So Here We Are

A combination of busy times at work (Birdfair and all that), lack of inspiration, and sheer bone idleness have resulted in updates here being a little sparse of late.

So, in the interests of doing a bit better at keeping abreast of what's going on in poetryworld, I'll try to blog daily for the next couple of weeks.

To start with, allow me to point you in the direction So Here We Are, from Shearsman, a collection of David Caddy's essays on poetry. Among the subjects covered are here Raleigh, Barnes, Sonia Orwell, Blake, Ethnopoetics, Salisbury, Griffiths, Bunting and Fitzrovia, Walking, Celebrity, Fisher's Place, Raworth's Comedy, the anti-pastoral, Prynne, Crozier, John Riley, David Gascoyne and Forests.

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The latest in poet and Tears In The Fence editor David Caddy's So Here We Are series is up at his blog here, and well worth reading. It's also available to listen to on MiPoradio by clicking here.

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I've been pretty poor at posting anything just lately, although for once it's been because I've actually been getting on with some proper writing.

But anyway, here's the latest of poet and Tears In The Fence editor David Caddy's So Here We Are letters. I'll be having a careful read of it over the weekend, because he touches on a few things close to my heart. One is John Clare, of course, but another is the whole idea of the forest in this country, bound up as it is with the Norman Conquest, Robin Hood, and so on. Over several years, I've been piecing together a sequence of poems about Leicestershire-based Hood inspiration Roger Godberd, and this might give me a bit of new impetus to get on with it and finish it.

He also touches on enclosures - although he's talking about events that took place in the 19th century, it was something that had been going on since at least the end of the 16th century, and was the main cause of another of my historical hobby-horses, the Midlands Revolt of 1607. So, read and enjoy, and expect a flood of historical poems from me some time around 2012.

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More good stuff over at David Caddy's blog - here's the latest of his So Here We Are letters.

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The latest in this series by Tears In The Fence editor David Caddy is now available here as a download, although as usual you can also read the text here, on David's blog.

As you'd expect when the subject is JH Prynne, it's a pretty weighty read, but it's well worth it. I was immediately struck by what David says about Prynne's poetry frequently getting described as "difficult" and "arid". Difficult is fair enough (not that difficult is ever necessarily a bad thing), but arid seems far too perjorative. Whatever else Prynne's poetry is, I'd have thought it's extraordinarily fertile with possibilities.

But anyway, have a read yourself. If you're already reading Prynne, or thinking about giving it a go, this puts his work in some sort of context.

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Here's the latest in the So Here We Are series, from Tears In The Fence editor David Caddy. If you'd prefer, the full text is here. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's always thought-provoking.

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The latest of David Caddy's Poetic Letters From England is available to listen to here, while as usual, a text version can be found at David's blog.

It's a timely look at Basil Bunting's work, because I'm pretty sure that Faber have Bunting's Collected Poems coming out in the next couple of months. Another essential volume to find the money for!

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The latest in Tears in the Fence editor David Caddy's Poetic Letters From England is here. As ever, there's a text version on the blog. Also as ever, there's plenty of food for thought there, which of course is the only kind of food we should be thinking about now the excesses of the festive season are in the past.

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Here's the link to So Here We Are 8, the latest of Tears In The Fence editor David Caddy's Poetic Letters From England. As ever, it's interesting stuff, taking in all sorts of diverse writers, including John Arlott.
On that subject, I know he's regarded by many as the voice of summer, but I was a bit too late to hear much of his radio career, and so Richie Benaud takes that title in my memory. Usually TV sports commentators are grating at best, but I always loved Richie's pithy way with a phrase. His exchange with Geoff Boycott on the last day of the 4th Test between England and South Africa in 1998 was magnificent, and his despairing exclamation that "it's absolute carnage out there now" as David Gower stroked 215 against the Aussies in 1985 was the stuff of legend.
I think I might be straying from the point a little...