When NWP was negotiating with Hartnett, c.1970, about what should go into
the Selected Poems NWP subsequently published, we were baffled by the
growing realization that the very pieces we valued most and wanted to
include - e.g. the Poems from Spain, Tao - Hartnett wanted to leave out. We
got our way in the end, but it was always characteristic of Hartnett to be
too individual and quirky to fit easily into either populist mainstream or
experimental margins. Instead, he created for himself an uncomfortable
margin of his own, towards which the big names of Irish Poetry dutifully
doffed their headgear as they went on to better things.
He's a loss.
Trevor
"Mills, Billy" wrote:
> Just heard that the poet Michael Hartnett has died today in a hospital in
> Dublin, aged 58.
>
> Hartnett, whose early work was published by New Writers Press, was one of
> the most interesting of the 'mainstream' Irish poets of his generation,
> especially in his early books and in his poetry in Irish.
>
> I guess when you're dead you don't care whether you're postmodern or not.
>
> Billy
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