Saturday, 12 December 2009

This is just to say...

...that occasionally you read a poem that really blows you away. I've been enjoying John James' Collected Poems a great deal in general, and I've been reading it in chronological order, but earlier I skipped ahead a little and, picking up again at random, read a poem called The Conversation. Amazing, exhilirating, and genuinely uplifting. Read it, even if you read nothing else by James (although you really should!)

2 comments:

Steven Waling said...

Fantastic poet. One of the reasons why the perpetual divisions in poetry are so dumb. He's so good, and communicates so well, he should be much better known.

Matt Merritt said...

Yes, I totally agree, Steven. Glad to have come across some poems of his in a recent Tears In The Fence - I bought the Collected on the strength of them.