exception to the rule

Matt Dioguardi is one of the few guys posting poems who is not full of himself. I'm a worst-offender. Matt is a model of well-adjusted attitude. He doesn't take himself seriously. That's like discovering an exotic new life-form in the middle of a bustling city.

Lord have mercy! What is it with male writers (big- or small-time)? We think our junk would cause God himself sit up and take notice. It's not just our profound, world-altering poems and stylistically strutting prose. It's our smarmy opinions on any given topic. We think we actually know stuff. We want the women-folk to take us seriously. To be in a certain awe of our penetrations into the nature of reality and of our subsuming experience into breathtaking poetry! "Hey, baby...I'm gonna make you float like an angel or jump like a beatnik!" Or if not stunned, at least be extremely impressed.

Female writers, for the most part, offer their creations with a measure of humility. They don't seem to be one-person parades blaring trombones or throwing glitter confetti over their own heads. Us guys are nuts. We think we're so damn cool we don't realize how utterly stupid we look.

But Matt...well, he is someone to emulate. His opinions are measured and sober. An attractive self-deprecation casts, ironically, a more compelling light on his utterances. His poems are made available with no fanfare and no expectation that anyone should have an orgasm or epileptic fit over his creations.