The Ron Artest of the English Department

"I do wonder, as a passing final thought, how the ending can be entirely 'throwaway' in Victor's eyes if he professes to like the second-last line, which is a departure from the horse-heavy 'intensity' he warns me against, and which leads (with what seems to me to be thundering inevitability) to the last line? I wonder, after reading his post, whether I ought not to sprinkle more 'throwaway' lines into the rest of the poem. But then, I guess I kind of like diving after loose words in a poem, just like Victor does with loose balls on the basketball court. I tell my students that I'm the Ron Artest of the English Department, as a matter of fact."
(April 15, 2005, The Miracle Shirker)