Well winter is definitely here, and if you click on Poems, you'll see that I've refreshed the offering for winter 2009 – this time it's the full Cowarral sequence. Enjoy!
Save an endangered species – the Poetry Publisher
Another week: another poetry publisher waves for the third time at the crowd of spectators on the shore, and sinks back through the placid waters into the primordial ooze, with barely a ripple to mark the place where it was last seen. Excuse me sir – did you see what happened? No, not really. …
Continue reading "Save an endangered species – the Poetry Publisher"
Scandal amid the Dreaming Spires
My pleasure in Ruth Padel's accession to the position of Oxford Professor of Poetry was premature. It seems that she was the person who set the smear campaign against Derek Walcott into motion. In a statement to media last night, she had the following to say: I genuinely believe that I did nothing intentional that …
Revision and rubbish
I finished Poem, Revised the other day, and it was every bit as good as I'd hoped. There's one poet in particular that I'd like to quote: Deena Linett. Not because her revision was especially illuminating – we got the final version of the poem plus a lot of notes from early pre-drafts, along with …
Ruth Padel, Oxford Professor of Poetry
Hooray hooray for the month of May! Another first – Oxford University have finally elected a woman as Professor of Poetry! Ruth Padel, great-great-grandaughter of Charles Darwin (and cousin of my fellow Glamorganite, Emma Darwin). Her election comes somewhat soured by the late withdrawal of Nobel laureate, Derek Walcott, but you can read about that …
A Dark Feathered Art 