>I note, also, that even nasty beasties like Seamus Heaney haven't, in my
>time hanging around here, received such a pasting as the women Chris
>mentioned. Irrespective of what I think of the poets - and a few of them
>I don't know at all - I wonder about that.

Alison,

Since I recognize myself as perhaps one of those delivering the pasting
you mention, let me try to justify - though since I don't have access
here to texts, it'll have to tend to the vaguely assertive, I'm afraid
(sorry, Lawrence . . .)

I admit freely to a scunner against Boland's work, for reasons I've tried
to explain elsewhere (as in the proceedings of the first Cork conference,
published by Lawrence's Mainstream). Trying to summarise, briefly: her
work strikes me as being very much of the 'pick a topic and work it up'
variety; the topics frequently an arrogation of the experience of others,
for whom Boland presumes to speak, and the working up being of the poetry
workshop variety. I think the method is plain in the lines Chris quotes:
as with the Sharon Olds, we're treated to a simile-hunt (well, okay,
metaphor-hunt), but for me, it just ends up as tedious verbiage stuck on
the page, privileged, remote.

My distrust and dislike of Boland is the greater because of her
influence: in Ireland, as a model for a 'women's poetry', and in the U.S.
in actively fostering a very limited notion of what constitutes
contemporary Irish poetry, while repressing any alternative appearance. I
see her as responsible (though not single-handedly, of course) for
Catherine Walsh's isolation as the only woman writing poetry in Ireland
who can genuinely surprise and engage me at each turn. (If you don't know
Catherine's work, you'll just have to take me on trust until you see
some; I've asked her for some pieces for the Sound Eye site, but she
seems a little web-shy, which returns us, perhaps, to some recent
discussions here.) I also wonder why such a vociferous champion of Irish
women's writing seems to have done nothing to forward the work of such
poets of the Irish diaspora as Susan and Fanny Howe or Maggie O'Sullivan.
They remain virtually unknown here.

As for McGuckian, my dislike is more diffuse, more a matter of simple
boredom. I'll refer to Chris' extract and rest my case. My dismay at
finding myself pursued here by such a dynamic duo is due to a false sense
of security in "a discussion list for innovative UK & Irish poets and
poetry". Innovation, I don't see, nor interest either in this pair.

As for the other names on Chris' list, those I don't already know (of
which there are many), I'll try to track down, and I'm all for lists of
this sort - at least they direct us back towards the poetry (thanks,
Chris).

Cheers,

Trevor

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Sound Eye - Irish Poetry & the Universe of Writing
http://indigo.ie/~tjac/sound_eye_index.htm

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