William Waltz is hardly engaged in, or settling for, the sort of Eddie Van Halen guitar soloing with words that Mr. Levits presumes. Instead, Waltz is a true heir to the Romatic tradition — a critic of it, to be sure, but not JUST a critic of it. “Zoo Music” is a book that believes and succeeds in speaking from the human heart, to the human heart, about love, nostalgia, displacement, with as much natural eloquence as unadulterated fun and witty postmodern awareness.

I hope Mr. Levits and others who share his concerns don’t dismiss this book. It would be a mistake.

Which, if I read right, says that, since there are less interesting, or far more dangerous, personal preoccupations, these of Waltz’s (kudos for no cheap punning) are innocuous enough and therefore OK.

If I’m right in reading that last sentence of the review, then it truly is a sad day for poetry. I suppose what goes unsaid is, “Well, at least he isn’t pumped up about kiddie porn, torture or war.” No, these rather banal and finally inscrutable abstract nouns (irrepressibility, incorrigibility) are safe enough. And isn’t that just what we want our poetry to be?

Perhaps what Mr. McDaniel is unwilling to say is simply, that for all the display of vocabulary, it isn’t really in the service of anything.

“I stash alibis under grandstands in green mint boxes.”

Despite the mouthful, pleasantly so, that this line that Mr. McDaniel quotes may be, I simply don’t believe it. The pyrotechnics that pass for diction at least in the examples offered suggest nothing more than a charming romp through the dictionary and an ear for “chewy” language.

Given the multitude of publishing outlets, openness to form and “experiment,” and latitude afforded poets working today, I find it hard to believe that irrepressibility and incorrigibility aren’t the most common enthusiasms out there. Moreover, shouldn’t we hold that these enthusiasms must work toward some end? Or are these in themselves ends enough now? In which case, we have a poetry created by poets just clever enough to entertain themselves.

Perhaps having Dean Young vetting it provides some cover for this book. I dont’ know; I haven’t read the book. But Mr. McDaniel could do us all a favor and say what he means. We won’t as readers, I believe, be confusing him with Dale Peck anytime soon.