And the hottest new poetry scene is in… Queens.

Or Melbourne, Australia.

Or Forklift, Ohio (not a real place).

Or Seattle, Washington.

Sadly, none of these places are Washington, DC or St. Petersburg, Florida.

DC is, perhaps, a little too institutional. Though it’s got a thriving visual arts scene. But the local poetry scene is very slam-centric. There is the Beltway Poetry Journal, but that’s exclusively online and I’m looking for more. I’m just not a slam person, as I’ve said before. I love poetry on the page, even when I read it aloud. Yes, there are the readings at the Folger Shakespeare Library, which I attend religiously, as well the Poet Laureate and other readings at the Library of Congress. But nothing which seems half so interesting as what’s happening elsewhere. But they – the residents of elsewhere – they feel that way too, don’t they?

And Florida is Florida. We elected Rick Scott for governor, for heaven’s sake. The man ran a company that in a very real and tangible way defrauded the taxpayers of this country for billions. You can’t write an elegy that depressingly sad.