Dear Hakan
I'm not a britishpoet, so this doesn't really count -
but yes, the stratification is surprising to an
outsider. In Australia, where the population is much
smaller, and the poetry population considerably
smaller than that, these divisions (mainstream/avant
gard) are very permeable indeed. Mainstream poets
publish with small presses, and what seems here to be
regarded as experimental or left is much more orthodox
there.
This doesn't stop vicious dogfights (perhaps it
encourages them) - I refrain from painting a picture
of halcyon paradise, because it's not. But although
the Australian sense of displaced history - a
Europeanness refracted and changed through distance,
emerging as a pest, like rabbits and sparrows, a
destructive and parasitic environmental force; and a
subtext of a uneasy Aboriginality, present and erased
sometimes seemingly in the same gesture - is often
problematic, it occurs to me that this also offers a
lot of freedom. We don't have to labour under history
or tradition if we don't want to. This, of course, is
double edged.
I enjoy Heaney's work too, though I know what is meant
by his "senatorial" style. I was glad Peter (?)
mentioned Squarings, which is a sequence I like very
much. I'm also very fond of Glanmore Sonnets. And
Hughes' Remains of Elmet - especially with the
photographs - is a wonderful book to read.
(I'm not going to back up these assertions because
I've left all my books in Australia...but I have a
right to my tastes, which is all this is indicating).
I have never worked out why this is incompatible with
liking other kinds of poetry, loosely, the modernist
tradition. Why not? It's all there to enjoy.
Best
Alison
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