2010's second half promises to yield even more poetry books, and books on poetry, that will surely be must-haves for many, including the new Sampson, new Heaney, new Muldoon, new Jo Shapcott, and a new Larkin Selected, from Martin Amis, as well as debuts such as by Adam O'Riordan, and new books from Gillis, Michael Harris, a British Selected for Robert Bringhurst, Bergvall's New and Selected Texts, and more. The more would include the Best American, and Best Canadian, anthologies, and the Forward 2011 book. Gosh. Not to mention the Modern Canadian Poets: An Anthology. Meanwhile, this interview with WS Merwin from PBS was lovely.
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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