Dear Editor,

Your editorial "Let a hundred poems bloom" [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] (l2.2.2002) inspired me to write the following poem.

Let a hundred poems bloom,
Let the mediocre writers gather
and sing their songs to the open mike
be patted and praised by their mediocre masters
and let us "churlish" few who wish for good,
for best, for better sit and ponder
on the poorness of men, so smug, so content
to be mediocre.

I do believe my poem is bad enough to receive unending praise from Ian McDonald, Al Creighton, Ruel Johnson, and Terence Roberts who in last Sunday's Chronicle dared to liken the badly written works in the recent Christmas Annual to the writings of such greats as Gustav Flaubert? Is praise and glorification of mediocrity what we strive for?

Yours faithfully,
Ganga Ram