New Poems by Laurie Duggan

Eyewear is pleased to feature two new poems by Laurie Duggan. Duggan was born in Melbourne in 1949. He moved to England in 2006 and now lives in Faversham, Kent. Recent poetry books are Crab & Winkle (Exeter, Shearsman, 2009), Compared to What: Selected Poems 1971-2003, (Shearsman, 2005) and The Passenger, (University of Queensland Press, 2006). His translations of The Epigrams of Martial have just been republished in the USA (Boston, Pressed Wafer, 2010).

Paphos

Darkness across the water, before which

lightning, hail against windows;

a morning of tombs and low scrub, the desire

to get ‘shit-faced’ in some bar

The term ‘authenticity’ is meaningless here,

even the ruins attest to constant change

Sea-horse duct above rooftop generators,

satellite dishes, air-conditioning units, hot water services

VISIT PAPHOS AQUARIUM and

CHRIS HOLIDAY RENT A CAR

An illuminated truck circles the town

playing Christmas carols

Santa Claus awash on the seafront

At night a manhole cover, lifted by waves

clanks in the middle distance;

the sea flattens out

with a slight breeze from Africa

The cats of Paphos exist as small clues

in a big picture

A bar that sports mixed drinks:

‘sex on the beach’ and ‘blow job’

hosts a band that plays ‘Down Under’

The old is new, the new is old,

nea and kato

(‘an after dinner sleep

dreaming of both’)

Everything here is ‘English’d

by various hands’

insomnia?

That’s a Greek word

---

At the Norfolk Arms

pressed tin and Corinthian columns

smoked jamon, cut glass,

a gilt Madonna hemmed

by dried peppers: W1 espagnol.

This neighbourhood’s Georgian,

the pub, named for Norfolk who?

Thomas Howard, the 4^th duke,

Norfolk in Sussex, recusant?

The Spanish barman says

of the wine list I stare at

‘the most expensive is the best’

I remember instead the edict

on an album cover

(The Dictators Go Girl Crazy):

‘quantity is quality’

poems by Laurie Duggan

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. What do I mean by smart?

"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...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

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

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