SVP, Sub Voicive Poetry, is an odd beast. It was common a few years back to
attack it, especially if you didn't attend; but that seems to have
stopped... There's a lot wrong with SVP, which I separate from the things
that could be done with it, but it survives. The venue is a bit of a
problem, but then so are all the venues I go to...
Because SVP has been going so long, nearly 20 years, it is or seems to be an
institution; yet I believe it still runs largely counter to
institutionalisation, takes risks - if a series can take risks, and provides
an outlet for poets who might otherwise not get an outlet - there are more
of those than of those who are widely known.
I think that its strength is, in part, that it keeps going. The complacency
with which it is treated does threaten its existence; worse, in my eyes, is
what seems to be a tendency to second guess what one will like so that it is
hard to introduce new poets to people... poets new to them that is...
SVP links us with n america and elsewhere. It ignores the cambridge v london
thing. In so far as it can it brings poets from all over. The bias towards
SE England is purely financial. SVP is international in its outlook Always
has been
I have my preferences, enthusiasms and so on. I'll tell you now that I am
hoping to get Colin Simms out of his hilly fastness in 99... On the other
hand, I and those who help me go to some trouble to get a very wide range of
poetries
Sometimes one gets weary of it - that happened the other night to some
extent when I found myself without an introduction - and I am looking
forward to the break. Not weary of it, but weary of the effort... By the
autumn I shall be missing it
For many years, there was only SVP. It is good that now we have One in
the Other - and the VI bill is often v interesting... It's
good to have variety of organisation and selection and venue and I wish I
could get to more gigs
If you stay with it, SVP, a wide range and quantity of poets pass through.
I
remember it being like that at Earls Ct Sq before the airheads took over;
and SVP has continued that, steadily. We owe Gilbert Adair a
lot. That he kept at it so long is a large part of its continued survival.
It is inconceivable to me that we should easily let it be after all those
years of hard and rewarded / rewarding work
It seems that the series is important to poets, many of whom are extremely
generous in their response to svp, none of whom get anything out of it.
I like SVP to be relaxed and friendly. I like an anything goes approach. At
the same time I believe that there is a *rigour to SVP. It can be a tough
audience, when it turns up, sorry, but when it claps, you know it's meant. I
would much rather have that concentrating silence that the mindless response
to every perceived joke or right on statement that one gets in some
environments
The rigour is in the selection and planning too; and, I hope, in the
magazine. I hope to see the magazine expand which it certainly will if
audiences hold up and there is the cash to expand it. It will publish
reviews. It gives out selective information. The web pages will be expanded
as useful information accrues. The free distribution of issues as part of
the entrance guarantees a wide readership to the poets in the magazine and I
would like to build on that...
I have sought in reviving the colloquium a different kind of rigour - where
people talk rather than delivering papers, but where the talk is informed
and open to ideas and not egocentric...
The only reason I introduce poets is that it is difficult to get others to.
The only reason that I review the gigs is that it is difficult to get others
to. We need involvement and exchange of informed views.
Analysis of readings *should pay attention to the appearance and behaviour
of the poets. We should take account of their voices. But all analysis
should get beyond personal likes and dislikes. We need evidence. I would
rather people who had nothing to say kept quiet - advice I could listen to
myself sometimes. So I'll stop now after one last comment - that if poets
are willing to make the journey to SVP, having put in all the effort of
preparation, for so little material reward, the smallest return we can give
them is to respond and exchange views on their output, for all our benefit,
and the least restraint we can exercise is to avoid ignorant insults
and now I am going to bed in the hope I can get up in time to go to this
thingy tomorrow - ira why did you have to organ tomorrow of all days?
May the tears of Diana open your hearts
L
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