also On Our Hot 100 List!  # 31
37. May Swenson  “Dummy, 51, To Go To Museum, Ventriloquist Dead, 75”  One of Harold Bloom’s favorite poets…
38. Denise Levertov  “In California During the Gulf War”  BAP found a lot of good war poems…
39. Steven Dobyns  “Favorite Iraqi Soldier”
40. Mary Oliver  “Flare”    On the Hot 100 # 41!   Who came up with these rankings, anyway?
41. Amit Majmudar “By Accident”
42. Marc Jafee  “King Of Repetition”  A rare formalist poem…
43. Seamus Heaney  “Shooting Script”  Hot 100 # 2…Wow…Not much of a BAP force, though…
44. Jack Turner  “The Plan”
45. James Richardson “Vectors: Forty Five Aphorisms & Ten Second Essays”
46. John Brehm  “Sea of Faith”
47. Julie Larios  “What Bee Did”  The cutest poem in the competition.
48. Christopher Edgar  “Birthday”
49. J.D. McClatchy  “Jihad”   Hot 100 #  63
50. Eve Wood  “Recognition”
51. Catherine Bowman   “No Sorry”
52. George Bilgere “Healing”
53. John Ashbery  “Problem of Anxiety”   Hot 100 #  6  woo hoo!
54. Mark Bibbins  “Concerning the Land to the South of our Neighbors to the North”
55. Mark Halliday “The Opaque”
56. Lucille Clifton “mississippi river empties into the gulf”
57. Kevin Prufer “What the Paymaster Said”
58. Lynn Xu  “[Language Exists Because]”
59. Paul Violi “Counterman”
60. Brian Turner “What Every Soldier Should Know”
61. Alan Sullivan  “Divide and Conquer”
62. Jayne Cortez “Heavy Handed Dance”
63. Susan Stewart  “Apple”
64. James Cummings  “Poets March On Washington”   Thanks to the Kennedy Center for hosting Scarriet’s March Madness, and for everyone who made it possible!!