HOW NOT TO DO A BLURB (#1)

So I read poetry books, thus having reason to read the blather that infects the forest of poetry book back covers. I've decided to start a new series as a service to the poetry community, to wit, if you're gonna bother to blurb, here are tips on how not to do them because you just look like an ass...and other relevant reasons.

The inaugural tip comes from reading a poet say in his blurb about a another poet's first book, "...I know of no other American poet quite like him."

Sigh. I read the same book. Three other American poets immediately came to mind as regards shared approaches.

See, when you the blurber -- the so-called poetry expert -- says something like, "I know of no other poet that does what this blurbee is doing..." you're just setting yourself up to be dissed for not reading widely enough. Kapischie? So, find a way to compliment someone that doesn't rely on dismissing others.

Oh, but wait, that would mean a more unmediated relationship with the poems themselves....! [Insert Dramatic Pause.] That would not be such a bad thing, would it be, Sailor?