Who knows? Eyewear has some ideas, but wants to hear from you, its mostly silent readers: what were your favourite poetry collections of 2012? Most intriguing answer will win some goodies from Eyewear Publishing. So do post your comments.
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....
Comments
One of the ambitious and inventive collections I've read this year.
Rhian Edwards - Clueless Dogs
Edwards writes with so much wit and charm that it's not hard to love this debut.
I don't like using superlatives when it comes to listing poets & collections etc but I have read some outstanding ones this year & i think any of these should amongst a list.
Ross Sutherland's 'emergency window' PITM
sam riviere's 'austerities' FABER
Sally Jenkinson's 'sweat borne secrets' BURNING EYE
Luke Kennard's 'planet shaped horse' NINE ARCHES
Rhyming Thunder Anothology of Alternative Poets - BURNING EYE
although when writing that list I realised how many collections I havn't got round to getting yet this year!! anyway this is a list of collections that I have left an impression in my memory this year
- the pamphlet by Kim Moore "We Could Speak Like Wolves"
- Karen Dennison's collection "Counting Rain" which the best moon landing poem I've ever read!
- Lindsey Holland's "Particle Soup" which is super clever the way she's sectioned, titled and contented it - it tickles my scientific inclinations
Already I see much to argue against in http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/30/christmas-gifts-2012-best-poetry-books.
Louise