On Tuesday 22nd October a fantastic line-up of poets will be reading at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford. The evening has been designed to appeal not only to poetry regulars but also to people who’ve never been to a poetry reading before – so if you’re even half-tempted by the opportunity to hear some of the best contemporary poets (while enjoying a drink or two), please come along. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: September 2013
Living Myths: Jemma L King
In weaker moments it’s tempting to think of contemporary poetry in two unequal clusters: the dominant “poetry of anecdote” (praised in spite or because of its lack of magic) and the real thing. Jemma L King‘s debut collection is the real thing. Continue reading
Balance, intensity and complexity: Matthew Stewart
Wine is essentially indescribable. You don’t have to be a poet or qualified in the wine trade to realize this, but if you happen to be both then it’s unignorable. You can describe how a wine is made; you can (with training and practice) describe the structural and qualitative factors that distinguish one wine from another or allow it to command a particular price-point; you can explain how a wine makes you feel or the memories it evokes. But you can’t describe the thing itself. Continue reading
In a wingflap above me: Seamus Heaney
This weekend it’s been hard to avoid comparisons between Seamus Heaney (who sadly died on Friday) and WB Yeats. Both were Irish poets who won the Nobel Prize for Literature; both were well-known beyond the autolytic world of contemporary poetry; and both cast a long shadow over the writers who came after them. Continue reading