Part of note I sent Aldon Nielsen recently regarding Crag Hill's _7 x 7_.

Cool! Yeah, it’s really, really good. Well, ya know, there’s an amazing and inexhaustible variety and range of fantastic writing in the last 10-15 years. Maybe 5-10 times as many really, really very good poets and poetries. (And I believe A LOT of the “playing fields have been nicely, considerably leveled,” which is mostly a fantastic thing, though of course “in-betweeners” like me and I think you and Crag and so many others, did I mention any females, whew, them, too, Ha, face even greater “competition” to get some recognition, which is NOT a big deal, either, of course, but…) But although Crag’s 7 x 7 IS “hybrid” and definitely “avant garde,” it is also VERY TRADITIONAL in the sense that it focuses on a particular time period and personal, political, mature response to that time period, etc. I.e., it is “not” an exercise in “making a new form” (nothing “wrong” with THAT, either, but I want to point out that “making a new form” is NOT his goal) and 7 x 7 is simply spectacular poetry from a fellow who has ALL THE GOODS, somebody who CAN and in fact does take his tools to the work bench and carve out absolutely brilliant, and also "vintage-Hill" poming thoroughly focused on its subject matter (not an effort to explore a so-called new break in "the Tradition," and I don’t think anybody is going to have done what he’s done better. I really don’t think that anybody is going to have “captured” (sorry about the lameness of that loaded term, but it’s also exact) the most complete tone and intelligence that is needed for such a study/treatment of that subject matter, the Bush-Cheney 2000s, etc.

So there’s TWO things, I suppose, yeah: (1)Crag’s poming, in general, deserves greater attention, particularly because he’s, one, shortchanged as “Viz-po” and, two, he’s from the lost, left coast up in off-the-map, obscure Idaho; (2)THIS BOOK, in particular, deserves MUCH GREATER attention than it gets since it’s written by Crag and somebody of his/our generation, not the annointed ones from the previous generation (alright, my usual delusions coming into play now, so I’ll can it, Ha!).

Anyhow, onwards…