For my 2,251st post, I'd like to remind poets based in Britain, born in or since 1970, that I am editing an anthology for Cinnamon Press and Oxfam, to be published later this year or early in 2012, which will feature the work of Young British Poets (YBPs). To find out more, check out the Facebook event, which you can sign on to; and/or join the group as well. Deadline is May 1st. I am looking for new, or unpiblished poems, hopefully, but will accept published poems if the poet retains copyright. As I turn 45 soon, this may well be my last act of promoting the "young" as I may need to start supporting a "middle-aged generation!. (-:
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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oh, what was that very cool black & white image of a dude in shades with a different naked lass reflected in his lenses you had up a couple of days ago? god that was cool!