Saturday, March 21, 2009

So many poets...

...and so little time to read them all. Spared the household chores because of an injured knee (don't ask!), I settled down to read some poetry. I finished Robert Sheppard's 'Warrant Error' and re-read some of Ian Seed's 'Anonymous Intruder', both excellent books which will soon be reviewed on Litter. I then read some poems by Elaine Randall, which I was bowled over by and must read more of. I then picked up one of my batch of Oystercatcher Press pamphlets - by one Rufo Quintavalle, who I've never heard of. A non-English sounding name, but what seemed to me to be an English-like droll humour. The poems were profound. And they were funny - not belly-laugh funny, but made me smile. The pamphlet's title was a reference to a famous Englishman - Auden - 'Make Nothing Happen'.

I don't care if there are 100,000 English-language poets, or a million, or whatever the latest figure Ron Silliman has come up with. If they're all writing as well as the poets I read this afternoon, then that's fine by me. Just give me time to read them all.

1 comment:

John B-R said...

Even if they're writing less well, hopefully they're kept so busy by poetry they don't have time to join Brown et al's big network of anti-terror "watch-yr-neighbors" types ... let there be a million of em ...