I just casually found out that a poet failed to do her homework. Ishle Yi Park’s Signs of God ends on a fantastic verse about a tight rope walker, Pierre Petit who crossed the Twin Towers in 1976. the problem? Pierre Petit was a photographer who died in 1906. it was Philippe Petit who was the tight rope walker.

less egregious error: Ishle said 1976 when it was really 1974. who does her fact checking???

I’m outraged for 2 reasons – simply changing Pierre to Philippe would have had no impact on the poem (other than making it correct). also, Signs of God was the reason I went out of my way (and believe me when I say out of my way — I was in contact with PoetCD for almost 6 weeks) to buy Ishle’s CD. I feel duped.