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Louis MacNeice’sbest pieceshave a philosophical cast and an untidy metre that only makes them neater. https://poems-for-you.com/poems/mru8-entirely/ In this poem, as usual, MacNeice is counting beats, or stresses, rather than syllables. Every stanza has eight lines, which alternate between 5 and 3 beats, but syllable counts vary widely. A couple of the line-breaks seem odd to meContinue reading “Finding Louis MacNeice: a reading of ‘Entirely’”

Peter Sansommay be handsomebut his syntax is whatmakes him hot. Here is a handful of sentences, stripped of the line-breaks, from poems in ‘Lanyard’ (Carcanet, 2022), which book we considered in the Finding Poetry book club. I’ll say a few words about each sentence, but it’s what they have in common that I’m keenest toContinue reading “Finding Peter Sansom: sentences from ‘Lanyard’”

Christopher Reidis forced to concede,whenever he gets the blues,that he edited the letters of both Heaney and Hughes. A man of letters. And with regards to Hughes and Heaney, Reid also edited their poems, when he managed Faber’s poetry list in the nineties. I was lucky enough to meet him wearing his teacher’s hat, on myContinue reading “Finding Christopher Reid: a reading of ‘Death of a Barber’”

Jeffrey Harrison’s collections are published in the US and not available through Griffin Books, except his selected poems ‘The Names for Things’ published by the excellent Waywiser Press, which was my own first introduction to his work. One of its blurb quotes is from James Merrill: “There is no one else for whose poems —Continue reading “Finding Jeffrey Harrison: a reading of ‘The One That Got Away’”

Louis Jenkinswrites a sentenceand then another. No heartachesabout line-breaks. One way I think about poems is as generalised jokes.  Reductionist, for sure — but if a joke is a short text that amuses, then a poem is a short text that evokes or provokes some (any) emotional response, or a complex of emotional responses (which might include amusement). Continue reading “Finding Louis Jenkins: links to 4 poems”

Kim Addonizioskewers you ab initio.Her first lineshave tines. These notes were written to introduce Addonizio to the Finding Poetry book club, at a meeting in which we considered ‘Wild Nights’, a selected poems published by Bloodaxe. ‘Near Heron Lake’ is the second poem at this link: http://www.forpoetry.com/Archive/kaddonizio.htm I don’t often like the blurb on poetryContinue reading “Finding Kim Addonizio: a reading of ‘Near Heron Lake’”

Kay Ryanis a lion-essof wiliness These notes were written for the book club, Finding Poetry, which I run with Griffin Books, Penarth. The second book I recommended was ‘Odd Blocks’ by Kay Ryan. This is a Selected published by Carcanet. I enjoy Ryan so much that I have all her USA- published collections. ‘Dew’ comes fromContinue reading “Finding Kay Ryan: a reading of ‘Dew’”

This post is one of a series. The notes were written for the book club, Finding Poetry, which I run with Griffin Books, Penarth (https://www.griffinbooksonline.co.uk). The first book I recommended (in February 2021) was ‘Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes’ by Billy Collins.  Billy Collinseschews semi-colonsand other formal devices.He writes about mices. ‘Snow’ comes from Collins’sContinue reading “Finding Billy Collins: a reading of ‘Snow’”