POETICS

Nancy Shiffrin’s “Playing Politics in the Poetry Game” (Feb. 23) finally brings to the surface the nastiest aspect of the L.A. poetry scene--chauvinism and an incredible narrow-minded attitude towards the art itself.

Laurel Ann Bogen’s 10-year wait for a reading at Beyond Baroque is an absurdity which is not news to other established “voices” in Los Angeles.

The two word reply--”Not yet”--had been often used by the now-defunct Foundation “magazine” which then proceeded to publish in-progress work by the same few in-house poets. Boring is a good description, but provincialism is much more apt.

ROBERT HARRIS

Sherman Oaks