Thursday, February 25, 2010

My Guardian poetry workshop: the poems

The results of my Guardian poetry workshop on commodities are now up, along with my comments. I very much enjoyed reading the poems – bananas, flour, March, meat were some of the goods that poets looked at.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

'Three posts in one day' as Crowded House nearly sang

'Finding rhyme is the constant deflecting of some possible intention.' – George Szirtes, writing in this piece on terza rima.

... and in this sense it is the archetypal poetic constraint, the thing which helps the poet escape herself. – me, amplifying clumsily.

'very, very likeable'

Matt Nunn reviews my book for issue 5 of Under the Radar magazine. Amongst other generous things he says:

The glory of this book is that you never quite pin the poet down to a particular style or mood. Once you think you’ve got him nailed, he’s off somewhere else to pastorals new. Most poets of recent vintage would be using such topics as a showcase in which to dazzle rather too brightly and brashly. But there is nothing showy when it is in Williams’ hands and you’re left with the impression that knowledge gets imparted not to showoff his learning but because he enjoys knowing about stuff, and he rather modestly thinks you might do too. Nobody likes a big-head, or if they do, they soon tire of them and modesty is very much the by-word for this collection and it is what I think gives it its sheen of immense likeability.

Of course I then dispel this impression by immodestly quoting the review on my blog...

Listen

Disgracefully ages since I last posted - just a quickie to kick off again, pointing to some entertaining poetry recordings on Staple magazine's site. The Eliot may be familiar, but the others may not - I particularly like Edith Sitwell's 'Facade'.