Sad news for a leap year. February 29 2012 sees the announcement of the death of Davy Jones. The Monkees started in 1966, the same year I was born, and though dubbed The Prefab Four, had a pop genius second to none (well, okay, second to The Beatles). A few of their classics, like 'I'm A Believer', 'Last Train To Clarkesville', 'I'm Not Your Stepping Stone' and the wonderful, zany theme song, are among the Sixties best hits. Oddly, he has died at the age of 66.
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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