Other Lives

I don't often have enough time to update my blog, and today is no different, but I can hardly claim to write a poetry blog and not post an update on National Poetry Day. For some poets NPD is no more about poetry than any other day. I woke up in the early hours with an image on my mind but didn't want to lose any more sleep by getting up to write it down, and so it slipped back into the realm of dreams. It was a good one - they always are! - and I still feel satisfied by the way it had enough energy to carry on into a second line. In the morning I deliberately avoided Radio 4 since I generally dislike listening to actors reading poetry. Even if a poem is being read by the poet, I'm usually not in the mood to stop what I'm doing and give it my full attention in the way I would if I had chosen a book and set aside time to read it. Actors can get in the way of a poem - they perform, and fail to realise the poem, if it's doing its job, will speak for itself. In the wors...

On the topic of American poetry, the latest big anthology from across the Atlantic is 'American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry', edited by Cole Swensen and David St. John. The editors have identified a new trend in American poetry away from the long-acknowledged division between the so-called traditional and experimental. In its place, they claim, a hybrid poetry has evolved that blends trends from accessible lyricism to linguistic exploration. My feeling is that this book - or at least this development - will be highly influential over here as still-existing divisions dissolve and more poets recognise the possibilities of drawing from both traditions. Of course many poets have already arrived at a synthesis of their own. John Burnside comes to mind, as do Carrie Etter and Lavinia Greenlaw. The rest of British poetry will, I think, eventually catch up.

In the last few days I've read Robin Robertson's new collection 'The Wrecking Light' and John Burnside's most recent collection 'The Hunt in the Forest'. In the next few months I'm looking forward to Walcott's new collection 'White Egrets' and Sam Willett's debut collection 'New Light for the Old Dark' from Cape. The latter I imagine will win the 2010 Forward first collection prize - beating even mine, should it get short-listed! I was pleased to see Walcott expressing a preference for comprehensible poetry in the Times recently. One of the things I've liked about Willett's poems so far is just how readable they are. In some ways their descriptive quality reminds me of the early work of Douglas Dunn. In the year my own collection is due out, I hope these are signs of a move back towards greater lucidity in contemporary British poetry.