Reminds me of a great Pogo strip. He and Porky Pine are in the General Store. There is a box on the counter marked on one side Charcoal and on the other Licorice. Porky tries a piece.

Pogo: How was it?

Porky: If it was charcoal it was pretty good. If it was licorice, it was terrible.

Billy Collins' "Litany" might fit well. A poem that itself satirizes poetry.

Agree, no guarantee that another candidate would have done better. But Harris was hobbled from the start. Biden, and by extension, his admin, lost enormous credibility. Not sure any national election is rational now, but lately they all hinge on persuading about 100,000 voters in seven states.

I think both these issues could have been finessed. He originally said he was a transitional or bridge candidate. Time to let a new generation take over, etc etc. As for Harris, you praise her but say it's best to let the people (party) decide in an open contest.

There is a reasonable chance that had Biden stepped aside sooner there could have been a primary process that could have resulted in a strong, vetted candidate, and one not so thoroughly identified with Biden's administration. I know this is hardly an original insight. But it's plausible.

In a heartbeat

Seconding what @bocassell.bsky.social said above. Read, read, read. Read poems in styles you think you won't like. Give yourself permission to write some lousy poems. Billy Collins once said everyone has at least 200 bad poems in them that they have to get out of their system. Oh, and read.

I grew up in Charleston in the sixties and seventies. My neighbors and classmates were named Soferra, Sottile, Codespoti, Portaro, Patillo...you get the point. They came over in the same waves of immigration as my German and Irish grandparents and great grands. Never noticed a lack of self respect.