Dear Roddy
How about Kenneth Gray? He's lived in France quite some time but he was born
in Glasgow 1936 and grew up there. Check out his Ballad of Kali Road. For
those not familiar with his work, I wouldn't say the following is typical
but it's a favourite of mine, especially at this time of the year. As it's
only a sectiom of a poem, I hope I'm evading the copyright issue. For those
interested, it's from The Bird Path, collected longer poems, published by
Penguin.
4.Stoke up the fire and light your lamp
never mind the cold and the oncoming dark
take up your books, continue your studies
let no man say you were afraid of the silence
or rotted away in self-pity
animals howl and stare at the moon
take you its force and turn your back
and write in your own whiteness
trace your own progress
all the hidden changes of winter
let the old buzzard snotter and snash
weave the snow to a flannel shirt
with a thick tail to cover your hurdies
use the rain to mix your toddy
and the wind to turn the pages of your book
personal force can work wonders
without it talent is nothing
increase your life
and strenghten your character
make full use of this winter.
- Kenneth Gray
all the best
Geraldine, who'd also have Niedecker over Plath anyday
>From: "Roddy Lumsden" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: "Poetryetc" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Oldthread revisited 2 - centres
>Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 19:36:16 +0100
>
>I recently bought Landbridge and was interested in what jvk was saying
>about 'Sydney' in the introduction. It seem to me that 'centres' may have
>monopolies on publishing and establishments, but that they don't seem to
>produce their fair share of poets. Only a handful of Sydney poets in
>Landbridge which seems few, considering it has over a fifth of the
>population. This seems true here too - when I was writing my Poetry Lists,
>I struggled to get to twenty with contemporary poets born and raised in
>London. In Scotland, Glasgow also has a fifth of the population, yet other
>than Tom Leonard (who has hardly been setitng the heather on fire in recent
>decades) and Frank Kuppner, I can't think of a Glasgow poet of note born
>after Morgan in 1920. Dunn, Lochhead, Crawford and others are West Coast,
>but not Glaswegian. Is this the same elsewhere?
>
>Roddy
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