In keeping with the theme of 5 - 5 years of Eyewear's four-eyed stance - I would like to announce THE EYEWEAR PRIZE. There will be five prizes - a winner and four runners-up, for best poem. Each poet may submit five poems. POETS MAY BE ANY AGE OR FROM ANY NATION. Poems must be no longer than 50 lines. Poems must not have previously been published or appeared online, in magazines, or in any book or pamphlet. Poems should be in the English language and submitted electronically as word documents. Poems should refer, if possible, to eyewear, and the number five, though this is merely a whimsical restraint that excellent poems on any theme need not fear. Submission is free. I will be the judge, and will wear glasses at all times during the rigorous adjudication process. Email poems to me at toddswift at clara dot co dot uk. The prize will be the sheer thrill and honour of being the winner of THE EYEWEAR PRIZE. All 5 winners will be featured at the site, and grant first internet rights for publication of their winning work online. Deadline for submission: August 5th, 2010. The winners will be announced October 5th, 2010. Each poet may only win once, even if seeing double. Eyewear reserves the right to declare no winners if entries of insufficient quality are entered. Entrance into this literary competition in no way establishes a legal or commercial or comical or indeed chemical bond between Eyewear, its editors, or the writers involved. Viva eyewear!
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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