shamefully poor poetry coverage in guardian

There's a really quite poor article by Stephen Moss in The Guardian today, on what the front page of the G2 supplement calls 'The new golden age of poetry'. Apparently represented by Don Paterson, George Szirtes, Al Alvarez, Carol Ann Duffy, and a handful of other people you might read unwillingly at school.

I found the article so feeble that I registered and left a comment online - actually the first comment on the piece. You can read it at the article, or I've included it below, complete with typos.

deadwasp
18 Jun 2010, 10:03AM

This is exceptionally annoying, and ignores the vast amount of vibrant, innovative poetry being created. It is also incredibly parochial.

There is no mention of publishers such as Reality Street or Salt. Or of slightly smaller concerns like if p then q, Dusie, Arthur Shilling or Knives Forks and Spoons.

There is no mention of The Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, which is
beginning to examine the poetics of the work being created, under the editorship
of Scott Thurston and Robert Sheppard. Both poets who perhaps should be
mentioned in an article discussing contemporary poetry/

There is no mention of the Bury Text Festival, run in 2005, 2009, and being held for the final time next year.

There is no mention of a huge number of established and rising innovative poets. For me these would include Caroline Bergvall, Sean Bonney, Philip Davenport, Allen Fisher, Tony Lopez, Geraldine Monk, Maggie O'Sullivan, Holly Pester, Sophie Robinson, Matthew Welton and many more.

There is no mention of sites like The Other Room and Openned, which both rose out of reading series. The Other Room series continues in Manchester.

There is no mention of the role of the internet, and the way it is giving poets a much more international and outward looking attitude. Ron Silliman's blog has probably been a key part of this.

There is no mention of less traditional practices like sound poetry and visual poetry, which have begun to become much more visible in recent years. The American Geof Huth's blogs are a good place to start, but there are sites devoted entirely to ascemic writing (a specific form of visual poetry) for instance.

Although some of the major figures in establishing sound poetry, such as Bob Cobbing and Henri Chopin are now dead, there are a number of poers working with sound, whether using the voice, tapes and loops, or the whole range of digital technology available to them. The most prominent name currently would be Jaap Blonk.

This is only a short selective snapshot of an entire world that has been ignored in this article in favour of what are, frankly, a set of dreary and old-fashioned poets. Not only that, they are a set of dreary and old-fashioned poets a similar article would have held up as examples of poetic vigour twenty years ago.

No wonder people have no interest in poetry if this is all you have to offer.