Has anyone here ever read a Padel poem that they genuinely like?
I have never read one at all. Nor has her work ever been drawn to my attention. That may be my loss, but impulsively I suspect not.
(Of course, in fairness, most of us here, no matter the quality or flaws of our work, also do not get much in the way of larger public attention and are, maybe, ignored 'impulsively' as well for the same or other reasons!)
It seems to me that the personae of some poets primarily draws attention to their education, class background, etc. Other poets immediately pin-point the attention on the actual work. In the USA, for example, if you say, "Susan Howe", for example, the attention goes to the poems. The person, education etc. informs only from the margins of the work - not the center. Padel seems to focus on her pedigree as her strength. Boring.
Stephen
--- On Wed, 5/27/09, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: oops!
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 7:31 AM
Yes, okay, but Dominic's point is still worth consideration.
What I find interesting is the number of British poets Oxford would never consider.
And, hey, if they're willing to go for Walcott, what about other poets from around the english-speaking world?
I think there is a specific kind of poet they would consider, and & specific kind they would not.
Doug
On 27-May-09, at 4:03 AM, Tim Allen wrote:
> There is an important difference between Walcott and Padel - Walcott is a good poet while Padel is a very average one.
> Tim A.
>
> On 27 May 2009, at 10:13, Dominic Fox wrote:
>
>> I get the impression that Padel is one of those people who thinks, more or less, that all's fair in love and war: that there are certain situations where people's basic interests are in conflict where it's no use worrying about common decency and reasonableness because you'll just get walked all over. Lots of people do think that; I think I don't, but I may be fooling myself. She's also one of those poets for whom "being a poet" entails a certain shamelessness and egotism, not terribly admirable in themselves but necessary to the profession as she conceives it. I'm not sure Walcott is much different. Good luck finding a poet with a high public profile who has a different notion of what it is to be a poet, or a human being.
>>
>> Dominic
>
Douglas Barbour
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Latest books:
Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
and this is 'life' and we owe at least this much
contemplation to our western fact: to Rise,
Decline, Fall, to futility and larks,
to the bright crustaceans of the oversky.
Phyllis Webb
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