E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

[Note, in light of the subject of this essay's continuing refusal to apologise, recognise their errors, or show any humility or empathy, it is hard to maintain a sense of compassion for them; I thought they were merely ill - it seems they have deep hate; however, despite the recalcitrance and hole-digging, which seems deeply misguided at best, at worst, despicable, I will seek to maintain the position of trying to separate the sin and sinner. Though, for the time being, I can support those who now seek to publicly remonstrate and demonstrate against Twitter and this person's ongoing foul fusillades against the Jewish people. It's time for Wiley to take responsibility and acknowledge the pain he is causing. I pray he does.] Wiley has made a series of totally offensive and wrong anti-Semitic comments on Twitter, and was immediately banned (for a week) by the social media company - that false friend that encourages discord and profits by it - and has lost his management te...

Don Share's recent resignation letter from Poetry magazine contained a fascinating claim that poetry was a promise - a promise to the reader to ultimately do no harm to them.  Writing in the context of having published a very long, probably mediocre, and offensive poem filled with racist slurs, by a young, privileged, white American poet, in his famous magazine, this makes a noble sense. At a time when systemic racism is a vital issue to confront, editorial decisions have meaning - symbols matter, and time and space given over to less important themes or concerns can appear to be, or actually be, hurtful, and damaging. Share was writing primarily as an editor, willing to take responsibility for his selections and choices, but he is also a poet, and a scholar, whose expertise relates to Seneca and, in the modern period, Basil Bunting. Bunting, a disciple of Ezra Pound, could hardly agree with Share's idea of harm, nor would the stoic Seneca, since the stoics believed harm only ...