Sturgeon's Law is "90% of everything is crap." Here's Theodore Sturgeon's original statement: "Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud." So the Sturgeon's Law most people quote is actually one word off, but doesn't "crap" sound better than "crud"?

No better than 10% of the poetry out there today is good and worth remembering. (I mean 10% of what's published and pushed as good, not of everything that everyone writes and calls "poetry," which would make the percentage much, much, much lower.) Donald Hall says "most poetry of any moment is terrible," and that a great anthology would have to include "one-hundredth of one percent of the poems published" in the time it covered. I like Donald Hall more as a critic than as a poet.

You may notice that, in addition to all the discussion and recommended reading, some of my own poetry is accessible from here, and ask "Are you really arrogant enough to think your own work qualifies as good?" My answer: well, maybe 10% of it.

If you want to get in ahold of me for whatever reason, including to ask me to add something to the site, arrange to send a review copy, ask me to read, pay me money (I don't know why), or give me a good reason to write a poem for you, here's how: