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

Eyewear is pleased to feature a new poem by Geraldine Clarkson  today. Liquorice Aunt It was a liquorice aunt refused to give me if I didn’t tie my boot-lace there and then ( Oh, I   shan’t! ) and it became the emblem of all that was denied, or bartered   for slavery of petty sort. Ebony wheel of sweet-sucking sugar dribbling juice, prolonged for hours: St Catherine’s martyrdom, and mine.

The beginning of the end for GaGa? By James Christopher Sheppard For almost three years now, Lady GaGa has reigned supreme as the multi-million selling iconic pop star of the age. She has launched four of her first six singles to the top of the UK charts, sold over 12 million copies worldwide of her first album The Fame/The Fame Monster and is still on the epically successful and hugely long Monster Ball Tour. Love her or hate her, the success and buzz around everything GaGa does is something quite spectacular. Having produced credible, edgy dance tracks such as ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Paparazzi’ and establishing herself as a vocally gifted musician, as well as writer, the mind boggles when hearing the first two singles released from her new album, the hugely hyped, Born This Way. In February you’d have been hard pushed not to have heard ‘Born This Way’- the first brand new single from GaGa since ‘Bad Romance’, which hit #1 in December 2009. The difference between these two tracks cou...

Sad news.   Dana Wynter , pictured, who starred in the classic B-movie, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers , one of the greatest of all films to explore Cold War ideologies, has died.  She appeared in many other films, and on TV, notably in Sink The Bismark , from which this still comes.

Sarah Hymas reviews Crazy Love by Pamela Uschuk All four sections of Crazy Love , the new collection from American poet Pamela Uschuk, are equally exuberant in their exploration of subjects: be that journeying, friendship, love, death, or war. Her language has a fecundity matched only by the natural world she immerses herself in and which she sees growing within the rest of us too: "… how your mind howls like a coyote in a desert terrorized by memory." At first I felt I might be overwhelmed by the richness, the heightened detail of the world Uschuk inhabits, but the informality of her delivery, the regard and attention to everyday encounters, keeps the poems low-key and insistent rather than hyperbolic.             Which is crucial given the political nature of many the poems – the deviations via Vietnam , slavery, Iraq , feminism are irregular but frequent excursions from the more didactic subjects of her autobiography. And for ...

Yesterday's elections in Scotland yielded an historic result: Alex Salmond , leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), will now have the majority needed to hold a referendum on independence.  Salmond's party has followed the strategy laid-out for them by the PQ, in Quebec, who held several referendums, but never quite managed to achieve the majority to fulfill their dream.  As an Anglo-Quebecer and Canadian, I was opposed to a separatist Quebec, a distinct province with a significant history that was better served in the federation - but I do welcome the chance Salmond offers his people for their own vote.  It seems obvious that Scotland has the culture, infrastructure, and history, to deserve a say in its own governance, and to determine whether it will remain within the UK or become its own country in the EU, like the Republic of Ireland, or Portugal.  Economics or fear may hinder the dream, but it may not - we might see a liberated Scotland in the next four yea...

Eyewear is very glad to welcome British poet Heidi Williamson  (pictured) this muggy Friday in London, poised to learn of the referendum results on electoral reform. Williamson was born in Norfolk in 1971, and   lives in Wymondham.  In 2008-09 she was Poet-in-residence at the London Science Museum’s Dana Centre, and she is currently Poet-in-residence at the John Jarrold Printing Museum in Norwich. In 2008 she received an Arts Council England award to help her complete her first collection, Electric Shadow (Bloodaxe Books, 2011), which is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.  Her work has been used to inspire poetry and science discussions in schools  and adult creative writing groups, and has featured in NHS waiting rooms, cafés, and at festivals. Circus pony Each evening after school you met like lovers. You angled offerings through the tired wire fence – she accepted as the air accepts. Among the traffic fumes and concrete, her heavy eyes and warm sa...

Not to be missed: Salmon 30th Anniversary Reading and Book Launch May 20th, 2011 Poetry Society Cafe (Studio room) 22 Betterton St. London 7.30pm Salmon Poetry celebrates 30 years of literary publishing with a showcase reading by four of its internationally-known poets: Rita Ann Higgins - Hurting God: Part Essay Part Rhyme (a memoir) Julian Stannard   - The Parrots of Villa Gruber Discover Lapis Lazuli Paul Kingsnorth - Kidland Philip Fried   -   Early/Late: New & Selected Poems Introduction by Jessie Lendennie , editor/MD of Salmon Poetry Ltd. Info: Contact  jessie@salmonpoetry.com