Tony, I am particularly interested in Meg Bateman and note that her
Gaelic, which I understand she is still learning, sounded better than
her English. I had only read her in anthologies until I got hold of
her 1997 Polygon book in EDinburgh three weeks ago. I found her to
be slighter than I had hoped for and not really in the top category,
if anybody nowadays writing in Gaelic is [I bet she translates back
from English]. I scanned half-a-dozen poems from the new Etruscan
REader on Sunday, which is more recent work, and was disappointed
that it seemed more of a step back than forwards. The effect of
immersion in the Gaelic I suppose. I will keep my eye on her,
as I wil on Keston and Andrea. After reading Keston this summer I
thought he desrved a kick in the pants when the time was right.
And Peter, I could do with my money back.
Regarding Fred Beake's reading. He is a personal friend of mine
but that has little influence on my thoughts on his reading,
because I am ambiguous about his work. I thought the one top-class
poem he read was `Seth Hurley OLd' although he tended to overplay
the Yorkshire accent. And he will shout negatively at times.
But it was by far the best performance I have seen him produce
from over the years. Although I am told he was even better at
Torriano's a year or two back. My complaint about his Etruscan
REader is that Nick Johnson has left his best poem `Signs' out
because he didnt fancy it. [You can find `Signs' in Lynx.
It is a little concise masterpiece. Not a spare syllable in it.].
And I now regret that I was so dumbfounded by the appallingness
of most of the readers that I didnt buy Maurice SCully's critical
book when I had a chance. I would have liked to have met you there
but I was just passing through busy doing other things.
And regarding my criticism I have been reading poetry seriously
for forty years now, since I swallowed down the Golden TReasury
whole, and in recent years have learnt to trust my personal
taste. I have no need to intellectualise as the postmoderns do.
I `know'. If you are a poet you will understand.
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