It is a national or perhaps global tragedy that this is even necessary. I am not going to speak in defense of poetry here – I have done that before and I suspect my point of view is clear.

But I am going to praise The Atlantic for embarking on a five part series about poetry, opening with a piece entitled The Righteous Skeptic’s Guide to Reading Poetry by the Iowa Writer’s Workshop fellow, Adam Roberts.

He opens with describing scenario most of us poetry lovers have encountered – the self-described voracious reader who nonetheless professes some kind of allergy to poetry (almost as bad is the person who reads some poetry, but, in effect, only reads poetry by dead poets – the Romantics and maybe some Frost and Dickinson).

Adams says he intends to make this a sort of “state of the union” for American poetry and will, next week, tackle the idea of accessibility.