I stand by my guns - Poetry and Propriety ARE Absolutely Incompatible!
But to clarify: by that, I do not mean that a poet must use the BLANK word, or any derivative or synonym thereof. I mean that he/she does not let considerations of propriety ("properness," "niceness," etc.) interfere with his/her poetic expression.
Certainly a poet like Carl Sandburg, whom you cite, with all his professed commitment to and love for the "vulgus" (i.e., the "rabble"), would not shy away from words like BLANK simply because they were vulgar. He didn't use them, I would suggest, because they did not "fit" with his form of poetic expression. (And he would not have called the webmistress, if another poet chose to use them.)
By the way, Pushkin (the Russian Shakespeare) wrote a whole slew of very funny but very raunchy and truly Rabelaisian poems, which to this day are not included in his Collected Works. Speaking of Rabelais, I guess the only reason he can still be found in public libraries (where his works can be checked out by unsuspecting and innocent boys & girls) is because nobody reads him any more.
On the offending poem: it is true that all posts FROM James Flynn have been BLANKED out, but not all posts ABOUT him. In one of the latter, you can find the offending poem by said gentleman.
Carry on!
jbe
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