Now here’s the kicker. The poems were taken seriously for two years.
Eventually, the authors came out and said it was a joke.
The poets lived to a very old age, and had some success in their field, but they never, ever again wrote anything as good and spontaneous as Spectra. Never.
This is why I have always maintained that artists should never, ever make jokes.
Artistic hoaxes always backfire because they are always taken seriously.
It makes me wonder if we shouldn’t all be hoaxing the public. We have plenty of company.