Poem in the Saturday Guardian Review

My poem "Hydra" appears in today's Review section of The Guardian.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1831327,00.html

Poem by Lara Frankena

Lara Frankena (pictured here) has a Masters in creative and life writing from Goldsmiths College (London) in addition to a Masters in Fine Arts.

She has occasionally shown her video, installation and photography work.

Her poems were published in Reactions 5 and she won second prize in the Essex International Poetry Festival in 2005, which is where Eyewear was delighted to first spot her, and hear her edgy, imaginative poems. I am glad to feature her this Friday.


Quelques Mots de Conseil

You must, he says, be trés maigre.
You pad the midsection and insert
a sack of pigeon blood mixed with vinegar,
pour éviter la coagulation.
The costume you must embellish
with a certain quantity of sequins
to mark the place where l’épée
devait entrer et sortir le ventre.
It is preferable to request a sword
from any military man in attendance,
for then there will be no questions
regarding the quality of the blade.

poem by Lara Frankena

Poem by Peter Robinson

Eyewear is very glad to feature Peter Robinson (pictured here) this Friday. He is arguably one of the finest, and most subtly innovative, of lyric poets now writing in the English tradition.

Robinson was born in the North of England in 1953. After seventeen years teaching English Literature at various universities in Japan, he has recently accepted a chair in the School of English and American Literature at the University of Reading. He is married and has two daughters. His many publications include Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2003), a collection of aphorisms and prose poems, Untitled Deeds (Salt, 2004), and Twentieth Century Poetry: Selves and Situations (Oxford, 2005). Two new books of poetry, Ghost Characters (Shoestring) and There are Avenues (Brodie), appeared earlier this year. Forthcoming this autumn are two books of translations, The Greener Meadow: Selected Poems of Luciano Erba (Princeton) and Selected Poetry and Prose of Vittorio Sereni (Chicago), as well as a collection of his interviews, Talk about Poetry: Conversations on the Art (Shearsman). A collection of essays on his work, The Salt Companion to Peter Robinson, is scheduled for October.


Disorientation

That newly fledged hedge sparrow
that flutters in the aura
of a neon lamp among the laurels
activates this height of summer
on pools with their reflected glories
where rain, nostalgic for the sky,
evaporates as heat
relentlessly returns, and we
are suddenly that bit poorer.
Obits come from another day.
Late light glows behind the leaves;
it backs off, turns away,
and I can do no more.

Like when, just out of hospital
and trying to feel well,
you sense the place as fragile;
you see how two wood pigeons
have gone and built their nest
in branches over the garden fence,
scaring away such smaller birds
as those aligned on the top of one vast
motorway junction sign
for Canterbury, Sevenoaks, Dover and the coast
— these things themselves like a picture of health,
being more at home than you can be
in your curiously lost self-interest,
and the light too going west.


poem by Peter Robinson. First published in English (2005)

Seven Million Can't Be Wrong

Bloggers of the United Kingdom unite!

The Guardian today reports that one in nine UK citizens blogs - that is, seven million bloggers. Oddly enough, this social habit is still misunderstood and maligned by the mainstream, yet is probably more prevalent than most other consensual activities. Thankfully, the above-mentioned paper notes in their editorial today that blogging needs to be fully integrated into the public and personal spheres.

Hopefully, those poetry publishers - and poets - who continue to avoid the Internet and by extension blogs as if they were rat poison will begin to see the writing on the blog: cyberspace is now as "normal" a form of communication as the printed page, the telephone, the radio, the TV, the mobile phone text...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1824415,00.html

Poetry CD Launch in Ireland

Yesterday evening's Galway launch of the Oxfam Life Lines poetry CD, organised by Over The Edge in association with the Project 06 Festival, was a big success. The Oxfam Shop in Galway was packed as Life Lines was launched by Galway City's first Green Party Mayor, Cllr. Niall Ó'Broilcháin. Niall read a poem from the CD himself: ‘The Walkway' by Sebastian Barker. Also in the audience was Michael D. Higgins, the former Irish Minister for Arts & Culture and a poet himself.

Six emerging poets who have taken part in poetry workshops facilitated by Kevin Higgins at Galway Arts Centre each read a poem from the CD as well as one of their own poems. Deirdre Kearney read ‘From The Irish’ by Ian Duhig; Rita O’Donoghue read ‘The Stethoscope’ by Dannie Abse; Hugh Doyle read 'Human Beings' by Adrian Mitchell; Connie Masterson read 'Bone China' by Esther Morgan; Anna McLoughlin read 'New Romantic' by Tim Turnbull; and Katarzyna Brzorska read ‘Corrections’ by Giles Goodland.

Kevin Higgins closed the evening by reading his poem from the CD: ‘A Brief History Of Those Who Made Their Point Politely And Then Went Home’ and Andrew Motion's ‘Ann Frank Huis’.

Many CD's were sold. And a most enjoyable evening was had by all.

Special thanks to Sheila of Oxfam Ireland and all at the Galway Oxfam Shop for facilitating the launch.

Summer Poetry At Oxfam One Week From Now

Life Lines: Eight Poets For Oxfam

Oxfam Summer Poetry Reading 2006

Thursday, 27 July, 7-10 pm

Oxfam Books & Music

91 Marylebone High Street, W1

Julia Casterton
Jan Conn
Alfred Corn
Annie Freud
John Redmond
Michael Schmidt
Henry Shukman
Roisin Tierney

Hosted by Todd Swift & James Byrne

Admission free, suggested donation £8

Please contact Martin Penny to reserve seats

Telephone: 020 7487 3570

email: oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com

Black Holes and Revelations

Q recently gave the new album from Muse - that hyperbolic sci-fi-inspired band from the UK - titled Black Holes and Revelations - five stars.

Recently Sight & Sound suggested the star ranking system should be rendered null and void, as so much stuff and nonsense to sell papers (S&S merely sells magazines), which is why Eyewear uses the five spectacles system instead.

BH&R is an album that calls for weird yet precise synergistic blurbs: consider the following formula: Pink Floyd + Ultravox + Queen + New Order + Radiohead = Muse.

In otherwords, this is not a subtle sound, but one prone to grandiose utterance. But it is thrilling, and oddly fresh, despite the "Mr. Roboto" vocoder effects in places and the endless invention; indeed, what was once postmodern art's best tactic, endless playful and eclectic invention, has now become a vaguely tedious nervous tic that infects every new 21st century product.

The opening track is stupendous ("Take A Bow"); the fourth, "Map of the Problematique" would not be out of place on Achtung Baby, if that had been produced by G. Moroder.

Have fun; inject a diode; zip to Japan on a jet-pack; listen to this space-age outfit.

4 specs.