Hi,
I'll give an unequivocal endorsement of Tom Leonards' work.
It seems, to me, that it's much less celebrated in the 'immediate'
poetry communities than that of Thomas A Clarke. Both are known of course.
But Clarke seems to be more regularly and easily absorbed into the
'poetic', whereas Leonard wriggles more warily, as well as more
inconsistently. That's probably why I enjoy his range of writing so
strongly.
"Reports From The Present" seemed to pass almost unremarked into
circulation, as did his solo CD from AK Press. 'Nora's Place' is a piece of
poetic writing that struck this reader hard in terms of its politicised
perspectives on 'dominant' language and ideology.
'I protest at this place
with no people in it
objects for reproducing images
people not actually present
from this wall to this wall
and this wall to this wall
. . . [and later]
the main thing to have controlled
contempt for the idea of
breakdown which is completely
unromantic and painful despite
its aura and pseudo visionary crap about
insights usually obsessive petty
vanities to do with god and the
devil and one-dimensional trains
of thought that go on and on and
people don't understand you any better
at the end of it'
(from 'Nora's Place')
or how about this, from his letter to Modern Painters on the occasion of
having been asked to review the exhibtion, at Glasgow's Tramway, called
'Lost Property' by Christina Boltanski.
'I have long since tired, in poetry as in other art forms, of that
so-conventional representation of the behaviour of "Other" as
aid-to-reflection between a supposed "We" of writer and reader. The
aesthetic experience offered rests on the agreement that "Other" remains
"Other". The reader is flattered into thinking they are gaining access to
an experience of universal human value: but this is essentially at the
expense of denying full humanity to that "other human" deemed incapable of
becoming part of the process.'
I second
love and love
cris
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