Clarification
OK, I don't know why previous replies here haven't posted, but I'm giving it one last try.
First off, I'm David Blaine. I'm the member at The Guild of Outsider Writers who thought of having the Micheline Memorial contest.
Paul Corman-Roberts is a member of our group, but he didn't join us until after the contest was over. In fact, Paul withdrew his entry to the contest when he decided to join us, just so there would be no conflict of interest.
We try to run a straight ship. We didn't charge any entry or reading fees for our contest. The judge, Todd Moore, isn't a member. Neither are SA Griffin, who wrote the introduction, or AD Winans, who wrote the afterward.
In the review of Justin's book at our website, Paul said that it was unfair to compare Justin to Buk. OK? He said he was going to do it anyway, because others were going to if he didn't.
So I really don't see that he said anything wrong, anything disrespectful to either Justin or Buk. Can you disagree with him? Do you think if he hadn't made what he claimed was "an unfair comparison" that no one else would have brought it up?
Buk is a benchmark for anyone who writes this type of poetry. It's like when you go overseas and people want to know how much gas costs in Italy. They don't want to know how many Euros, they want to know how many US Dollars. Because that's the benchmark here. The fact that you couldn't buy any gas in Italy with US Dollars is irrelevant.
OK, maybe that comparison doesn't help explain my point, but I don't claim to be a world class poet or writer!!!
Take care, nice visiting here and this looks like a great website.
BTW, if anyone would like to read Justin's book, it's only six dollars post paid
and you can order it from our website, www.outsiderwriters.org.