If you happen to see the latest Utne Reader in your acupuncturist’s office, as I did, have a look at the article about America’s poetry phobia.

It’s a stupid article that relies mostly on Dana Gioa’s “Can Poetry Matter” for its notions, but towards the end it quotes a poem of Ange Mlinko’s as an example of “inaccessible”, “intellectual” poetry — although I would never use either of these terms to describe Ange’s poetry. The quote from her poem is the only thing even remotely readable in the article, and it’s amusing to watch how the author tentatively creeps up to it, finally allowing that we all have the tools to read the poem, which neither alludes to arcane theories nor employs any thousand-dollar words.

Utne Reader is a patronizing magazine that insults its readers.

Read Harper’s instead.