THE SWIFT REPORT 2025

Had this year been only about good songs, TV shows and movies, plays, concerts, evening meals, seeing friends, swimming, reading and holidays, it might rank among my top ten favourite years since I was born. However, three major factors make me consider 2025 one of the worst years in my personal experience, and probably one of the very worst years of the past century (easily in the top 12% of worst years since 2000) geo-politically.

1. My mother died. I won't write more here about this, but as you can imagine, this has been the saddest and most upsetting personal life event since the death of my father 20 some years ago. Then three family members died (an uncle and aunt). Very sad.

2. Trump, the war against Ukraine, and war and suffering in the Middle East, not to mention other wars and tragedies and terror attacks, led to a geo-political instability "at home and abroad" - with American democracy being undermined as perhaps never before, not even during the Nixon period, aided and abetted by at least one or two super-rich titans of technology who seem hellbent on supporting neo-fascism and extreme right-wing groups, parties and views globally, to destabilise democratic systems and nations.

3. The environment. Without even considering the existential risk to all humanity from nuclear weapons, human-engineered bio-weapons, killer robots, or a new pandemic like avian flu, a super-volcano or asteroid, or an anti-human superintelligence - each of which could destroy the human race in the next few decades - the climate catastrophe IS going to kill off many humans and animals, and ruin our civilisations, in the next few decades, probably. Bleak stuff.

If one adds aspects of local and national politics in the UK (a weak prime minister, the rise of extreme right populism, collapse of a sense of day to day competence and a sense instead of a total-shittiness to services and those in power, and a declining economy), 2025 was for many people often depressing, scary and shocking. No wonder so many have taken refuge in entertainment, exercise, escapism, games, hobbies, with mental health challenges on the rise.

We seem in a doom loop, because the upsetting news and world collapse leads us to our phones, and scrolling for dopamine hits, when the tech bros in charge of our phone content, and streaming media, want us to come to these apps and shows. We're wriggling in the web and being eaten alive.

***

Absurdly, I had a few wonderful holidays, especially to Madrid and France, this year, and was delighted to see some good friends again.

I also published a new poetry collection.

And went to some excellent concerts in London and Brighton.

My health remained mostly stable.

And, somehow managed to keep the small indie press Black spring press group a going concern for one more year. I was very proud of the excellent titles we brought out, in our poetry, non-fiction, fiction and crime lists.

Ah well.

I have little to say at this time to encourage anyone. I suppose love and friendship, and art and conversation, prayer and good walks, swimming and lovely animal friends, can help. Good luck everyone.

A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

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....

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

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