Readers here know how much I treasure the writing of my old friend Jonathan Mayhew. In a recent post Jonathan lightly derides “the dreaded artist statement.”

Everyone that know me knows I hate that kind of pretentiousness. Mediocre poetry bolstered by pretentious explanations is even worse, because it isn’t allowed to be what it actually is, a modest display of one’s own literary persona.

“A modest display of one’s own literary persona” is a beautiful phrase. (One could substitute “artistic” for “literary,” and the point remains.) Sharing one’s work, completed as a recreational devotion, is a generous and notable gesture all by itself.