>
> I really don't see how you got that out of what I said,
> All I meant was perhaps they would all (included and not-included)
> have been as happy or happier to be included in an anthology which didn't
> define them as "others" but just as poets worth reading, alongside
Carson,
> Hartnett and all those other (Irish) poets worth reading.
Oops. Or rather, sorry. A drastic misreading on my part.
As regards the actual argument, which you dissected along lines (a) and
(b), I have mixed enough feelings in any case. The idea of placing a human
pyramid on Coffey's head while he is set the task of balancing on a house
of cards is fraught to say the least.
I find assumption (b)
> (b) All their work is of high quality and has only
> been neglected because of opposition from people in influential positions
> like Edna Longley.
a little overstated. Of course not all of their work is of "high quality".
We at least aspire to be human. Not to demonise, but it is a matter of
fact that submissions from these writers have been returned unopened,
reviews of their work refused column space and so on.
>Indeed there's nothing like an attack from the
> Poetry Society curates to raise a young poet's profile in this country.
An attack or any semblance of debate would be welcome. Never to be
mentioned simply makes one invisible. (Jim Mays and Alex Davis being
notable exceptions to the rule of silence.)
However, there is no way on this earth I would wish to fall out with Peter
Riley or any of the other British poets/publishers who for many a year have
been unstinting in their support of the writers mentioned above. Without
the likes of Cambridge Poetical Histories, Reality Street, Pig Press, Form
Books, Etruscan books, Shearsman, Writers Forum, Oasis, Invisible books,
and so many others we'd have been rightly up the creek.
To be honest I don't really know what people are talking about when go into
the mainstream/rest of the world discussions. So again, apologies for so
badly misreading your last post Peter.
Well Ric, are you beginning to wonder what on earth made you and PQ decide
to do an anthology in the first place?
That was a very attractive point about anthologies being starting points
for finding out about poets whether they are included or not.
Oh, and why hasn't anyone congratulated France for winning the WC. I
though cris cheek was simply marvellous in goal.
Randolph Healy
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