My hometown of Didcot, Oxon (formerly Berks) was identified as the most normal town in the U.K. according to the BBC and researchers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-39428314.amp? Which makes me a Normal Town Poet…. More to follow…
populism
The Greenwash Recycle
THE GREENWASH RECYCLE Starts in a marketing agency hand-out around the milleniumSocial demarcation and quantifying statistics showed newer markets More social class segmentation and new science of social media metricsIdentified new opportunities to market directly to the A B and C groups Especially those spending more time at home, the newly affluent mothersWork from homers…
Fake Farmers
POETRY IN ENGLAND
wrote this many moons ago nothing changedthe description of Les Murray reading at the end is true POETRY IN ENGLAND There is something about poetry in EnglandThat is awfully nay terribly Middle ClassSomething not quite right in the hands of a workerSibilants dribbling like snot from the poor man’s nose Wiping its sleeve on the…
#nationalpovertyday
PRIVILEGE: Thames Valley Texas
Privilege Is mine and always will be it is my birth-rightI am born to this and never shall let it slipI am the world king and God’s chosen oneTo let go of power is to betray you all I will make the problems disappearAll it takes is character as my masters told meDrilled with a…
The Function of Criticism
I have spent the afternoon reading the beginning of Yvor Winters ‘The Function of Criticism’ which I acquired about 30 years ago. I also read a couple of interesting articles online. The first by the poet David Yezzi is interesting and makes a case for his continuing relevance. The second is a wider career over-view…
Knowing my place: Thames Valley Texas
Doff your cap, Toe the line,Do a good job,Know your place,Speak when spoken to,Don’t talk back, keep mum, Be reliableHold your knife properly,Don’t leave the table until told to,Watch your step, March in time, Defer to your betters, Salute the flag,Be punctual, Do a good job, Never argue, Be polite, Bow,Scrape,Be invisible. If you do…
The last great White Elephant
In 1986 or thereabout I bought the Carver stories above from a shop in Plymouth whilst visiting my sister. It was the start of my obsession with all things ‘Americana’. I moved on via Granta’s Dirty Realism collection to a whole series of American authors including Lorrie Moore, Bobbie Anne Mason and then backwards towards…
Substitute : New volume of poems 2018
Sometimes all it needs is a trigger and Kit de Waal’s excellent piece in the Guardian yesterday brought together a lot of things for me that been bubbling under the surface. Her article ‘Make room for working-class writers‘ touched a nerve….. read it here https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/10/kit-de-waal-where-are-all-the-working-class-writers- Also she made a comment about how the Proper v Performance…