David Wheatley offers here a speedy response to Christopher Reid’s book: ‘I hereby proclaim The Song of Lunch an instant classic.’ The phrase is something of an oxymoron, but I know what he means. You decide.
And in today’s Guardian – I almost spilt my coffee – a double-page spread on August Kleinzahler, a New Jersey/San Francisco poet whose readership here may be small (me, C, H, R, a few others) but is passionate. Is that what a cult is? Any gruffness – look at the photo: hat, cat, and an expression that isn’t a scowl but isn’t far off it either – comes with an undertow of sensitivity to light, angles, distances, and thrilling ways of getting language of different registers (street, literary, technical) to cohabit on the page.
Kleinzahler. Any links to his stuff you can recommend?
ReplyDeleteS – thanks for dropping by. Kleinzahler doesn’t have much of a presence on the net. Four poems from some years ago at booksmith.com/reader/fourpoems.html. Little point, in the circumstances, of suggesting the local library; the offer of a book parcel still holds. C
ReplyDeleteBook parcels are always welcome, craved, even. Thankyou, I'll look at that link.
ReplyDelete