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A little tea, a little chat

I've been a compulsive reader, writer and theatre goer all my life. My book blog is here: http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/ Mostly food at the moment but also knitting is here: http://cathyingeneva.wordpress.com/

Currently reading

Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Sheldon S. Wolin
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Gustave Flaubert
Nebula Award Stories 3
Harlan Ellison, Gary Wright, Samuel R. Delany, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny, J.G. Ballard, Anne McCaffrey
Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe
Helge Kragh
Gantenbein
Max Frisch
Collected Poems - Roger McGough Rimbaud once said 'I am unknown; what does that matter? All poets are brothers.'

Roger McGough, I gather, once believed that, but it didn't take long to be disavowed of the notion. He talked about it in a Guardian interview:

"When Motion and Morrison edited the Penguin Book of British Poetry, we were totally omitted. There's been a lot of that," he says. "Those years when Motion was editor of Poetry Review, and Craig Raine was poetry editor at Faber ... I felt we were always in the position of having to defend ourselves. We got cheesed off at being referred to as small-town Mantovanis, or the pop brigade. I suppose because we didn't do English at university, or because the poetry I was writing could be appreciated by my mother or my aunties. It came out of a sort of naivety." There is naivety, too, though of a characteristically charming sort, in his stated belief in "the brotherhood of poetry. I felt, with my first poem, that I had entered this brotherhood. Which turned out not to be the case."


What is it about today that makes the definition of poetry such a miserable snobbish thing? If there is any artistic form that should be readily intelligible and accessible it is poetry: historically, after all, it existed as an important form of communication.

For the rest of a rather long post on the wonderful McGough's delightful poetry, go here.

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/roger-mcgoughs-collected-poems/

Honestly. Go there and take a look even if you 'don't like poetry'. I want to change your mind.