E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG BY TODD SWIFT

Leah Fritz, British-based, American-born, Poet and Writer, is 80 today!  That's wonderful news.  Fritz has been an active, popular presence on the London poetry scene for long before I arrived here in 2003 - and was one of the first to welcome me when I arrived.  She is funny, acerbic, brilliant, and an excellent judge of what makes a good poem.  Her poetry collections include From Cookie to Witch Is an Old Story (1987) and Going, Going... (2007).  Her works on feminism included Thinking Like A Woman (1975) and Dreamers & Dealers: An Intimate Appraisal of the Women's Movement (1980).  Andrea Dworkin's classic, Intercourse, is dedicated to Leah.  Her New and Selected Poems is out from Salmon, in Ireland, in 2012, which is more cause for celebration.  I offer the following poem of hers, below, as a gift to Eyewear's readers (with thanks to poetry pf).



Whatever Sends the Music Into TimeWhatever sends the music into time,
not just in metre but through centuries,
Mozart ye…

Warning: this post is about Todd Swift's recent collection, Mainstream Love Hotel. It is a self-serving notice of a very positive review in the April/May 2010 issue of London Magazine, by Leah Fritz. It is being posted in order to interest readers in the collection, in the hopes that some might seek out the book, to read it, even buy it.

If this act is suspect, or even considered downright bad, consider the following: what are poets doing when they a) read their books at launches and book signings; publish their poems? What are publishers doing when they a) send books for review; market books; sell books in shops and online; enter books in competitions? The motives of authors and publishers are complex, and cannot all be boiled down to the purely virtuous act of distributing literary material freely, for the sake of education, enlightenment and entertainment.

Poets, and publishers, both want a) their books to be read; and b) their books to be borrowed or sold. This may be insan…