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

Maria Taylor reviews She Inserts the Key by Marianne Burton In her debut collection, She Inserts the Key , Marianne Burton explores an extensive range of theme and subject matter, from the urbane to the surreal. Despite the varied content her style rarely wavers from writing which is thoughtfully constructed. Elizabeth Jennings once wrote ‘only one thing must be cast out and that is the vague,’ and Burton’s poems are often full of concrete images and experiences, of things which can be pinned down and described –   such as a sparrowhawk caught by thorns while pursuing its prey ‘pinned wide open for our inspection’: For fifteen seconds it lay crucified – wings museum-fixed, spread eagle by thorns – as we watched our exhibit twist against its pivot, its spine pull against the pinioning Burton’s poems have a sculpted inventiveness about them and often allow for a sensual engagement with her subject matter. Both production- and content-wi...

A rather late but nonetheless heartfelt reminder that Poetry in the Crypt returns on Saturday September 28 th at 7pm in St Mary’s Crypt, Upper Street.  Guest readers are Maitreyabandhu, Sharon Morris & Ian Parks with a supporting cast of floor spots, book & craft sales and refreshments (including cakes).  All for £4 in aid of Hospice Care Kenya.  Hope to see you there! Mike & Nancy

I am thrilled to have a pamphlet coming out in the first half of 2014 with Alec Newman 's wonderful press, KFS .  This new poem may be the title poem... Unfinished Study of a French Girl Barely there, if at all, the one that got away, semi-French, against the wall, it’s only air where art could have been; the stroke of seconds that slip between what is night, and what might be a dream. Maybe she was a student who never had to pose again; a doctor’s patient never seen. Half invisible, half known, barely mysterious, just browning greys, greens. A face that happens to remain, almost a boy – because to form is to decide only the name makes her a girl, and even then, she looks past that decision. She looks: she has a bare face.   It is a body that’s undone.   Whatever didn’t happen happened for a reason, or none; imagination’s lost address, a day the umbrella stayed at home and was...

The debut novel by Sumia Sukkar

  If Mr Dickman, American poet, had not already existed, Eyewear would have wanted to invent him Matthew Dickman is hardly news to American poetry readers - a twin with books from some of the best places for a US-based poet - he has been the subject of a New Yorker profile, and winner of some important prizes.  His long-stanza, vernacular, witty poems are not, then, a strange sighting across the pond.  However, British poetry readers might be forgiven for raising a collective eyebrow at the Dickmanmania that has set him down on these shores, suddenly, and figuratively, as a leading American poet we need to acquaint ourselves with quickly - like diplomats scrambling to recall the names of a new Russian foreign minister. For, Mr Dickman - with his obtrusive name and bespectacled youthful visage - has his name and/or face on the covers of the two most important and widely-read UK poetry journals, and they arrive (suitably for a twin) at precisely the same time - thi...

Patron: Andrew Motion               4th October 2013     7.00p.m.        (doors open 6.30)                           Ruth O'Callaghan Presents                                                    Ruth Padel                   Matthew Hollis                             ...

As a creative writing lecturer I was concerned Crossland Employment Solicitors might not get me and my particular concerns.  Instead, I found them not only commercially practical and legally astute, but also imaginative, concerned and compassionate.  I would recommend them without hesitation to anyone in education. - Dr Todd Swift