'Poetry Enters Remarkable New Era…'
(Graffiti in Granada, Andalucia Sept. 08)
(Washed-Up Bike on Dunfanaghy Pier, Donegal, Aug.08)
Poetry Enters Remarkable New Era is the headline from The Independent referring to Jen Hadfield winning the T S Eliot Prize.
Apparently one headline in a British National Newspaper said: ‘Shop Worker Wins T S Eliot Poetry Prize’ Poetry must finally have landed if it is being sensationalised by head-turning lines like this – and more power to such headlines. Whatever brings poetry into the public realm can only be good thing. And then while in the public realm it’s poetry’s responsibility to get things moving… without the proverbial throwing out of baby with dishwater.
And there's more:
…But no one who followed the fortunes of the T S Eliot Prize this year could doubt that British poetry has entered remarkable new territory, with a new vigor and drive, and a fan base it could have only dreamed of a decade ago.
Don’t you just love that words like ‘vigor’ ‘drive’ and ‘fan base’ are being used to talk about poetry? Something is definitely afoot here.
The announcement that Jen Hadfield had won apparently led her to:
… promptly burst into tears. It was not a very Kate Winslet moment. Dabbing tears away, she read a poem about a horse, which happily contained the lines, "Ladies and gentlemen, will you fill your glasses? May I lead us all in a toast or prayer?"
Very apt lines for the occasion… I hadn’t read any of her work before but will definitely be doing so. What I have read of her work online so far has been truly excellent.
A poem with a title like this: Self-portrait as a Fortune-telling Miracle Fish is poetry that can turn heads, hearts and minds. It’s about time that Poetry had its way with words and may the fan-base go forth and multiply…or is this all a too-simplistic summing up of where poetry might be and where poetry might be going…?
Do you think British and Irish poetry is on the crest of some new wave? Can a poetry win like this really make a difference? And has this new era already been happening elsewhere, like in the States maybe?
posted by Liz at 8:40 am
6 Comments:
I'd like to think we're on a new poetry vibe these days, but only time will tell. It's ery hopeful though and I'm enjoying what's coming from it now :) Fair play to Jen Hadfield; the doors have been opened!
Barbara, yeah, she is good, isn't she...so glad she won and that I have her two books to savour pretty soon, hopefully... : )
(Babara, as an aside - my yahoo account is blocked - looks like some bloody trojan or virus or whatever they're called could be keeping me out (hope this is not a sign of something or t'other ; ))...am going to give POF another go and try to pm you...: )!
I have noticed a few changes in recent years that are interesting. It is becoming much less shocking, in some circles...and more and more of them, to admit to being a poet (than it was, say, ten years ago). Alright, some people have always... respected poetry but more and more people are doing so I think. It may go back the other way again of course...these things are cyclical, just fashions of a sort...but you never know.
More and more people are writing poetry too now (or admitting to it) and they do say that a lot of the poetry-buying public are writing it themselves (whether secretly or not, whether with any ambitions to be called a poet or not) so that mus bode well for sales. Poetry festivals are getting bigger and more public all the time too and publishers like Bloodaxe have done a great deal to keep poetry going for all readers (and not just people who have done literature PhDs).
I think the news media are picking up on Jen Hadfield as younger and female and identifying her as a great hope for the future (and all that) because that's just how the media works (one reason I couldn't work in it...editors need to keep their pages lively and that isn't always good for writing and thinking). There are lots of different poets writing all kinds of poetry and what I hope most is that poetry can be allowed to grow in the public's imagination (as it is doing) and that this same media won't then ruin it all by expecting everyone to now write like Hadfield (because that won't do her or any of us any good!).
I was pleased to see her win for many reasons - (1) I'm a feminist so I can't help myself but like it when women win (I really like Maura Dooley too - if anything her poetry is more 'my cup of tea' as all the editors would say), (2) she's published by Bloodaxe (and I really admire what they've done over the years) and (3) she sounds like a lovely lass who's doing her own thing in her own way. Long may she follow her star wherever it takes her!
x
Going off-track here a bit Liz but I'm interested by the pics of the bike and the graffiti.I had taken(and lost now)a very similar pic of an almost identical bike in Wicklow harbour and I am always taking pics of graffiti.I'm such a hypocrite coz the graffiti round our way causes me apoplexy but the stuff elsewhere I point me lens at.I'm the ultimate nimby.
Hi Rachel,
You made some great points there - especially the idea of letting poetry 'grown in the public's imagination' and the hope that
with the involvement of the media
the whole copy-cat idea of Jen
Hadfield's poetry doesn't come to
pass.
It's true about Literary festivals
popping up all over - that can't be bad - maybe at last poetry is back with the people again... there has to be room for all
types of poetry and not just what
the academics and snobs-of-poetry
deem to be 'real poetry'...I admit
to not speaking much about the fact that I write poetry to non-poetry people - my fear is that it
will conjure up an angst-ridden image of me! The association being that poetry = too much self-obsessed, introspection...the humour and lightness in poetry
has to be allowed breathe as well...!
cheers Rachel
TFE, hi there, interesting what you say about there being more stuck-in-the-sea-mud bikes out there...I love finding weird stuff like that...makes me think about how the bike got there in the first place - would somebody actually raise a bike over their heads and fling it to the sea?
And graffiti - love snapping it too...speaks 'of the people and for the people', I reckon, but yeah...it has a certain aggresion about it too...
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