Tom,
Joanna and I were there and I think you have just about said everything that
I could hope.
Yes, Simic and Zagajewski monotonous and boring in the flesh, but they do
come off the page much better.
Paterson, more of the same as we've had before. Perhaps I've struggled to
hear his dropped voice remarks
too much before. First time I've heard Cope, not impressed. Oswald is
getting better all the time, but still lacks a certain amount of maturity.
Armitage came out with the intention of grabbing everyone's attention right
from the start and succeeded magnificently.
He has grown up as a poet in the last few years and I would, and will travel
to hear him again.
Roger Collett
Darlington.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Chivers" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 12:46 AM
Subject: Poetry International Finale
> Well... I got myself and my partner tickets (the last two tickets in
> fact!)
> to see the last event in the South Bank Centre's Poetry International
> Festival. Readers were (in order): Don Paterson, Adam Zagajewski, Wendy
> Cope, Simon Armitage, Charles Simic, Alice Oswald. Did anyone else go?
>
> Now, I really went along to see Alice Oswald, whose work I've been
> following
> since her wonderful first collection The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile. Her
> recent book Dart proved, by winning the T.S. Eliot, that she is one of the
> most important 'experimental' poets to cross over into the 'mainstream'
> and,
> I hope, popularity.
>
> The only performer I didn't know before was Adam Zagajewski - a Polish
> poet
> who read some of his poems in his mother tongue with an English
> translation
> projected behind him. He was thoroughly boring. As was, disappointingly,
> Charles Simic. I have his Jackstraws book on my shelf and like it. He also
> went way overtime, which I think cut Alice's set quite a bit. I warmed to
> Don Paterson on stage and he had a couple of really strong poems, but
> nothing to write home about.
>
> Before the reading, I had been ranting to my girlfriend about Wendy Cope.
> I've seen her read once before and also had the pleasure of spending two
> hours drinking with her. She is, quite simply, a dull person. And an even
> duller poet. Anyway, my girlfriend always takes what I say with a pinch of
> salt. But it was obvious to us both that night that Cope has absolutely no
> talent whatsoever. She is dreadful. If I had more conviction I would have
> walked out during her set. Clunky, obvious rhymes (is she stuck in the 50s
> or what?); dreary, unmodulated performance; indulgent, self-satisfied
> poems;
> cliche-ridden... I could go on. In one poem, she declared: 'On Waterloo
> Bridge / I was almost tempted to skip'. Well that pretty much sums up just
> how exciting she is. So sad that this 'arts n craft' poet is one of the
> most
> popular we have in the country.
>
> The real star of the evening was a surprise to me. Alice Oswald was good,
> and I liked the new poems she read (and watching her tap out the beat with
> her booted foot). But the Purcell Room is not the right venue for her. She
> needs intimacy and intensity. Anyhow, as a leaner towards the
> 'alternative'
> (whatever that silly word means), I'm naturally quite suspicious of
> popular,
> GCSE syllabus, media-savvy poets like Armitage. I was expecting an assured
> but ultimately unexciting performance. Boy was I wrong. The guy has more
> wit, insight and intelligence in one introductory comment than Cope has in
> her entire repertoire. His performance showed a real grasp of what poetry
> can do - psychologically, intellectually, linguistically and - most
> surprisingly from my snobbish perspective - vocally. His poetry is much,
> much more than the drab, easy-going subLarkinesque drivel I assumed it
> would
> be. So, time for me to be better informed. I'm off to buy his Selected
> Poems.
>
> PS: My own event, penned in the margins, is on Bonfire Night. Stay tuned
> for
> more info or check out the website. www.pennedinthemargins.com
>
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