Murano is a little gem of a book. Somehow the accompaniment of pictures makes the poem stand out much more than it it does when you read it amongst all the other poems in Sweet Machine. Venice simmers and glides through the pages as well as all the glass. I’ve also bought Theories and Apparitions…
Thaw by Fiona
For a change from poetry there is the new novel – Thaw by Fiona Robyn for you to read which started on Monday.
Poetry in the streets
There was a wonderful article by Jane Gardam in Saturday’s Guardian Review about her and a friend bringing poetry to the streets of Sandwich. Something I’ve always wanted to do but never been quite brave enough.
Day seventy nine – Mark Doty
I’ve gone back to reading Mark Doty’s poetry over the last week. Hs poems have a deceptive simplicity. They look as if they must have been easy to write,, they flow like a conversation with a familiar friend. Doty takes the ordinary – a retriever fetching a ball – and turns it into a meditation…
Slipstream Poets
I’m highly commended in the Slipstream Competition
Day Forty Six
An acceptance in the post from Orbis for a poem of mine called Mark Doty’s dog. It will be in issue 150 or 151.
Gwyneth Lewis
One of my favourite poets. I’m hoping that eventually my Welsh will improve to the level where I’ll be able to read her Welsh poems in the original language. She has a new book coming out with Bloodaxe – the Hospital Odyssey She’s currently a fellow in arts and humanities at Stanford.
T S Eliot Prize
I got one of the short-listed collections Weeds & Wild Flowers by Alice Oswald for Christmas which I’m enjoying but somehow I don’t think it will win. Meanwhile the Poetry Book Society has one of Jane Draycott’s poems as poem of the month Technique A house is a good large object to visualise ‘Seeing With…
Day Thirty Six – Louise Erdrich
Up until now I’ve only known Louise Erdrich as a novelist but got her first collection of poetry Jacklight It includes this poemhttp://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171830 and more information is here http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/2905/Louise_Erdrich/index.aspx
Day Twenty – snow
The Christmas holidays have begun with snow for us – a rare treat. Snow The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window wasSpawning snow and pink roses against itSoundlessly collateral and incompatible:World is suddener than we fancy it. World is crazier and more of it than we think,Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portionA tangerine…