Competition among poets does not generally lead to a mutual pursuit of excellence.

Instead, as with every other area of human activity since the twilight of the guilds, the competition manifests in the pursuit of separate ideologies, each with schisms and well-marketed subcultures. With poetry we confusingly use the same name for both the ideologies and their perpetually-renewed marketing -- poetics.

The ideologies have been equally busy replicating themselves. Neither can claim a monopoly on defeating pyramid logic. On seeking to promote the good work.

There is no common understanding of the experience of poetry, let alone what it might achieve. In place of work toward a shared description of poetry we get instead a constant barrage of superlatives. Marketing. Marketing that calls itself history.