This article, thanks largely to the quality of the dissenting voices it seeks out, is a more intelligent take than usual on Poetry and its millions. I continue to think of all of the bluster about "the common reader," much less "poetry users" (!) is an exercise in bad faith; the only truly democratic way to increase poetry's popularity and secure a base for it is to have it taught in public schools from elementary school on up. I speak of "literary" poetry only, of course: from Dylan to Kanye to slams, poetry is as popular and enduring as it ever was. You want meter, rhyme, and storytelling? There they are, considerably enlivened by being heard rather than read.

Amused by David Orr's verse review of Billy Collins' latest, in which he convincingly damns with faint praise.