Robert Montgomery takes over billboards, signposts and the like to make social-cultural comments. On his website it says he “works in a poetic and melancholic post-situationist tradition.”
Monthly Archives: March 2012
John James
In the Keynes Library of Birkbeck College on Friday, 9 March there was a John James evening introduced by Carol Watts whose own recent volume When blue light falls 3 has just appeared from Oystercatcher. There were short talks given by Simon Perrill, Rod Mengham and John Hall all of whom had contributed to the Salt Companion to John James and these were followed by readings by both Simon and John himself. As John read from his two most recent publications, In Romsey Town (Equipage) and Cloud Breaking Sun (Oystercatcher) one became aware of that haunting quality of his poetry, that sense of ghosts lurking behind the scenes, and what John Hall has described as ‘quiet and tender acts in the departing shadow of the inevitably fugitive.’ This attractive venue had been used some eight weeks ago for the one-day Peter Riley conference and Carol Watts left us with the firm sense that there are going to be many more poetry events in the Keynes Library.
50 years of Penguin Poetry at the University of Bristol
This looks interesting. But I’ve got to wonder why they are celebrating only the 1960s specifically. Especially with the word ‘modern’ attached to it all. I get that it’s probably connected to when Penguin got in on the poetry act but for someone who wasn’t alive in the 60s, this seems like a narrow timeframe. Then again, why not?
Jarvis Cocker is a Poet. Apparently.
Should we remain sanguine in the face of pop stars, politicians, actors etc, etc, inveigling their way on to the poetry stage? Well, if we believe that poetry is everywhere then it stands to reason that everyone is poetry.
Still… Jarvis Cocker, a poet?
Maths Poetry – Schematics: A Love Story
A few weeks ago, I posted about maths poetry, as a sub-genre of poetry, and its proliferation on the internet. Like maths, maths poetry seems to be everywhere. Julian Hibbard, the author of Schematics: A Love Story has taken it one step further. According to the Huffington Post, “his book pairs diagrams of magnetic fields and chemical decomposition processes with quiet, alluring language.”
Having tackled numbers and data in a poem of my own, I have to say I find maths poetry ever more intriguing.
Open Thread for Performance Poetry in the Guardian
Of all of the UK’s broadsheets, the Guardian seems to be doing the most to engage with poetry in all its forms. Now it seems to making space for “performance poetry”. Here’s a call out for your reviews via Twitter.
Close-up Poetry at the Guardian
The Guardian has a new series of poets reading their own work to camera. So far we seen Simon Armitage, Paul Farley and Jo Shapcott. Here’s Liz Lochhead with her poem My Rival’s House.
Poetry? There’s An App For That!
For iPad specifically. It’s described as ‘a poetry app for school-age children and for adults of any age’ and has a bushel load of features including these:
You can record yourself reading a poem.
You can email a poem and email your recording of a poem.
You can tap on any word for a dictionary definition.
You can save poems to a Favourites page.
You can search by title, author, first line or by any word.
You can get a dictionary definition of any word.
Go check it out. So far, so good and innovative. Now all I have to do is save up for an iPad!
Browning and Barrett’s Love Letters Go Online
These letters between Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning were made available online on Valentine’s Day just gone but here at Tears in the Fence, being the dyed-in-the-wool romantics that we are, everyday is a day for love. Right? Someone ought to make a film about their love story already.
Find out more about the two lovebird poets here and here.
Poet Lucy English to Judge Warminster Festival Poetry
The Wiltshire based poet Lucy English is a friend of Tears in the Fence so we are delighted to hear that she has taken up the role of judge for the Warminster Festival 2012 poetry competition in October.
Lucy’s website.
