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

Miss Del Rey Exercising Lana Del Rey , now a meme of sorts, is this year's Lady Gaga - a heretofore unknown young woman rising from obscurity to instant world fame, thanks to Turner Prize-style art hijinks, and Madonnaesque reinvention; we are living in an era when Walter Pater and Walter Mitty have married and given birth to girls with the nous of Orson Welles and Oscar Wilde yoked together with virulence - call them Odette Weldes . What is amazing is how the media gets so excited about a transformation whose blueprint is now at least 120 years old; after all, we now know how to burn with a gemlike flame; and all about personae and making strange.  Anyway, here comes Lana.  Her name refers to an O'Hara poem in my mind as well as a star.  She was born in New York State, so she is a New York School character, in a sense, though she prefers to position herself somewhere between High School Confidential and Blue Velvet .  Much has been made of the Lynchian i...

Sad news.  One of Eyewear's favourites, the gifted, troubled Nicol Williamson , the high-pitched thespian who played Merlin in the classic Excalibur (still wilder and more erotic than Game of Thrones ), and Sherlock Holmes in The Seven Percent Solution , has died of esophageal cancer in his mid-70s.  He will be missed. Nicol Williamson as Merlin

Sad news .  John Kliphan , the poet who founded the longest-running anglo-Parisian poetry series, Live Poets (now Poets Live) died Thursday, January 26, 2012. At 2:15 p.m. his heart slowed and came to a stop in the presence of close friends. OPEN INVITATION When: Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. Where: Salle Coupole, Crematorium, Père Lachaise Cemetery (map attached) Enter the cemetery from Avenue du Père Lachaise near GAMBETTA Metro Station (lines 3 and 3bis). Please allow ample time to walk in from the street. A CELEBRATORY POETRY READING IN HONOR OF JOHN'S LIVING MEMORY IS BEING PLANNED FOR LATE FEBRUARY. Tentative date: Sunday, February 26, 2012. Please mark your calendars. Plan d’accès : Le Crématorium se trouve dans l’enceinte du cimetière du Père Lachaise. L’entrée du Crématorium se fait par l’avenue du Père Lachaise, accessible par la place Gambetta. Métro : Gambetta (lignes 3 et 3bis) Bus : Gambetta (n°102 et 69) ou Ramus (n°26) ...

The 2011 Oscar noms have been read out live on BBC radio.  Good news that we all knew would happen: Gary Oldman for Best Actor; Meryl Streep for Best Actress.  Of the directors, good to see Woody Allen there, and Terence Malick , two geniuses, as well as the brilliant Scorsese and Alexander Payne .  In terms of Best Film, it seems likely a toss up between The Artist, The Help , or Moneyball - though War Horse may slip in by a nose; Midnight In Paris will be a sentimental loser.  Big missing film: Drive , the second-best film of the year after Tree of Life .  Also, nothing much for Tinker, Tailor , given the early hype.  The Best Supporting Actress nod will likely go to The Artist ; Best Suporting Actor perhaps to old-timer Max Von Sydow or Christopher Plummer - what amazing careers these guys have had.  Nothing for the dog.  That's Wuff!

Dear Poetry Friends We are starting our 2012 poetry season a little late this year. But we are starting with an excellent event! On Saturday March 3rd at 7.00pm our guest readers in The Crypt will be Elizabeth Cook, Glyn Maxwell and Cheryl Moskowitz . More details are on the attached flyer - but the short version is that we meet in the crypt under St Mary's church, Upper Street, Islington; as well as two slots by each of our guest readers there will be floor spots (sign up when you arrive, on a first come, first served basis); there will also be tea, coffee and cakes during the interval. Admission £4 - all proceeds from the event go to Hospice Care Kenya. We look forward to seeing you Mike & Nancy www.poetrypf.co.uk http://londongrip.co.uk/category/poetry/

Eyewear is opening one shut eye, and slowly easing back into 2012.  Here is the thing - the blog will no longer comment on daily politics, obituaries, or offer film, music, and book reviews - unless these are particularly striking.  Instead, it will be a far more limited affair (for now), as the publishing business emerges.  It will offer one very exciting event - a countdown of THE 100 BEST LIVING BRITISH POETS - as excitement for the Olympics builds.

Clinic's final event at the Amersham Arms (not the last event ever , like, but the last event at that particular venue) will take place on Friday 27th January with the London show of Tubelord's UK tour, in support of their second album, r o m a n c e . To celebrate, Clinic have commissioned eleven young poets and illustrators to respond to the eleven album tracks, which in turn take their lyrical content from a Bloodaxe women poets anthology . This work will be risograph printed in a one-off pamphlet, available to purchase on the night. Musical support will come from Olympians and Samuel Deschamps (of La Shark ). Readers will include: Jack Underwood - Faber New Poet no. 4 Kate Kilalea - Author of 'One Eye'd Leigh' (Carcanet 2009), a debut collection lauded by J. M. Coetzee among others. Emily Berry - Gregory Award Winner and author of Stingray Fevers (Tall Lighthouse) Matthias 'Wolfboy' Connor - King of zines, whose fiction...

Announcing the £2,500 Sixth Annual Troubadour International Poetry Prize Judged by Jane Draycott & Bernard O'Donoghue (with both judges reading all poems submitted) Prizes: 1st £2,500, 2nd £500, 3rd £250 plus 20 prizes of £20 each plus a Spring 2013 Coffee-House-Poetry season-ticket and a prizewinners' Coffee-House Poetry reading with Jane Draycott & Bernard O'Donoghue on Mon 26th Nov 2012 for all prize-winning poets Submissions: by Mon 15th Oct 2012 Judges: - Bernard ODonoghue (b. Cullen, County Cork) is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; a former Reader at Magdalen College and Fellow and tutor at Wadham College, Oxford, he co-edits the Oxford Poets (Carcanet) series with David Constantine. 'Farmers Cross' (Faber, 2011) was shortlisted for the 2011 T S Eliot Prize following poetry collections which include 'Poaching Rights' (1987), 'The Absent Signifier' (1990), 'The Weakness' (1991), 'Gunpowder' (1995,...

Eyewear is still getting between 450 and 500 visitors daily, even while moribund. Good to know. I miss it.

Thank you for the messages.   Eyewear is hibernating, not definitely defunct.  I hope to return it to you in good nick, later in 2012, once the press is up and running, and I am on sabbatical.

Eyewear Publishing announces its inaugural (2012) THE MELITA HUME PRIZE FOR POETRY.   This is an award of £1,000 and a publishing deal for the best first full collection (i.e. debut) of a young poet writing in the English language, born in 1980 or later.  The aim of this prize is to support younger emerging writers during difficult economic times, with a quality publication in England and a helpful amount of money which can assist them in their studies, travel or accomodation, for example.  This is open to any one of the requisite age, anywhere in the world.  Melita Hume is a Canadian book collector, and compiler of information about Canadian authors, who lived most of her life in St. Lambert and the Eastern Townships. Please post your submissions to the address below: Melita Hume Prize for Poetry Eyewear Publishing Suite 38, 19-21 Crawford Street London W1H 1PJ United Kingdom Please include an SASE or equivalent, a biographical note of 100-250 words, an...

Epiphany, December 6, is a good time for epiphanies.  I've had one.  Having spent a fortnight with my wife, brother, sister-in-law, and young godson, I know, more than ever, that bonds of family, and love, are the most important elements of life.  Therefore, I have decided to temporarily close Eyewear .  It will be getting shut-eye, as I develop the new small press, Eyewear Publishing, and - perhaps - return in a new form.  In the meantime, look for my future comments at Facebook and elsewhere.  I won't be posting for the foreseeable future.  Editing, teaching, writing, researching, and spending time with my family - will take up more time.  Thank you for reading this blog over the years.  Some critics were right - it had become shallow at times.  The passion and commitment it takes to edit and write for years, on poetry, and life, cannot be easily sustained.  And blogs are now dinosaurs.  There are other, faster, slimmer, more...

At Jacket2 - http://jacket2.org - links to all Jacket issues 1-40 materials have been restored, after a problem with the old Jacket domain has been fixed. At the bottom right of the Jacket2 front page you'll see links to all 40 issues. Or enter any keyword(s) in the searchbox: results will include Jacket2 materials as well as those published in Jacket between 1997-2010. All the URLs/web addresses remain the same as ever, and will be consistent permanently. - Al Filreis Publisher, Jacket2