Martin Stannard at Stride

Martin Stannard's poems for the young at heart (Leafe Press) is reviewed by Steve Spence for Stride here – you can also find out more about it and Leafe's other excellent publications here.

Incidentally, over at Gists & Piths, Simon Turner has his response to Appendix 2: A Test For Poets, from Martin Stannard's book. You might actually need the book to get the full sense of it, but then you were going to buy that anyway, weren't you?

The Elephant Tests reviewed at Stride

Over at the online magazine Stride, which remains one of my most regular browsing places on the net, The Elephant Tests has been reviewed very kindly by Alasdair Paterson - it's always nice to get a good review from someone whose own poetry you like a lot.

Also reviewed are Angela France, Patricia Debney, Richard Skinner, Jennifer Copley, and Ian Brinton & Michael Grant - that's pretty nice company to be in, too. There's a lot of food for thought in this piece, and at least a couple of books to add to the 'To Buy' list.

Three British Birds

I enjoyed these poems by Stephen Meek over at Stride - as always, lots more good poems and reviews to browse on there, too.

David Hart on RS Thomas

I enjoyed reading this double review, at Stride, of RS Thomas's Uncollected Poems and Poems To Elsi - David Hart has an interesting take on the whole question of how a famous poet's work is approached (and Thomas was of course not just famous but also, by contemporary poetry standards, a big-seller).

David Swann: The Privilege of Rain - Time Among The Sherwood Outlaws

As I've moaned more than once recently, I haven't been getting time to write the reviews that I'd like to for this blog. One of the books I've enjoyed a lot this year is David Swann's The Privilege of Rain - Time Among The Sherwood Outlaws (from the excellent Waterloo Press), so in the absence of any coherent thoughts from me about just why I like it, read Steve Spence's very positive review of it in Stride. I like the point he makes in the last paragraph about it being a book that keeps asking unanswerable questions - that's a mark not just of Swann's sympathetic approach, but also of his unassuming, modest style as a writer. It works superbly.

Some poems to enjoy

Stride is a reliable source of excellent poetry and reviews, and this week I've been enjoying these poems from Steven Waling, particularly My Father's Ship and Front Rooms: An Essay.

What's new?

It's always nice to welcome a new literary magazine or webzine on to the scene, especially when it's one based in the Midlands (sorry, let my regionalism get the better of me there). Jane Holland's behind Epicentre Magazine, and I like the fact that she's planning to run it with rolling updates, rather than on an issue-by-issue basis. As she points out, that's what Stride has been doing for years, and doing very well - it's certainly the webzine that I read most regularly.

 If you look down my sidebar, you'll also see a button that links to the excellent Talking Naturally website. Charlie Moores is the man behind it, and the podcasts and 'Conference Calls' in particular are highly recommended.

Web wanderings

Given that I spend absurd amounts of time trawling the web at work, a disturbing amount of really good stuff slips under my radar. Clearly I should be looking a bit more closely rather than just amassing trivia which I can then put to use on Sporcle.

So, I’ve only just realised that Tony Frazer, of Shearsman, has a blog, and that he’s just published Elisabeth Bletsoe’s first three collections under one cover. I’m a big fan of Shearsman, who not only have some great poets on board but who also take care to make their books things of beauty. Bletsoe’s someone I’ve read too little of, but what I have seen I've liked a lot, so this will fill a gap in my knowledge.

I’ve also only just noticed that Hand + Star, the poetry reviews site, also features some original poetry. All sorts of good things there when you start looking.

Stride is an old favourite, and I really enjoyed reading the latest batch of reviews. Jeremy Over’s book sounds right up my street, so when the purse-strings allow…

And finally, a bit of a heads-up for this fundraising reading taking place in Leicester tomorrow. Sounds like a varied line-up of writers, it’s a lovely venue, and it’s for LOROS, a cause very close to my heart.

Some more reading

Truly excellent reviews by Phil Brown (presumably not the Hull City manager) of Luke Kennard and Tom Chivers, over at Stride.

I've got the Chivers collection, but not started it yet, and have already blogged about his Nine Arches pamphlet. I'll catch up with the Kennard book soon, too - his last was wonderful. But anyway, the reviews are, in themselves, a pleasure to read.

Mark Goodwin: Else

There's a good review of Mark Goodwin's Else, recently published by Shearsman, over at Stride. Mark is a Leicester-based poet, much published in magazines and online, and he read (very well) at the Shindig! event just before Christmas. Anyway, it's a book I must get hold of - there is, as the review says, a very outdoorsy quality to his poetry that sometimes reminds me of an old favourite of mine, Gary Snyder.

As usual, there's plenty of other good stuff to browse at Stride, too.

New Sphinx

I got home late last night to find the new issue of Sphinx waiting for me. I made the mistake of dipping into it for what was supposed to be five minutes, and ended up reading Rob Mackenzie’s excellent piece on poetry blogging, a fine interview with poet, artist and Stride Magazine editor Rupert Loydell, and Tia Ballantine’s perceptive (and glowing) review of James Wood’s Inextinguishable. Who needs sleep?

There's plenty more still to read, and of course the website contains a wealth of reviews that complement the printed version. Sphinx editor Helena Nelson mentions that it is likely to go totally online in the near future. It’s a shame in some respects, but on the other hand it will give it the opportunity to maintain its high standards without running up huge bills. Stride itself serves as a good example of just how well an independent online mag can work.

Whatever the format, Sphinx remains an essential read for anyone interested in the poetry pamphlet world. Buy one now.

Anglo-Saxon attitude

Time for a look what's new over at Stride. Lots of new poetry, for a start, of which I liked these pieces by Matt Fallaize the best.

There's also these reviews, especially those of the Old English Poems and Riddles, and the Poems from Egil's Saga. I like the sound of the extracts from the former, and it's always good to see Anglo-Saxon poetry getting plenty of new interpretations (Jane Holland has an Old English translation appearing in her forthcoming third collection from Salt, for example). The alliterative stress metre that it uses can take some getting used to, but once you've tuned into it, it is, I think, capable of carrying more than just the elegaic tone for which it is usually noted. It certainly demands to be read aloud, so as the review suggests, an accompanying CD might have been a nice idea.

Regulars here will know that I'm a big fan of medieval Icelandic literature, especially the so-called 'family' sagas. Egil's is one of the big three, along with Njal's and Laxdaela, and although I wouldn't say it's my favourite (I'd always go for Njal's Saga), the title character is truly memorable, a psychopath quite capable of writing poetry on the spur of moment to save his life, so this book looks well worth checking out.

Poets in person

Not much to add to this review, except to say that I agree - it's good to see something like this from a major poetry publisher like Bloodaxe (very reasonable price, too), and I suspect quite a lot of other publishers will be wondering why they didn't do it before now.

Anyway, great idea, great review, and I'm off to order a copy now.

Meanwhile...

Plenty of good stuff over at Stride. There are these poems by Jennifer Olds - some great stuff from her also featured on the site last summer.

There's a review of Kelvin Corcoran's Backward Turning Sea, which includes the chapbook Roger Hilton's Sugar, which I reviewed for Sphinx a couple of years back. I liked it a lot, and Andy Brown is similarly positive about it.

Finally, there's a review of Stephen Romer's new collection. I remember reading some of his poems years ago and liking them a lot, and I was thinking just the other day that it was a long time since I'd seen anything from him.

More news

Eras seem to be ending all over the place. I noticed the other day that Robert Minhinnick is stepping down as editor of Poetry Wales. It's a magazine I buy now and then (probably every other issue, when I see it on sale in Borders), and usually enjoy. No word yet on who'll be trying to fill his shoes.

Elsewhere, I was surprised to find that Stride Books is quietly passing away (don't worry, though, the magazine continues to be very much alive). It's a shame, because the handful of Stride volumes I've got are, quite apart from their eclectic content, beautifully produced, with a definite house style. I know some will feel that content should be everything, but I'm an unashamed book fetishist. I like them to look good on the shelves (or more likely the floor in my house at the moment), feel good in the hands.

Finally, there's this lovely little plug for Troy Town on the HappenStance site, thanks to Helena Nelson. I'm thinking of taking that "Merritt is the man to take on holiday with you" line entirely out of context, and seeing what sort of offers I get.

In brief...

It's that time of year again already - yes, NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) 2008 is upon us. The idea is a simple one - you sign up, and then write a poem every day throughout April, posting them as you go along, and getting feedback from the other participants. Of course, you also get to read their poems and provide constructive criticism.

I'm not going to be taking part this year, because I'm still rather tied up with trying to finish a sequence I'm writing about the Midlands Revolt of 1607 (more interesting than it sounds, honest!). But I can recommend having a go. Last year was a struggle, but an enjoyable one which resulted in a fair number of decent poems. You can, of course, revise them once it's all over, and that's where the crits came in handy.

Elsewhere, I liked these poems by Peter Dent, over at Stride. Oh, and things have gone birdsong-crazy over at The Herald.

Reviews and news

There's an excellent review of Colin Simms' Gyrfalcon Poems by Mike Barlow over at Stride. I think most of what he says is fair enough, really, especially about the field-note feel to much of it, and I'd guess that's always going to appeal to birdwatchers more than the casual reader. The thing about reading it in small doses is a good one too, although I tend to do that anyway, or rather to get a bit worried if I plough straight through a book of poetry too easily. Poetry, for me, is a fine single malt to be enjoyed after the meal (novels, history or whatever). There - how pretentious does that sound?

But he's right. It is, in effect, a Selected Poems, albeit all on one subject, so reading it like a single collection probably isn't the way to go.

I'm also indebted to Eleanor Livingstone for pointing out this, in the weekend's Scotland On Sunday (go down to the poetry review section). Always nice to get a mention.

Current reading and browsing...

Big new batch of posts over at Stride - I like the look of the Ivon Hitchens book, he being an artist I've liked for a long time, and Simon Foxell's Mapping London sounds pretty enticing, too. I love maps of any sort, to be honest, and I tend to love London too, when I'm not there, which is the vast majority of the time.

Where books are concerned, I'm still enjoying Colin Simms' Gyrfalcon Poems a lot, and having mixed thoughts about Mark Cocker's Crow Country. I absolutely loved his Birds Britannica, and I have a very big soft spot for corvids, but at times in this new book he does go over the top, rather. It's when he starts straining for 'poetic' effect, I think - a "rose-tainted sky", or a "junta of greylag geese" (why? in what possible sense a junta?) - that I lose patience a little, and when he tries a bit too hard to justify his obsession. Don't get me wrong, it's a very enjoyable read, and both fascinating and moving, but he could do with reining things in just a little at times.

New at Stride

Couple of noteworthy posts over at Stride. First, there's these very fine poems by James Midgley, who you might also know as the editor of Mimesis. I found myself printing them off to read again at home, which is always a good sign with poetry I read on the net. They're well worth the company's ink.

Secondly, there's Stride editor Rupert Loydell's picks of the year. I can't claim to have read much that's on the list, although that's more down to lack of funds than inclination, but I did enjoy the Mike Barlow and Luke Kennard volumes, and I'll take this chance once again to sing the praises of Karen Solie's Modern And Normal. When I come to do my own pick of 2007, I'm pretty sure that it will be occupying top spot. Still just about time for that to change, I suppose, but whatever - it's a really excellent book.