This is tricky territory, Alison, and, although a Christian myself (or
something resembling one, very loosely) I tend to take more note of the
disbelief of people like Roger or Patrick when it comes to affirmations in
certain kinds of public space ( I can happily go along with our monks' songs
but they in their occasion are not imposing on others, when poets go for God
in public now one has to be wary because of the slush of language that
puppets the pronouncements of the Tony erm-erm Blairs and GeeDubbyas).
I +feel+ that RS Thomas's religious poems are very poor, and well inferior
to his best work. Les Murray is a difficult area to negotiate ( I mean how
could anyone with any aesthetic sense ever have appended his name as 'Les A.
Murray'?) but, he can be a fine poet, though a dubious presence, a loose
phrase that, but again I don't feel comfortable discussing it.
These are unlike, as religious poets, the genuinely great religious poet
George Herbert, whom I hope Janet has now learnt about.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: Snap/3-15-06--"The God Thing"
> On 18/3/06 2:56 AM, "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I tend to agree with this, but there are some marvelous exceptions.
> > Among my 'contemporaries' (by which I mean people still writing today),
> > I'd mention the Canadian Margaret Avison, one of our finest poets, &, I
> > think she fits, Fanny Howe.
> >
> > There are probably others, though few as good as these two.
>
> The other name that strikes me is RS Thomas - a wonderful religious poet,
> especially in his later books. Much underestimated, I think. Though he's
> dead, he died not so long ago... And Les Murray dedicates all his books
"To
> The Glory Of God", being a Catholic convert. I think of things like The
> Broad Bean Sermon or that amazing poem about electric shock (The Power
Line
> Invocation?) or that amazing series about animals in Translations from the
> Natural World as religious poems.
>
> There's probably quite a lot of it about.
>
> Best
>
> A
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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