Deciding on a new poet laureate for California is an exercise fraught with complications. “On one side are lawmakers and constituents who want to honor a local poet – a man who writes rhymes for greeting cards, say, or a woman with a couple of self-published volumes to her credit. On the other side are writers and other intellectuals, urging the governor to name a serious poet, someone whose work is critically acclaimed but whose name is not widely known among ordinary people.” So who to picK/ Why not Merle Haggard…