I went to the Albion Beatnik in Oxford on Wednesday night for Sadcore Dadwave and heard poems by: Sian S Rathore, Diane Marie, Paul Askew, Emily Harrison and Luke Kennard, then Dan Holloway, Lucy Ayrton, Joe Briggs, someone whose name I regretfully forget, and a chap called Lysander, and someone called Molly. In honesty it was mostly Luke Kennard who I wanted to hear but the others were entertaining. I’ve only ever been to the Albion Beatnik for music before (or, you know, books), but it’s a great venue.
March 2013
Review in Under the Radar 10: Roy Marshall’s Gopagilla, Aly Stoneman’s Lost Lands, Richie McCaffery’s Spinning Plates Niall Campbell’s After the Creel Fleet
(This first appeared in Under the Radar issue 10.)
Poems are discontent; poems fidget, as they are uncertain and dissatisfied with where they are or what they are up to or what they’d like to tell you about it. Any poem which professes certainty, or the ability to express itself clearly, is a liar. I think this is the most important thing to keep in mind, especially when reading new poets. (Older poets have their own forms of tiredness.) It is how poets deal with their familiar and their unfamiliar spaces that create poems which the reader can get involved in, and this is something I would like to explore.