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

The artist (writer and photographer) Tony Kostadinov (as he was known to me then) took this photo of me presumably praying in Budapest sometime around the summer of 1999. One of his portraits (in a similar vein) of me was used in my first collection, Budavox: poems 1990-1999 , and his cover image graced the, well, cover. Fans of the Budavox sign will be glad it was captured for such a publication. Below, find a poem from that rather gloomy and lascivious book (and both things are possible at once, especially in Bp.). My math is poor, but I suspect I was about 34 then, I should add. I am now still in my 30s, but you know how time is about such things. You may wish to check out the artist's website at www.antonius.atw.hu and read his thoughts on the artist and creative health, as well as take a peek at his other portraits, some of very fascinating and beautiful people. Endangered Species Under inspection by a group of anti-ghosts, they stopped me half-through the fade routine, at...

The American poet Adam Fieled has interviewed me and the text can be found by going to www.artrecess.blogspot.com for the Philly Free School- then clicking on his name. The man to the left (if you will) is Ezra Pound , who is mentioned in the interview. I am neither Adam nor Ezra. I think biblical names for poets rather a good idea, don't you?

If 60s and early 70s TV was a formative part of my childhood - and it was - and if this has somehow affected my poetry - and it has - then no single show was a greater influence than Get Smart . I loved Max(well) Smart , and his eventual wife, 99 in the way one does when one yearns to become the object of desire. Beyond the comedy of their relationship, I saw the erotic humours that made it work - he bumbling, but good, she sexy but competent - and I think this has shaped my onw private life to this day. It is therefore with much sadness that I learn of the recent death of Don Adams , who portrayed Max. Adams himself never amounted to much after this one great role, somehow unable to escape the watertight chamber of his own curious blend of daily suavity and screwball voice - as if KAOS itself had designed some far-fetched trap his life and career could never extricate themselves from - a giant magnet holding him back. Those who collect my early chapbooks will know that my second pamp...

You've seen it here first: the new Oxfam National Poetry poster. I helped commission and create it, working with Oxfam's Business Development Team, as the Oxfam-poet-in-residence. This is part of the "Make Poverty History" campaign, and starts the next phase of Oxfam-poetry projects we're developing for 06-07. The poster goes up in the 100 or so used books shops that make Oxfam the biggest such retailer in Europe. More to the point, it features a donated poem from the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion (a great honour). It also presents cover images from some of the collections that pass through our doors and into the hands of poetry-lovers everywhere. Careful observation will yield a pleasant surprise in the top left corner. Make Poetry History!

Kennys Bookstore (to the right) is perhaps the most famous and eccentric independent book shop in Ireland - Brendam Behan read there, along with many other legends (every Irish author worth their salt has read there and some Yanks too) - and now the Galway institution is closing; or what may be worse, going all virtual. I read at Kennys for the launch of one of my recent collections (the pints after blur the memory) - actually, it was, oddly, the day after my wedding. Flushed and well-dressed, I read for a good crowd. Mr. Kenny himself sat there puffed up in a three-pice suit at a huge desk in the middle of one of the rooms where books were on sale - slitting open letters with a pen-knife and gruffly answering the old black phone as browsers shifted around him, like some Kubla Kane of Books. I found a copy of Map-Maker's Colours , the first anthology I co-edited, when I was 19-20, with the Belfast poet Martin Mooney . The reading was fun - read with Kevin Higgins . My photo was...

I am interviewing Al Alvarez tomorrow (he is pictured here beside me, at the Oxfam poetry event I organized to feature him earlier this year) at his home. Al Alvarez - poet, anthologist, critic, and great friend to poets - has long been one of my favourite literary figures and an inspiration - so I am quite honoured that one of London's most respected literary magazines, Magma , invited me to conduct the interview for their latest issue, out this December. In October, Books In Canada will be running my long review of Alvarez's latest book of criticism, The Writer's Voice .

I can now report that my work is included in eratio postmodern poetry issue six, fall 2005 http://www.eratiopostmodernpoetry.com reader and writer do look this one up - it is edited by the fine poet Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino