Last night saw a poetry reading to raise funds for Oxfam, and to celebrate the CD Life Lines 2, featuring Wendy Cope, Blake Morrison, Daljit Nagra, Fiona Sampson, Todd Swift and Jonathan Ward, in The Great Hall, at Dulwich College. The venue was superb, there were more than 260 in attendance, and many books and CDs were sold. The poets all read well, too. It was a great honour to be a part of the night.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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I found out about the Life Lines event on your blog and happen to live locally, so I went along last night and really enjoyed it.
I'm sure writing a blog sometimes feels like a one-way conversation, so I thought I'd drop a quick note to say thanks very much - it's really appreciated.
Nick