Apropos nothing really, I awoke the other morning to a disturbing noise – a little bit like a large person wrestling a drunk whale might sound. I was pretty sure it wasn’t me. It couldn’t have been my digestion, for example – that tends a little more towards a wet owl trapped in a leather bag – and it wasn’t my new tenant, their being too small to make such noises. It wasn’t the plumbing; it wasn’t anyone I could see outside. It was a little late in the morning (it was a Sunday) and I was a bit confused (it was Saturday night the night before) and I remained baffled for a good while, turning over, agitated, some two or three times, before remembering I had ear plugs in.
I removed them, and realised it was time to blog. So, here we are: I’m blogging again, after a bit of a hiatus in recent months. And, now I’m blogging again, here’s something more useful:
The second part of the two-part feature on younger poets is now coming together and I’m ever-more-rapidly picking my way through the second half of the 300 submissions received. Apologies if you’ve been waiting a while to hear anything. The sound track this time will be Beirut once more but with a few cheesy 80s pop numbers for the more languid afternoons – to keep up the energy levels. Added to this are a number of new music discoveries, after the many suggestions received last time round: thank you very much to all of you who took the time to send recommendations, via email or through the blog. It was very welcome indeed.
In the meantime, I thought I’d point you towards a few blog reactions to the feature so far, which have largely been positive, with a few fair criticisms. Todd Swift’s response is here, and is a good one, to which I’ve responded in the comments section. Let us know if you have anything to add. The mysteriously wry poetry shadow-boxer Mr. Ron Paste also very kindly suggests, with slightly less irony than usual, that it “is the best, most interesting and wide-ranging (and, by the same token, least boring) spread of new verse we have seen this century” which was very kind of him and which is, obviously, true. And the fine young poet, and hard poetry worker, Ben Wilkinson, recommends the issue to his readers here. And I, in turn, recommend his blog generally to you, too.
So, onwards… with open ears and a clear head. Stay tuned for more about the next installment soon. And, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to buy your copy to keep tabs on it all. It is, after all, “the best, most interesting and wide-ranging (and, by the same token, least boring) spread of new verse we have seen this century” – did we mention that?
