A distressing lack of humour and intelligence in the responses to the
Soares joke (except Ian's), which I would have thought was transparently
easy. Do we really have to spell it out?-- The joke suggests that the
"extreme right" response (sneering and mocking at poets like Doug, Grace
Lake, JH Prynne because they're difficult or unorthodox) and the "extreme
left" response (mocking and sneering at poets like R.F.Langley, Helen
Macdonald, Lisa Jarnot, because they're not difficult or unorthodox ENOUGH)
are products of the same mentality. Got it now? And can we agree that this
is not a merely parochial point to make?
CCCP is an annual week-end of mostly poetry-readings which is open to the
public. That's all it is. It's the only one of it's kind in the world in
that it's the only one to invite poets who are outside the success-fields
of official, promoted poetry or shop-poetry, or at any rate without regard
for that kind of track-record. It thus tends to invite poets working in
difficult or unorthodox modes who do not get invited to other festival-like
events. It is not the organ of a particular group of poets and has no
ideological basis. The programme is put together by four persons who
variously agree with each other and not, as to who might be interesting
poets to listen to, sometimes very much not. All sorts of people come along
and listen and talk to each other. My experience is that most of those
concerned are extremely welcoming and open. Anyone who comes along as a
member of the audience and feels threatened or snubbed, as if intruding on
an exclusivity, is being very silly.
A small easy(?) poem for British Poets (not to be reprinted) before I go to
the Peak District to find out how to breathe again----
THE MOMENT AT BUNCRANA
The two old men
on their way back from the gents and
suddenly leapt into the entire two-step.
Peter Riley
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|