Eyewear

100 Best Living British Poets: #95 PATIENCE AGBABI

2012-01-25T12:05:00.002Z

Patience Agbabi #95

100 Best Living British Poets: #96 GILES GOODLAND

2012-01-25T09:14:00.002Z

Giles Goodland #96

100 Best Living British Poets: #97 SANDEEP PARMAR

2012-01-24T17:02:00.001Z

Sandeep Parmar #97

No Drive

2012-01-24T14:02:00.000Z

The 2011 Oscar noms have been read out live on BBC radio. Good news that we all knew would happen: Gary Oldman for Best Actor; Meryl Streep for Best Actress. Of the directors, good to see Woody Allen there, and Terence Malick, two geniuses, as well as the brilliant Scorsese and Alexander Payne. In terms of Best Film, it seems likely a toss up between The Artist, The Help, or Moneyball - though War Horse may slip in by a nose; Midnight In Paris will be a sentimental loser. Big missing film: Drive, the second-best film of the year after Tree of Life. Also, nothing much for Tinker, Tailor, given the early hype. The Best Supporting Actress nod will likely go to The Artist; Best Suporting Actor perhaps to old-timer Max Von Sydow or Christopher Plummer - what amazing careers these guys have had. Nothing for the dog. That's Wuff!

100 Best Living British Poets: #98 JON STONE

2012-01-24T13:55:00.003Z

Jon Stone #98

100 Best Living British Poets: #99 EMILY BERRY

2012-01-23T17:51:00.002Z

Emily Berry #99

Mike & Nancy Sent This! Looks Good...

2012-01-23T17:49:00.000Z

Dear Poetry Friends

We are starting our 2012 poetry season a little late this year. But we are starting with an excellent event!

On Saturday March 3rd at 7.00pm our guest readers in The Crypt will be Elizabeth Cook, Glyn Maxwell and Cheryl Moskowitz.

More details are on the attached flyer - but the short version is that we meet in the crypt under St Mary's church, Upper Street, Islington;

as well as two slots by each of our guest readers there will be floor spots (sign up when you arrive, on a first come, first served basis); there will also be tea, coffee and cakes during the interval. Admission £4 - all proceeds from the event go to Hospice Care Kenya.

We look forward to seeing you

Mike & Nancy

www.poetrypf.co.uk

http://londongrip.co.uk/category/poetry/

100 Best Living British Poets: #100 LUKE KENNARD

2012-01-23T14:19:00.000Z

Eyewear is today starting its no-nonsense countdown of the 100 Best Living British Poets. The rules are simple: British, and alive. The critical standards are Eyewear's alone, and open to endless debate. The point is to kick-start interest in these poets. I will be including NO commentary on the poets. Their names are all. Their work stands for itself, and speaks for itself, and all the biographical and bibliographic information any potential reader would need is a Google or Wiki away. All that will be given (after today's preamble) is a photogrph (where available), and the name. The rankings are spurious. The 100 can be listed in any order. The point is, these poets are all, in their own way, Queen's Gold medal, or not, indispensable to Eyewear's reading of contemporary British poetry. Sometimes witty, or brilliant, or shocking, or smart, or iconoclastic, they rise above claims of mainstream or avant-garde schools, while never being the pap of "hybrid" styles - each has a style, voice, or poetics that stands as an original extension of the ongoing canon of British poetry, which is among the greatest the world has ever seen.

Luke Kennard #100

Eyewear Opens A Sliver

2012-01-23T14:12:00.000Z

Eyewear is opening one shut eye, and slowly easing back into 2012. Here is the thing - the blog will no longer comment on daily politics, obituaries, or offer film, music, and book reviews - unless these are particularly striking. Instead, it will be a far more limited affair (for now), as the publishing business emerges. It will offer one very exciting event - a countdown of THE 100 BEST LIVING BRITISH POETS - as excitement for the Olympics builds.

Platform 1

2012-01-23T10:18:00.003Z

this sounds good

2012-01-23T09:37:00.001Z

Clinic's final event at the Amersham Arms (not the last event ever, like, but the last event at that particular venue) will take place on Friday 27th January with the London show of Tubelord's UK tour, in support of their second album, r o m a n c e. To celebrate, Clinic have commissioned eleven young poets and illustrators to respond to the eleven album tracks, which in turn take their lyrical content from a Bloodaxe women poets anthology. This work will be risograph printed in a one-off pamphlet, available to purchase on the night.

Musical support will come from Olympians and Samuel Deschamps (of La Shark).

Readers will include:

Jack Underwood - Faber New Poet no. 4

Kate Kilalea - Author of 'One Eye'd Leigh' (Carcanet 2009), a debut collection lauded by J. M. Coetzee among others.

Emily Berry - Gregory Award Winner and author of Stingray Fevers (Tall Lighthouse)

Matthias 'Wolfboy' Connor - King of zines, whose fiction has regularly appeared in Vice.

with Sophie Collins, Rachael Allen & Sam Buchan-Watts.

The event will run from 7pm till midnight, and costs £6 on the door & £5 advance. A special discounted price is available if you are an Ideas Tap member.

Reviews of r o m a n c e:

'a brilliant second album' - BBC music

'just plain awesome' - this is fake DIY

of Clinic:

'South London poetry collective Clinic put on simply the best poetry nights we've ever been to' - Dazed & Confused

'if you have ever doubted the strength of interest in poetry today, I highly suggest you take a trip down to any future clinic event' - Popshot

Adore Troub? Prize Poetry!

2012-01-22T18:24:00.002Z

Announcing the £2,500 Sixth Annual Troubadour International Poetry Prize

Judged by Jane Draycott & Bernard O'Donoghue (with both judges reading all poems submitted)

Prizes: 1st £2,500, 2nd £500, 3rd £250
plus 20 prizes of £20 each
plus a Spring 2013 Coffee-House-Poetry season-ticket
and a prizewinners' Coffee-House Poetry reading
with Jane Draycott & Bernard O'Donoghue on Mon 26th Nov 2012
for all prize-winning poets

Submissions: by Mon 15th Oct 2012

Judges:

- Bernard ODonoghue (b. Cullen, County Cork) is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; a former Reader at Magdalen College and Fellow and tutor at Wadham College, Oxford, he co-edits the Oxford Poets (Carcanet) series with David Constantine. 'Farmers Cross' (Faber, 2011) was shortlisted for the 2011 T S Eliot Prize following poetry collections which include 'Poaching Rights' (1987), 'The Absent Signifier' (1990), 'The Weakness' (1991), 'Gunpowder' (1995, which won the Whitbread Poetry Prize), 'Here Nor There' (1999), 'Outliving' (2003) and a 'Selected Poems' (Faber, 2008). He has written on the poetry of Seamus Heaney and translated Czech poet, Zbynek Hejda.

- Jane Draycott (b. London) teaches on postgraduate writing courses at Oxford and Lancaster Universities, and is currently Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Aston University: a PBS 2004 'Next Generation' poet, she won the 2002 Keats Shelley Poetry Prize, was shortlisted for the 2009 T S Eliot Prize and has won several awards for her audio work with Elizabeth James. Her latest work, a translation of 14th century 'Pearl' (Carcanet, 2011) was a 2008 Stephen Spender Prize-winner. Earlier publications include (with Two Rivers Press) 'Tideway' (2002) with Peter Hay, and 'Christina the Astonishing' (1998) with Lesley Saunders & Peter Hay, and three full collections, 'Prince Rupert's Drop' (1999), 'The Night Tree' (2004) and 'Over' (2009), all with Carcanet/Oxford Poets.

- Both judges will read all poems submitted.

rules

- General: Entry implies acceptance of all rules; failure to comply with all rules results in disqualification; submissions accepted by post or e-mail from poets of any nationality, from any country, aged over 18 years; no poet may win more than one prize; judges' decision is final; no correspondence will be entered into.

- Poems: Poems must be in English, must each be no longer than 45 lines, must fit on one side of one page of A4, must show title and poem only, must not show poet's name or any other identifying marks on submitted poems (whether by post or as e-mail attachment), must be original work of the entrant (no translations) and must not have been previously broadcast or published (in print or online); prize-winning poems may be published (in print or online) by Troubadour International Poetry Prize, and may not be published elsewhere for one year after Monday 15th October 2012 without permission; no limit on number of poems submitted; no alterations accepted after submission.

- Fees: All entries must be accompanied by fees of £5/€6EURO/$8USD per poem (Sterling/Euro/US-Dollars only); entries only included when payment received via -
PayPal: visit www.coffeehousepoetry.org/prizes, follow PayPal instructions at bottom of page, (PayPal account not required), enter Poet's Name & No. of Poems in 'Add special instructions to merchant' box;
Cheque/Money-Order: payable to Coffee-House Poetry, write Poet's Name & No. of Poems on back.

- By Post: No entry form required; two copies required of each poem submitted; include on separate page: Poet's Name & Address, Phone, E-Mail (if available), List of Titles, No. of Poems, Total Fees, and EITHER PayPal reference OR cheque enclosed; no staples; no Special Delivery, Recorded Delivery or Registered Post; we recommend folding poems in half in C5 envelope as this does not incur 'large letter' charge if less than 5mm thick (UK); entries are not returned.

- By E-mail: No entry form required; poems must be submitted as attachments (.doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf only) to CoffPoetry@aol.com; include in e-mail: Poet's Name & Address, Phone, List of Titles, No. of Poems, Total Fees, and EITHER PayPal reference OR cheque to arrive by post within 7 days; no Special Delivery, Recorded Delivery or Registered Post.

- Acknowledgement/Results: E-mail entries acknowledged within 7 days of receipt of payment; postal entrants may include stamped, addressed postcard or envelope marked 'Acknowledgement' and/or stamped, addressed envelope marked 'Results' if required; results sent to all e-mail entrants after winners announcement; no correspondence will be entered into.

- Deadline: All postal entries, and any cheque/postal payments for e-mail entries, to arrive at Troubadour International Poetry Prize, Coffee-House Poetry, PO Box 16210, LONDON W4 1ZP postmarked on or before Monday 15th October 2012.

- Prizewinners will be contacted individually by Monday 19th November 2012: prizegiving will be on Monday 26th November 2012 at Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubadour in Earls Court, London.
___
Anne-Marie Fyfe (Organiser)
coffee-house poetry at the troubadour
www.coffeehousepoetry.org

470

2012-01-19T18:14:00.000Z

Eyewear is still getting between 450 and 500 visitors daily, even while moribund.

Good to know.

I miss it.

Not so fast!

2012-01-10T19:01:00.001Z

Thank you for the messages. Eyewear is hibernating, not definitely defunct. I hope to return it to you in good nick, later in 2012, once the press is up and running, and I am on sabbatical.

THE MELITA HUME PRIZE FOR POETRY

2012-01-10T18:59:00.001Z

Eyewear Publishing announces its inaugural (2012) THE MELITA HUME PRIZE FOR POETRY. This is an award of £1,000 and a publishing deal for the best first full collection (i.e. debut) of a young poet writing in the English language, born in 1980 or later. The aim of this prize is to support younger emerging writers during difficult economic times, with a quality publication in England and a helpful amount of money which can assist them in their studies, travel or accomodation, for example. This is open to any one of the requisite age, anywhere in the world. Melita Hume is a Canadian book collector, and compiler of information about Canadian authors, who lived most of her life in St. Lambert and the Eastern Townships.

Please post your submissions to the address below:

Melita Hume Prize for Poetry
Eyewear Publishing
Suite 38, 19-21 Crawford Street
London
W1H 1PJ
United Kingdom

Please include an SASE or equivalent, a biographical note of 100-250 words, and a brief covering letter including email contact details.

The deadline for submission is April 8, 2012.

The winner will be announced September 1, 2012.

For email queries, contact info @ eyewearpublishing.com

Eyewear Epiphany

2012-01-06T01:27:00.002Z

Epiphany, December 6, is a good time for epiphanies. I've had one. Having spent a fortnight with my wife, brother, sister-in-law, and young godson, I know, more than ever, that bonds of family, and love, are the most important elements of life. Therefore, I have decided to temporarily close Eyewear. It will be getting shut-eye, as I develop the new small press, Eyewear Publishing, and - perhaps - return in a new form. In the meantime, look for my future comments at Facebook and elsewhere. I won't be posting for the foreseeable future. Editing, teaching, writing, researching, and spending time with my family - will take up more time. Thank you for reading this blog over the years. Some critics were right - it had become shallow at times. The passion and commitment it takes to edit and write for years, on poetry, and life, cannot be easily sustained. And blogs are now dinosaurs. There are other, faster, slimmer, more elegant ways to reach people. Eyewear remains open, as a publishing venture. Keep an eye out for what will be next. Peace be with you.

From Filreis

2012-01-04T18:08:00.002Z

At Jacket2 - http://jacket2.org - links to all Jacket issues 1-40 materials have been restored, after a problem with the old Jacket domain has been fixed.

At the bottom right of the Jacket2 front page you'll see links to all 40 issues. Or enter any keyword(s) in the searchbox: results will include Jacket2 materials as well as those published in Jacket between 1997-2010. All the URLs/web addresses remain the same as ever, and will be consistent permanently.

- Al Filreis

Publisher, Jacket2

The Swift Report 2011

2011-12-31T13:02:00.003Z

The London Underground Is Mine

I'll keep this short. The Swift Report is my looking back on the highs and lows of my personal life - not the great perturbations of the times. As news retrospectives will attest, 2011 was an extraordinary year of deaths, collapses, uprisings, and economic shifts.

This was the year I completed my PhD at the University of East Anglia; published my 7th collection, England Is Mine; and edited, with Kim Lockwood, an anthology for Oxfam of young British poets, due out spring 2012. I also launched a small press, Eyewear Publishing. I hosted some wonderful visiting poets, including David Lehman, Don Share, Jacquelyn Pope, and Ilya Kaminsky. I saw my old friend Fabio Bagnara again, after several decades. I hosted several readings for the Oxfam series. And, at the end of the year, my brother, his wife, and my wee Godson, Alex, came to stay for Christmas. We had a wonderful time.

This was also the year I co-judged the Gerald Lampert Awards, which was eventually won by Anna Swanson. And was asked to write a special article for The Poetry Foundation on 15 essential Canadian poems Americans should read. I also had reviews appear in Poetry London and Poetry Review. Of course, I continued to edit this blog.

Plans for 2012 include writing an academic book on 1940s poetry; developing an idea into a screenplay; and writing a novel.

I also have an 8th poetry collection out, from Tightrope books in Canada, When All My Disappointments Came At Once, which deals with the anguish of infertility, depression, and overcoming physical illness. Heavy going, but the collection explores these topics from the perspective of poetic style. In the new year, a Dutch Selected of my work will also appear. Lots to be proud of, and grateful for, last year - and much to look forward to in the year ahead. ps I also have fond memories of seeing Bob Dylan with Tim Dooley!

Featured Poet: Nikki Dekker

2011-12-30T11:14:00.004Z

Eyewear is very glad to welcome Nikki Dekker (pictured) this last Friday of 2011. Dekker is a bilingual poet from the Netherlands. She has studied Literary Theory and Gender Studies in Amsterdam and Utrecht, and is currently undertaking a Creative Writing MA at Kingston University. Her poetry will be featured in the upcoming winter podcast of Cursive Script.

New York City artist reads the cards

Her room is draped with shawls. The magic any

24yearold24hourpartyperson emits brightens

a staircase room and cupboard bed. Grown up

drinks like whisky without cola, and tonic with gin,

she thins out every day, adjusting the alignments.

‘I don’t know,’ she says, the other end of a question,

‘She goes to bed at eleven.’

Classified under early.

E: a rake pushing sideward stands single

on the divide, stuck on that prole vertical line. If it bites,

it’s only because

the balloon’s face is not rubber or plastic or even

stone – the carelessness

of paper-maché staring in the wrong direction ß

‘I’ve lost a lot of weight’ she says, taking in

a peanut butter jelly sandwich as

a zoo crocodile: forged menace, Do Not Feed.

Thought condenses against the crystal, vapour

beats against the cold: 11. Your bed, her

magic, 24 shawls and a whisky no

poem by Nikki Dekker; published online with the author's permission.

Guest Review: Lockton On Morgan

2011-12-29T14:54:00.005Z

Katherine Lockton reviews

Grace

By Esther Morgan

Sometimes it is the simplest of words in the simplest of orders that allows the subject of the poem “to become itself.” This is particularly true of Esther Morgan’s Grace, where the poetry is deceptively simple on the first reading. It is only after subsequent readings that a maze of hidden links between the poems is uncovered. These links come together to create alternative meanings to Morgan’s words. Morgan successfully conceals the seams in her tapestry of images, which if shown would break the spell that engulfs us as we read.

One of Morgan’s main preoccupations in her third collection is to look at what Wordsworth called “spots of time.” It is in this way that different moments are distilled to reveal the essence behind them. In the opening poem, ‘Grace’ it is the “the moment the house empties like a city in August/so completely/it forgets you exist” that is explored through simple yet amazing images:

“the circle of white plates on the kitchen table

the serious chairs that attend them

even the roses on the papered walls

seem to open a little wider.”

The images are clear, concise and a true depiction of the objects described. Morgan’s simple yet revealing style is reminiscent of William Carlos William in, for example, ‘Red Wheelbarrow.’ Morgan and William’s poems’ beauty and language are simple, but not easy to achieve, and pretend to be simpler than they really are.

Another common factor between the two poets is that they both concentrate on colour as opposed to shape to evoke haunting images in our minds. The poems are so arresting that they stand as manifestos as well as testaments to what can be achieved with simple language. Morgan is so adept at stepping into a moment that when she tells us that she has been doing so since a girl, we believe her.

One of the main images that Morgan uses to investigate her spots of time is the domestic one, which prevails throughout the collection. Morgan adoption of this imagery accentuates the theme of simplicity that is present in all of the poems. She is able to take a uncomplicated scene and through the use of common household images present it in a manner that everyone can relate to and appreciate.

In using domestic imagery Morgan succeeds in creating an air of sanctity to the home in which a table is laid out as if “an altar.” In ‘The China-mender’s Daughter’ she is able to compare people to crockery:

“The people in my life are like plates,

I have to keep them happy, keep them spinning.”

Morgan continues this powerful simile and builds on it explaining, “how she’d check for veins of damage/lifting each piece of fine-bone to the light.” In these lines the china-mender’s daughter's activities are viewed with the same sanctity as those of a Doctor.

Morgan’s use of the domestic image is also seen in the poem ‘After Life’, in which she tells us that:

“As far back as great, great, great

names and faces

are scoured away

like plates scraped clean

of painted flowers

by daughters wanting more.”

Here, as in ‘Morandi: Still Lives’, Morgan plays around with the structure of the poem on the page in order not only to inform us of how to read the lines but also to allow them space enough to breathe freely so that we can appreciate them fully. The words employed are visceral and violent yet simple, which means that their impact is greater when read.

Morgan is a master of imagery and it is the uniqueness of the pictures that she creates in our mind that forces us to take notice of her work. She not only puts her own twist on domestic imagery turning our expectations upside down, so that we are struck by the freshness of this perspective, but she also stamps an enduring imprint in our minds. We cannot help but read ‘Grace’ over and over again, trying to unravel the seams in order to understand and emulate her art. Lines such as “sometime in the early sixties/a candlestick takes a vow of silence”, “the embankment buddleia/burning with admirals” and “the children drowsy as flies/in the long classrooms” are all typical of Morgan’s simple yet powerful style which keeps us captivated and turning the pages of Grace.

Morgan’s poetry sings to us in a concert that we cannot help but listen to again and again. Her verse is extremely lyrical and has a lovely rhythm to it which is simple and soft:

“the takings not counted and locked in the safe,

the tables still sticky with rings.”

We are also invited to hear sounds such as “a back-yard dog” who “barks at the stars”, “the thought occurs like birdsong”, “a voice” and “creaking wings.” Morgan fills are ears and minds so that we believe in her “make-believe trees” and “stranger walking in the dawning fields” who “might take her for a vase of wildflowers” she is so still.

In Grace we are led on a journey through stillness, music and simplicity. Morgan’s poetry consistently intrigues throughout the collection, starting and ending with poems that demonstrate her versatility as a poet. Her subtle writing echoes the stillness explored throughout the collection. Grace is an altar to the art of fine writing and should be read by all who love and appreciate poetry.

K. Lockton is currently working as a poetry workshop leader. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Magma, Rising and online at Eyewear, Poetry 24 and Whippersnapper Press. She is assistant editor of South Bank Poetry.

Li'l Bastard: Canadian Poetry Book of 2011

2011-12-24T18:23:00.003Z

A little Christmas Eve cheer - I'd like to recommend to all you Boxing day shoppers David McGimpsey's book of hilarious, pop-savvy, literate yet modestly-colloquial chubby sonnets (his term), Li'l Bastard. This is one of the key directions Canadian poetry and poetics has taken, thanks to Dr McGimpsey, in the last decade - and if you want to hear what Canada sounds like now when it is being smartly funny, here you go.

Merry Christmas To You

2011-12-24T11:41:00.001Z

Gay Kiss

2011-12-23T18:49:00.000Z

Wonderful.

Guest Review: Harlow On Yoseloff

2011-12-22T21:53:00.003Z

Morgan Harlow reviews

The City with Horns

by Tamar Yoseloff

We must embrace the gift of the street,

The glare of chaos, of things being various.

The frail instant needs us to record it;

The mute made audible, still life animated.

(‘Mannequins on 7^th Street’ for Robert Vas Dias, after Anthony Eyton)

Tamar Yoseloff’s The City with Horns is a timely collection, communicating “The mute made audible, still life animated” of the abstract expressionist avant-garde art movement during the last century alongside the buildup to the current global economic crisis which has brought the world as we know it to the brink of chaos. With its echo of George Oppen’s ‘Of Being Numerous’, the poem ‘Mannequins on 7^th Street’ rings with particular acuity at a time when people “embrace the gift of the street” in cities around the world to come together in protest against oppressive regimes and to voice humanitarian concerns and demands. It is one of many references throughout The City with Horns which draw inspiration from and return homage to artists and works of literary and visual art, a rich and varied collection that at times reads like a survey of late 20^th century artists and writers, bright lights swirling in a collective unconscious-like reservoir of art mind chaos.

The core and title sequence of the book is made up of poems that follow the path of Jackson Pollock’s (http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/artist1.shtm ) life and work. Pollock and his art serve as a lightning rod channeling the 20^th century zeitgeist among the many struggles between nature, civilization, humanity and the growing encroachment of what President Eisenhower later warned of, the military industrial complex. Pollock famously remarked upon the complexities of the times in relation to the technique he discovered for his own painting: “the modern painter cannot express his age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture." Written under the influence of Pollock’s work, one of the truly marvelous aspects of The City with Horns is Yoseloff’s triumph in bringing visual art and poetry together in her poems such that they seem patterned after the “controlled accident” Pollock attributed as a driving force and technique behind his most engaging works.

The City with Horns on one level re-creates in poetry the process through which a work of visual art is constructed, and follows a similar trajectory. Part One, City Winter, begins with influences, material and canvas, the background impetus and struggle of daily life and work:

It is not vulnerable

like the pale mirror you raise

to your face. You will fling yourself

against it, see what breaks.

(‘Concrete’)

Part Two, The City with Horns, focusing on Jackson Pollock’s life and work, highlights the emotional turmoil, the physical application and creation of the work, painting made fluid as a life, or a movie of the life of the action painter. The poem ‘Connected’ documents Pollock’s leap from representational, as influenced by his teacher Thomas Hart Benton, to abstract work.

How easy it is when density

unlaces, and you find holes you can

crawl through –

light, a parting:

(‘Connected’)

A horse, a campfire, and trees reminiscent of the early work such as the painting Going West (1934-35) speed up and fuse in the direction of the abstract, where Pollock is taking his art, or where his painting is taking him, and us.

Part Three, Indian Summer, offers layers of reflection as upon work once it has been created, gone out into the world, or is perhaps seen from a distance as in the poem ‘Train’ “a far field, a bonfire; a man / and his accumulated junk.” Each insight takes a cue from another, a moment, a past, a future turns on a word, a colour, or as in ‘Après un rêve’, the speed with which “an owl / tears the darkness open”. There is a sense of resolution in this final section, bringing together themes on art, civilization, and space, public and private, that recur throughout The City with Horns. We discover we have gone beyond the discussion of what is public and what is private and arrived at the question: What is ownership? Who or what owns the streets, art, peace, war, the successes and failures of the 20^th century, the dreams and miseries of the present and the hopes and fears for the future? Is it the individual that is the myth, or the collective? In ‘A Stone’, an ordinary found stone becomes a symbol for all the things we find, take hold of and lose or let go of:

the way you always lose things

which defy the need to own them

. . . .

souvenirs of a collected life: people, random

words, ideas; some, flinty cliffside shale,

others, tough rock to weather storms.

To the question of ownership, and of the ultimate decider in all things, Yoseloff’s lines affirm. There is no better answer than Pollock’s: I am nature.

Note: For more on Jackson Pollock and his statements on art, see National Gallery of Art http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/artist1.shtm

Morgan Harlow is a poet, fiction writer and photographer. Her collection is forthcoming from Eyewear Publishing in 2012.

Is Minchin's Song Offensive?

2011-12-22T19:12:00.003Z

Tim Minchin has had his Jonathan Ross Christmas Show song cut, by nervous ITV execs. The song, which purports to compare Jesus to Woody Allen, because both are "Jewish" - was deemed religiously sensitive to Christians - but in fact, it seems apparently offensive on racist, grounds, instead. The yoking together of Allen, and Jesus, simply because they share a cultural identity would be outrageous in any other context. For instance, if I claimed that Mike Tyson and President Obama were actually one and the same because they were "both Black" you'd quickly sense this was not even comical, but simply ignorant, and offensive. Christmas in the UK is a minefield - it brings out the Scrooges in great numbers - and seemingly gives them permission to throw snowballs with razor blades in them - at all God's children. Get it over it, and grow up - religion is a holy time for people, and if you cannot share in the joy, then at least don't set out to spoil it for others.