Poetry News contains a lot of information that is relevant and
useful to those of us
who subscribe to the Arts here
in London UK1 The position is such that
many of us feel that we are called upon not only to support
Poetry but to
write it ourselves.
For example, I note that Fleur Adcock has quietly ascended the Literary Ladder in terms of her poetry and is now GOLD LEVEL having recently received an award from the British Government ... The Queens Award: She in her canon of poetry has included a joke or two among which is mentioned thus: /ex poet/ I suppose if you take it to its absurd meaning Adcock means that she is again a divorcee./this aspect of her private life seems to haunt her poetry! She is favoured greatly in the English Speaking World and has been around it long enough I suppose to have made a great impact upon the scene; however, her background appears to be New Zealand and she draws from this and so on and leaves us in no doubt about her loyalty to this favoured background.
The death of Muriel Spark once too "upfront" at the London Poetry Scene sparks off a great tribute to this great writer and comments that she lived to a ripe old age! This is seen as a great tribute to society in England! The notion of living into OLD AGE is more important at the moment than anything else! I have often wondered if it surpasses all other aspects of
life e.g: career: employment: property: family: culture: education: presuably it does! It would be
useful however to explore the notion of age from conception to death rather than stamp out a future based on the length of time spend walking the face of the planet in earth years!
I was told many years ago that Keats died at 21 and he achieved more in his short life than many another ... that the peak of greatness in the tradition of poetry and literature is emphasied by the work produced by the creator and is not counted out in years walking the earth!
How the wheel turns! Everyday that passes somebody or other sends me an email requesting me to fill in:
a: my age:
b: my bank details
For a while I was obliging but I must admit as time went on I got bored with the subject of age and prefer to keep my age and my bank details private!
Poetry News comments on the great prizes in literature and poetry to be won and has devoted a number of articles to this issue. I noticed that somebody else has a similar name to myself ... young poet: Ellie Thompson!
Still I keep that to mysefl as well and recommend Poetry News ... great stuff!