Peter Riley's comments about the latest Bloodaxe books in print list
[dis]miss an important point. Whatever one thinks about Bloodaxe and Mr
Astley and his roster of _greatest living geniuses_, his comment in the
intro to his Poetry With An Edge antho that _It is not easy to find out
about contemporary poetry_ remains true for large numbers of people not on
lists like this, particularly new readers. I think I have said on this list
before that if it had not been for the prompting of one knowledgeable
individual when I was about 18-19, I would not have heard of Lee Harwood and
then many other names familiar here. This experience would be pretty common
for most people undergoing standard school & uni literature indoctrination.
Bloodaxe have gone some way to filling this gap. I think Bloodaxe have also
done useful work in printing foreign poetry in translation and, to name but
two, Denise Levertov and James Wright. And I am not trying to say two
swallows make a summer but rather let's not forget the new readers every
year who are trying to find out about poetry. They may have a bit better
time of it than my generation did.
Cheers
David
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