Reading
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Two short reviews: Tamar Yoseloff and Clare Best
A look at two recent publications. A Formula for Night, New and Selected Poems by Tamar Yoseloff, and Cell by Clare Best with art by Michaela Ridgway. New and Selected Poems: A formula for Night by Tamar Yoseloff from Seren Books. A New and Selected is a point of significance in a poet’s career, and shows someone unafraid to challenge herself conceptually…
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Struggling with John Ashbery and Jorie Graham
Robin Houghton‘s lovely blog has recently begun to document her mission to devour five poetry books a week. While I can’t match this, I think I might mention here some of the books I’ve been reading from time to time too. Especially when I’m on a learning curve. For example I’m not particularly drawn to…
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Gripped by the octopus of obsession
Sometimes I wonder if other folks obsess on particular poems quite as much as I do. Ocean de Terre (Ocean of Earth) by Guillaume Apollinaire is one of these. For the last five years I have been unable to escape its tentacles. It was Apollinaire who coined the term ‘surrealism’ and this poem has that disturbing dreamlike clarity…
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Poetry: reasons to be cheerful
An imaginary helicopter is a valuable possession. When I finally stop ignoring the helicopter in the room, I clamber in and rise vertically to peer down at life. (Google Earth has diminished the freshness of this metaphor for ever, of course, but you get what I mean). I did it this morning, and this is…
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Travelling Through and a kind of homecoming
Last week I found myself hearing Rhona McAdam and Tamar Yoseloff reading their work in the basement of a new bookshop and cultural hub behind Waterloo Station called Travelling Through. The event was so well attended that people sat on stairs to hear. Rhona and Tamar were joined by Sue Rose, whose work I thought excellent on this…
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Reading in the Poetry Cafe, Weds 7th Jan 2015
Please come to this reading if you find yourself in spitting distance of central London. For, with no trace at all of post-festive wear, Telltale press and friends will burst from the blocks on Wednesday 7th January, at 7.00pm at the Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, WC2H 9BX. Rhona McAdam, one of the outstanding Canadian poets…
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What I read in 2014: autobiography and other
Here are some more books I read in 2014. Autobiography 36 Views of Mount Fuji, Cathy N Davidson. My first book of the year, started on the plane back from Japan after a family holiday. Cathy N Davidson is an American Academic, and here describes three long stays in Japan and the cultural differences she found there.…
36 Views of Mount Fuji, A death in the family, Cathy N. Davidson, Elie Wiesel, Experience, Fictions, I know why the caged bird sings, Jorge Luis Borges, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Mark Ellen, Martin Amis, Matt Groening, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maya Angelou, Night, On Writing, Rock Stars Ate My Life, Stephen King, The Big Book of Hell, The World of Perception
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 