-
Exemplary
I’m a fan of Britain’s first female poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, but who knew she would be setting such a fine example for PoBiznesspeople everywhere? Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has announced a new prize celebrating poetry in all its forms, following her first audience with the Queen today. Funded by Duffy’s donation of her yearly £5,750 stipend as laureate to the Poetry Society, the prize, known as the Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry, will be awarded annually throughout Duffy’s 10-year term as laureate.Read More
-
Poll: Closet Versifiers Confess Poetry Dread
Now what do you think this means? Seven in ten (73 per cent) [of Britons] are “scared” by [poetry], according to a poll published today, while 67 per cent say reciting poetry leaves them tongue-tied. […] But more than two-thirds of those questioned say they have put pen to paper to create their own verses. Read the whole brief article here.Read More
-
A Pinch of Salt
Salt Publishing, the adventurous British publisher of poetry and fiction (publishers of the Katy Evans-Bush book I reviewed here awhile back), is struggling against the economic downturn.Read More
-
Reluctantly
I wasn’t planning to get into Derek Walcott’s Big Adventure with the gossip brigade, which was so loudly trumpeted in this country by Seth Abramson on his blog—see here and here. Seth got his panties so much in a wad over the fact that blog readers disagreed with his position that he finally disabled comments on the latter entry. But here I am, bringing it all up—reluctantly….Read More
-
A Self-Respecting Poet Laureate
Congratulations to Carol Ann Duffy on becoming England’s first female poet laureate. The Guardian has an oddly inspiring gallery picturing Duffy and 20 of her predecessors. Given the uneven quality of laureate choices in the past, it needs to be said that this honor is well deserved.Read More
-
Katy Evans-Bush’s Debut
Some months back I noted Katy Evans-Bush’s “appearance” on Jilly Dybka’s Poetry Hut Blog as an innovation: a virtual author’s tour.Read More
-
Jilly Dybka Hosts Katy Evans-Bush’s Virtual Book Tour
Ever been bowled over by a brand new idea? (New to you, I mean.) Well, I was bowled over today by poet Katy Evans-Bush’s “virtual book tour” on Jilly Dybka’s indispensable Poetry Hut Blog. Evans-Bush’s book, tantalizingly entitled Me and the Dead, has just been released by the British literary press Salt Publishing as part of their Salt Modern Poets series. Based on Jilly’s interview, and on the experience of reading an extraordinary poem from the collection (“The Bog of Despair”), I’m placing my order today.Read More
-
Duffy’s Range
Two extremes from Carol Ann Duffy‘s The World’s Wife: Mrs Darwin 7 April 1852 Went to the Zoo.I said Him—Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you. And… Pilate’s Wife Firstly, his hands—a woman’s. Softer than mine,with pearly nails, like shells from Galilee.Indolent hands. Camp hands that clapped for grapes.Their pale, mothy touch made me flinch. Pontius. I longed for Rome, home, someone else. When the Nazareneentered Jerusalem, my maid and I crept out,bored stiff, disguised, and joined the frenzied crowd.I tripped, clutched the bridle of an ass, looked up and there he was. His face? Ugly.Read More
-
Bacon on Blake
This haunting study for a portrait of William Blake by the painter Francis Bacon is worth spending some time with: Click here.Read More
-
Blake on Imagination
“To the Eyes of a Miser a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun & a bag worn with the use of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with Grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some See Nature all Ridicule & Deformity & by these I shall not regulate my proportions, & Some Scarce see Nature at all But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination Nature is Imagination itself.Read More