On Monday 24th September Anthony Barnett gave a reading at the Poetry Library, Royal Festival Hall as a contribution to the launch of illustrator Mary Kuper’s new book Barnacles & Dames, an anthology of etymologies, poetry and images. Other poets included in the book are Brodsky, Joyce, Armitage, Muldoon, Adcock, Stevenson, Scupham, Padel and Kaufman.
Anthony read his poem ‘In All Weathers’ which had originally appeared in his collection Carp and Rubato, Invisible Books 1995. The poem is, of course, republished in his recent magnum opus Poems & (Tears in the Fence in association with AB).
As well as reading this major piece Anthony also read J.H. Prynne’s ‘Es Lebe Der König’ which he had published in The Literary Supplement, Writings 1, Nothing doing (formally in London) 1973. This poem by Prynne had originally been published in Peter Riley’s Collection 7 in 1970 before appearing in the Ferry Press publication, Brass.
The reading included the first stanza of ‘At Chartres’ from D.S. Marriott’s Incognegro (Salt 2006) and the first section of Barnett’s own translation of Zanzotto’s ‘Vocative Case’ which can be found in his recently published collected Translations (Tears in the Fence in association with AB) before concluding with the short piece ‘Remembrance’ from Antonyms & Others.
Remembrance
It is with dismay that I think about writing another poem
along these lines. My imperious whore, my visited muse.
I suffer vertigo and nausea in a labyrinth of cleansed dirt.
Anthony Barnett has a regular column in Tears in the Fence and a review of his recent publications can be found in the current issue of The Poetry Review.
Tears in the Fence 