Wednesday, January 25, 2006

UK poetry blogs?

I asked this on BRITISH-POETS but no response as yet, so I guess I ask it here too:

I visit a lot of US blogs that are engaged in a wide-ranging debate about poetry and poetics and culture. E.g. R Silliman, M Scroggins, P Lu, S de Deo, B Watten, L Jarnot, K S Mohammad, G Huth, E Tabios, JP Kervinen to name a few good ones. And their focus is naturally US poetry though the philosophy might be more international. Now the question is, do you know of any UK Blogs with a focus on UK poetry that are operating anything like this kind of wide-ranging but detailed debate? I expect there must be some around, but I don't happen to know them - the good ones I know are mostly quite unambitiously anecdotal (great book, terrible news, what's on my hifi). I would really like to know which your favourites are.

Possibly it's significant (but only if my perception isn't totally skewed) that I didn't want to undertake that kind of blog myself - I thought it was just me being me, but maybe it's a national reluctance? Or maybe the moment you try and stand back and take a broader conspectus, you find yourself gravitating towards talking about US poetry because that's where the cultural sharp end in English-language poetry tends to lie? Not a thought that would ever have bothered Andrew Duncan (brilliant but dormant pre-blogging site - the link's over on the right). Or do we just go about things differently? Or do we enjoy dipping our toes in the US openness but still retain a Marvellian thought: "I still my silent judgment keep"? It seems like a damaging one.

(Edmund Hardy wrote to commend Robert Sheppard's Pages, now in its third series; it began as folded A4 in 1987 but is now a blog, and this is definitely one I'll be keeping an eye on.)

[FOOTNOTE 2010:

As Google searches for "UK poetry blogs" still bring visitors to this ancient post, I thought I'd add an update. About a week after I wrote this post Edmund Hardy started up Intercapillary Space, a co-operative UK poetry blog to which I still contribute regular posts. Obviously I think it changes the picture to some extent - at any rate, I think it's a great publication - but for one reason or another, it has never become a forum for discussion about poetry. People generally don't comment on anything we write; something about the format discourages interaction. Maybe it feels impersonal. Anyhow. There are a lot of good UK poetry sites around now, not necessarily blogs but web-places. The best list (because it tells you a bit about each link) is http://www.modernpoetry.org.uk/blinks.html.

Oh, and BRITISH-POETS is now the BRITISH-IRISH-POETS forum on JiscMail, in case you were wondering what on earth I was talking about.]

4 Comments:

At 12:59 pm, Blogger Mary Boyle said...

here is my blog, if you would be interested in reading it. I love poetry and love writing.

Thanks,

Mary Boyle.

 
At 10:38 pm, Blogger Annuvyn Black said...

Misty morning by the sea,
I sit, chilled on the dock,
Waiting for the sky to clear,
Filled with recollections
of childhood moments.

The chuckling wash reminds me,
of drowned dreams,
A life bound to the waves
I can never capture.
I shall never sleep again.


Annuvn_Black

Just one snippet of over 20 years worth of material, some finished, others like this, a work in progress and all copyrighted.

 
At 10:43 pm, Blogger Annuvyn Black said...

Work in progress partly inspired by Gymnopédie No.1.


Misty morning by the sea,
Standing, chilled, on the dock,
Waiting for the sky to clear,
Filled with recollections
of childhood moments.

The chuckling wash reminds me,
of drowned dreams,
A life bound to the waves
I can never capture.
I need never to sleep again.




Part of more than 20 years of poetry development and copyrighted.

 
At 5:58 am, Anonymous Pierce Minor said...

Thanks for helping to keep the art alive!

Pierce Minor
www.pierceminor.com

 

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