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

Eyewear is very pleased, on the eve of election day, to offer readers an occasional light verse poem by a creative writing student of mine - a poem on being undecided in the UK that has a particular resonance with me, for one. Thomas Hewson is a 21-year old Kingston University student. He lives in South Yorkshire and will be voting in the Sheffield-Hallam constituency on May 6th. Sheffield Hallam’s current MP, and prospective MP, is the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - whom will be expecting to win the seat with a comfortable majority. Voting on May 6th Gordon Brown wants substance over style, Cameron thinks Labour should be put on trial. But the Lib Dems are definitely affirmative - Cleggy boy offers a brand new alternative. As for the other parties, UKIP and Green, they have no real policies I think it would seem, and then there is Griffin, who for power does hunt, - I’ll say just this – he’s an ignorant… Cameron, you’ll spend our money without any waste - well if that’s true ...

Tomorrow is the British General Election. It's still too close to call, but many polls are suggesting a small Tory majority. In my seat, Westminster North, the Labour candidate Karen Buck is up against the Tory candidate (a so-called Cameron Cutie) Joanne Cash ; so, Buck vs. Cash. The Lib Dem is one Mark Blackburn . This seat is considered the 61th easiest for the Conservatives to swing their way (they need a little more than a 3% swing to take it from Buck). So, I, like many other voters, am faced with a choice - to vote for my preferred party, the Lib Dems , or vote tactically, to help keep Cash out. This is a tough call, because while I don't want there to be a Tory government, I also am loathe to support the morally-bankrupt and exhausted Labour party; New Labour was ugly to behold. However, I admire the way Brown has been (finally) expressing his truer convictions. If only he'd found his soul sooner.

Sad news. The much-loved British movie actor, Lynn Redgrave , has died. Famous for Georgy Gir l, from 44 years ago, she later made films such as The Happy Hooker , and Gods and Monsters , and was several times nominated for Oscars. It's been a tough last few years for the Redgraves.

Warning: this post is about Todd Swift's recent collection, Mainstream Love Hotel . It is a self-serving notice of a very positive review in the April/May 2010 issue of London Magazine , by Leah Fritz . It is being posted in order to interest readers in the collection, in the hopes that some might seek out the book, to read it, even buy it. If this act is suspect, or even considered downright bad, consider the following: what are poets doing when they a) read their books at launches and book signings; publish their poems? What are publishers doing when they a) send books for review; market books; sell books in shops and online; enter books in competitions? The motives of authors and publishers are complex, and cannot all be boiled down to the purely virtuous act of distributing literary material freely, for the sake of education, enlightenment and entertainment. Poets, and publishers, both want a) their books to be read; and b) their books to be borrowed or sold. This may be i...

There likely hasn't been a more glamorous British couple since Taylor and Burton , or a more literary-cinematic couple since Monroe and Miller , or, how about a more good-looking and smart couple since Hughes and Plath ? Well, whatever you think of free publicity, and how it mixes with poetry (which is almost impossible to give away), the young British poet, Adam O'Riordan , has it in spades. He is in the papers for dating Alice Eve , pictured, a rising starlet formerly of Oxford - or she is in the papers for dating him. Wow! He has a new book due out, she has a new movie out. And they live in California. If Eve-O'Riordan did not exist, Eyewear would have invented them. They fuse the interest in popular culture and high art this blog pursues. As is, no other poetry-movie couple in the world is currently as enviable. Or, would be, if one cared about such shallow things as glamour, fame, and being the talk of several towns. Yawn. By the way, I wonder what poet-celebrity jou...

The race has heated up - for the position of Oxford Professor of Poetry.  Geoffrey Hill , England's greatest living lyric poet, seemed a shoe-in, facing pint-sized opposition, until, the contest was revitalised and refreshed by the news that another poetic elder statesman, Michael Horovitz , had entered.  Horovitz has several times read for my Oxfam series.  I think he is a brilliant man - a superb poet-of-the-people - who has done more for the Beat strain of poetry in the UK than any other single human being (I mean, as opposed to organisations or groups).  He loves to encourage others.  He has a big warm heart.  And he knows his poetry.  He's right to challenge the other lesser figures running, and right, to, like Clegg , give the leading horse a run for the money.  This isn't, now, a race I'd want to call.  Hill is the master elitist of English letters, and Horovitz the ultimate English maverick, the advocate of almost everything Hill is a...

Just saw this online, at CPR .  Happy to be quoted at length here, in the good company of Alvarez and others.  The article by Brooks-Motl , raised many of the issues I am seeking to explore this week, however mildly, through blogging at The Best American Poetry blog, on young British poets.