Deryn Rees-Jones n Simon Pettet @ Colpitts Friday 23rd May
The first problem was getting into the reading, cos the door had blown or
been pushed shut and no-one had a key. Proving once more that poetry is
still required to break the law, we broke in using the old penknife-sash
window trick, but by this time much of the audience had dispersed to
sample the other delights of Durham on a warm friday night...
Deryn is physically slight and very quietly spoken, so as the light went
down behind her and the numerically small audience strained forward to
catch her words the scene took on a faint when-did-you-last-see-your-
father aspect. Her earlier work is a bit newgen, bloodaxey for me, but
there's enough sharp stuff coming through to make it worth straining for -
including a django bates poem where process is allowed some extra room,
and the confidence to be a bit indeterminate came in. The voice is
stronger, more flexible at this point too. I hope she goes down that road
some more.
Late start and long drinks breaks meant it was late when Simon started
and, perhaps for the occasion, he was driven to introduce too much, and
apologise for it (always a mistake, apologising in Durham). But when the
poems come, they're small, apparently simple, supple, but always with a
lyric prod that gets under yr (my) skin. He reads most poems twice - a
fact which faintly unnerves folks at first - and the second time is always
*completely different* to the first in pace, weighting, dynamic and
delivery. On occasions I've read some of my short ones twice, but for me
it doesn't help. Simon makes it work in his case.
Both readers - in their ways - paid little bits of homage to O'Hara - and
I know comparisons are odious, but, only Simon caught something of the
attention to _moment_ which I find exciting. Perhaps this is a difference
in the Prynne/Raworth debate too? Probably someone's already said this...
one of the big differences (for me) is that TR reads regularly, all over
the place, "laying the tune frankly on the air" with machine-gun-specific
precision which wins me every time. JP, I think, doesn't read do readings
- so, I guess, asserts a "moment" for his poems which is, exactly,
"timeless".
I've always wondered why people wouldn't read (apart from obvious
reasons like chronic stammer, badly fitting dentures etc). In PLarkinof
Hull's case it was a blessed relief - in Niedecker's case (apart from
her nervousness) it's a complete mystery to me. I know JP read at the
"Sparty Lea Conference" c.1966 and maybe a coupla times after that. I,
for one, would like to here his work read. But I digress...
Happy Bank Holiday
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Richard Caddel
Durham University Library, Stockton Rd., Durham DH1 3LY, UK
E-mail: R.I.Caddel @ durham.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)191 374 3044 Fax: +44 (0)191 374 7481
WWW: http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dul0ric
"Words! Pens are too light. Take a chisel to write."
- Basil Bunting
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