New Champions of Poetry

  NOTE: PLEASE IGNORE THE NOTICE ABOUT THE IMPORTANT NOTICE. PREFACE  The business of language is characterized by an amazing variety of professional experts, amateur novices, self-appointed know-it-alls, shameless hucksters, freelance anarchists, sniping weasels, shameless imposters, and bombastic authorities.    Linguistic outlet centers, semantic temples, semiotic monasteries, vernacular malls, and syllabic circuses swarm and hover, slash and burn, hit and run, appear and disappear. Poorly disguised lovers of the fast buck and the latest fad, these editorial entrepreneurs shuck and jive their way into the spotlight, dance around for a while, then drift into the shadows of last year’s old news.  Like the one-hit wonders who wrote a single catchy hook or an infectious chorus, temporary gurus enjoy our attention for a few flickering moments.    More often than not, whatever theory they have espoused lacks substance because they failed to establish a br...