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Nothing can top poetry on the Net. If you piled up every literary magazine in America, I concede that you'd have a stack of good poetry. But you wouldn't have what you get from poetry on the Internet.
I once read one of his poems and recommended that he "whack" the last line. He gave a very good reason for not doing so, and, in good humor, called me a "Heraclitean Literalist," an accurate observation some of the time. Did it offend me? No, nothing much to do with poetry critique offends me. Rather, it made me even more curious about the gentleman who wrote those words. Chaffin ranks in the top tier of poets published, particularly in literary zines. His talent established, he has published so widely that I created a page for his links. Had I embedded them in this article, my readers would have hopped to so many different places, I fear the article would not be read at all. He is the editor of Melic Review, a literary zine that consistently earns high ratings. This publication has featured Lyn Lifshin, Janet Buck, Jennifer Ley, and Don Taylor, among others. Melic's poetry board, "The Roundtable", attracts serious poets; only a handful of such boards, if they're public, draw the talent that this one does. Both the widely published and newly fledged post work here for comments and feedback. Chaffin himself frequents the board and posts his own work as well. In addition to poetry, visitors sometimes debate theory and make announcements of interest to writers. Chaffin's name came up in a discussion with a colleague not long ago. I mentioned that I'd be writing an article about "Dr. Chaffin, " whose poetry she liked. She was shocked. "He's a doctor!" I told her he received his medical degree in 1980, and is assistant professor of Family Medicine U. C. Irvine. He and his wife have three daughters; they live in a high rise overlooking the Pacific. He began to submit work on the Net in 1997, the same year his first book was published. |
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