Well much ado about nothing ...my copy of Poetry Review is here ...and I am
still hastily turning the pages
one by one and absorbing the poems on
the page ... one such poem that caught my imagination, verily set it on
fire is ...Upholding the T by ... I try to uphold the T ... what better
than alphabetical letters to start off the poem with a notion of
T meaning Thatcher or Thompson in my case or T meaning tea...
I just love the notion of alphabetical games where you give your
class a packet of letters all dutifully cut up by yourself in the wee
small hours of preparation in the Teachers'' Room, when all your
students are either in bed or out on the town enjoying themselves
as all 17 year old students should.
All the letters lead to the game of the English alphabet ...
Here in this poem ... the line ....
The "I" shouts for clothes ...
for a cloak to trail on the outside turf ....
wonderful echoes of a need for that Bob Geldof ... beat poverty alarm ...
though I hasten to add dont beat poetry too hard or it might win
over all other forms of art ...
Mehbh McGuckian writes Mariola With Angel Choir
Jesus lips are a winestock ... an
interesting comment in view
of the current debate about drinking wine... apparently its common practice
in some parts of the world to portray Jesus Christ with a can of diet coke
in his hand ... not wine at all. Forget the Marriage Feast or parable form,
and press on with modern trends in this country to ban the use of the
word "wine" and to fine anyone found selling wine to under sixteens the
princely sum of five thousand pounds. I would encourage everyone to
drink Italian bottled water, its good for your health and its cheaper.
I had a colleague once upon a time who was so taken with this poem by
Mahbh McGuckian that it was impossible to take him off the subject
for more than ten minutes to think of the needs of his colleagues
and students ... presumably it was an
unrequited love affair of
a literary dimension only heard of in films, art and poetry. Something
of Ophelia and her love which led to eventual suicide in Shakespeare''s
Hamlet ... a play interesting because it is very long in terms of
presentation on the stage....
Samuel Beckett gets a mention in Poetry Review and there is pleasure
in rereading for the hundredth time some lines from Becketts
play .... Waiting for Godot ... such was the impact of the play upon
this writer that I have become a playwright too, but still have to see
my play on the stage, or on televison or made into a film.
Happy reading .. keep on reading ... excellent stuff!