New Poem by John Redmond

Eyewear is very pleased to publish a new poem by Irish poet John Redmond today, as part of its 5th anniversary celebrations this June. Dr Redmond is the author of one of the best guides to creative writing I know - How To Write A Poem - a hugely imaginative manual. He also recently published a very original and satisfying collection of poems from Carcanet, MUDe.

Rogue Lock

Such a door

to rebuff me — with a hint

in its knots

of obversity.

Towards my glittering bunch

tremendous oblong

shadows

sprang from the wood.

The lock was rogue.

Master after master

froze. Frustration

rang for corridors

as I blundered towards

the final key: one

with a sleepy-eyed

and solemn look

like me.

I pushed him in.

Scratches rose

on my skin.

As the whole bunch

roared encouragement,

and rich, outrageous

college-shadows

churned the grain,

I tested it,

and twisted it.

But such a door!

It snapped my proxy off

and swallowed him.

When I knelt my eye

to the eye of the obstacle,

my little self

could not be seen. But

in the bloody

keyhole walls,

a tiny door

shut.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Great poem! Loved his book MUDe.

Wed Jun 16, 12:05:00 pm 2010

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Search This Blog