Robert Allen, Gone A Year

Robert Allen, the major Canadian poet, pictured, died a year ago, today. He is much missed, and loved. I fondly recall us walking through Soho, in 2005, and stopping to have a beer in a dive. We spoke of poetry, love, and science (a love of his). At the time, I hardly sensed how little time he had. Rob being Rob, he was modest in talking of his own living, as well as dying, and kept that mainly to himself. His extravagant verbal genius was then somewhat paradoxically related to his personal modesty, and perhaps made him less famous than he might have been - he rarely banged his own drum or tooted his own horn - instead advising, encouraging, mentoring, and editing, others. More and more it seems likely he is one of the significant Canadian writers of the last few decades, and certainly from Quebec.

Poem by Brooklyn Copeland

Eyewear is very glad to welcome Brooklyn Copeland (pictured) this Friday. I first came to notice her work when I agreed to publish some at Nthposition online magazine. Then I asked to see more of her work. I was very impressed by her stylish, witty, verve-driven poetry, which takes no prisoners, and, to my mind, expresses the best kind of fusion of alternative, and formal, poetic energies.

She is also blessed with a memorable, poetic name - never a bad thing for a poet (one thinks of Wordsworth, of Motion). I believe she is an extremely promising younger poet, and that we will read more of her in future.

Copeland was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 16th, 1984. As she wrote to me, "a Pisces born to two other Pisces; I reckon I'm destined to either write poetry or become a clairvoyant bag lady."

She lived in the suburbs for most of her childhood, with years spent in Turku, Finland, and Canterbury, England. She has lived in Tampa, Florida for the past few years, with plans to return to England at the beginning of 2008.

Her blog, Alsace-Lorraine, includes links to her most recent publications.

Kate

She was cat-eyed
and turtlenecked, flicking
her kretek over a pop
can, shale bangles
jangling like so many
airport tambourines.
She was fur-tongued
and blurry-worded,
wobbly on her ankles,
top-heavy and moue-
mouthed, powder-nosed
and sloppy, bursting
from her barstool
like a weasel
from a mulberry bush.
Her teeth were rows
of ice in a tray; her poems
Rorschach blots
on a page. And the
stick-fig-faux-scoliosis pose?
Stage-wise, she had one
of those and she worked it
like any blank-faced waif
in shredded runway clothes.
In crowds she laughed alone.
Her soul was lost
but her cry had heart, and when
she asked we fell apart
and spotted her the dough.
Which she probably blew
on blow. And that's
the last we knew of Kate.

poem by Brooklyn Copeland.
It appeared, in a different version, in Burnside Review 3.2.

Nthposition's November Poems Now Online

Notes to the Blue Cat
by Alistair Noon

Seemingly recognisable forms and actions, Wider questions of identity & Concede the point
by Rupert Loydell

Commencement
by Lance Newman

Cookie press rondel
by Anne Babson

The window
by John Welch

Lady of the cats, The melancholy beast & San Clemente
by Guillermo Castro

There's a different history
by Yvonne Green

La chaise longue
by Andrew Steinmetz

Astroculture & Atitlan
by Sophie Nicholls

West of Ireland Fly-Fishing Champion 1952
by Alex McRae

Mrs & Relatively new development
by Ros Barber

A paper shredder took my joy
by Erin Trahan

Winter time

Shameless plug time. My latest collection, Winter Tennis, was not published in the UK, and was thus not up for the Eliot Prize. Nor is it likely to be reviewed much, or at all, in Britain, though I live and work here. One of the challenges of being a Canadian poet in London. Anyway, Alberta is the new next big thing, and, fortunately, someone has noticed the book there. This is, as far as I can tell, the first and only review of WT, so far. Maurice Mierau writes that "Winter Tennis is an elegantly crafted book, and Swift is tuned in to the English language as a global inheritance in a way that more Canadian poets should be."

The TS Eliot Prize 2007 shortlist is announced

Eyewear was going to title this post "Mischief Night", "Nagra Falls" or "Judging and the Individual Talent" but decided against such frivolity. The TS Eliot Prize 2007 shortlist has been announced today. Below, the list in full, and remember, all poetry books published this year, in Ireland or the UK, were eligible (if submitted):

Ian Duhig for The Speed of Dark (Picador)
Alan Gillis for Hawks and Doves (Gallery)
Sophie Hannah for Pessimism for Beginners (Carcanet)
Mimi Khalvati for The Meanest Flower (Carcanet)
Frances Leviston for Public Dream (Picador)
Sarah Maguire for The Pomegranates of Kandahar (Chatto)
Edwin Morgan for A Book of Lives (Carcanet)
Sean O'Brien for The Drowned Book (Picador)
Fiona Sampson for Common Prayer (Carcanet)
Matthew Sweeney for Black Moon (Jonathan Cape)

The list, which is a strong one, has thrown up some surprises, some less welcome than others. To my mind, it was a major lost opportunity, not including Daljit Nagra's extraordinary debut collection. I realise that there is give-and-take on the judging panel, so it'd be interesting to listen in on why they felt Nagra's brilliant collection was not worthy of inclusion.

I know some poets hold a bias against poetry whose diction is "impure" in its use of English (see Hobsbaum's writing on this subject), and also a bias against poetry which engages with popular culture, and humour. Nagra's dexterous cultural handling of post-colonial issues, linguistic hybridity, and lyrical wit, is Muldoonian in its promise (as is the work of Gillis, thus seeming to confuse the issue). His absence from the list is shocking to me. Consider the following: "From 2006 the T S Eliot Prize, set up in memory of one of our greatest poets, will reflect Eliot's commitment to encouraging young people to read and enjoy poetry. The Poetry Book Society, which runs the Prize, is delighted to announce the launch of the School Shadowing Scheme." How can the PBS encourage young people, when its prize doesn't list or award precisely the exciting younger poets that do engage young - and old - readers?

At any rate, there is much to celebrate on this list. Fiona Sampson, Matthew Sweeney, and Mimi Khalvati, especially, are very good poets, well-deserving of being there. Frances Leviston, too, is a very good up-and-coming poet - from the poems I have seen from her new collection (in Ten Hallam Poets and published in magazines) - her debut will be one of the strongest of the decade - as strong, in some ways, as Kennard's or Nagra's. It is good to see the superb Irish press, Gallery, noted. It is also very good to see the great Edwin Morgan honoured here. I am not mentioning the four previously-listed poets, as we knew they'd be here, and we knew their books were strong contenders.

It is unfortunate that there was no room for Margaret Atwood, John Ashbery, Leonard Cohen, or Geoffrey Hill - each had a collection up for the prize, this year. And, there were few poets representing the other traditions in British poetry; and no Salt poets. I am sure someone somewhere is wishing Atwood and Ashbery had been selected - what a pre-award reading that would have been! And, doesn't it make the British poetry world seem a little parochial, and small, when they can't manage to recognise that (and this is ironic in the present context) Ashbery is the most significant, and canonically-influential American poet since, arguably, TS Eliot? His absence is also to be mourned for that reason.

Anyway, congratulations to all those on the list. May be the best poet win. ...

Who will win, now? With Nagra gone, the field is relatively wide open. I won't hazard a guess just yet, but will write more in early January before the final announcement of the winner.

Trick or Treats from the TS Eliot Prize

Sweets from strangers, or a bitter pill: poetry prizes, and being on or off the longlists, shortlists and final nomination lists, for them, can be either a thrilling gift, or a blade in an apple. The three judges for this year's TS Eliot Poetry Prize, the most-sought and respected of its kind in the UK, have met, and tomorrow their list of ten poets will be made public. Four are already known, as they were earlier selected by the PBS, hosts of the award, and these are Sean O'Brien, Sophie Hannah, Ian Duhig and Sarah Maguire. Six places are up for grabs, and near to 100 books are in contention. At this stage, with his Forward win, O'Brien would be the early front-runner.

Eyewear will comment more, tomorrow, after the list is announced. It will be intriguing to see how parochial, or how open-minded, the final list is - that is, whether it veers more to Hobsbaum's closed sense of Tradition, or early Eliot's ideas of experiment. The panel of judges - Peter Porter (filling in for UA Fanthorpe), Sujata Bhatt, and W.N. Herbert - represents a variety of poetics and tastes, and years of experience with form and language-play. I wouldn't be surprised to see Daljit Nagra, Edwin Morgan and Mimi Khalvati there. There are many other good poets up this year, such as Annie Freud, Joanne Limburg and Luke Kennard. Will Salt, for instance, breakthrough and get books nominated? Another good young poet debuting this year is Frances Leviston, who read for Oxfam in the past. And Fiona Sampson, David Morley, Elaine Feinstein, Michael Schmidt, are also strong possible contenders. Too many other names to mention here, such as Claire Crowther, and Matthew Sweeney. Also, this year a number of major North American poets had books eligible, such as John Ashbery, Margaret Atwood, and Adrienne Rich. It'd be good see Ashbery on this list, especially, surely. We shall see...

Top Ten Albums of 2007

Barring any surprises - and there may be a few - Eyewear would like to begin the listmania that usually begins in a month or so - and suggest a plausible provisional top ten list for popular music recordings in 2007. Looking back over my list for 2006, I realise I rarely listen to some of them anymore - music's charms can be fickle - but this is what is still in my ears now. You'll note that Arcade Fire are lower than might be expected - their album, while astonishing and innovative in places, was also over-hyped and grandiose, and put in its place by the far loftier-yet-serene experimentalism of In Rainbows, by far the most impressive album of the year.

I have also left off the Arctic Monkeys second album, which hovers somewhere in 12-20th spot. An early favourite for best of the year, it somehow faded in interest as the year wore on. Winehouse's retro album retains its power to shock with how the new can be so uncannily borrowed from the past, and yet be fresh. It is noteworthy how many of the albums were influenced by political events in America and The Middle East, and, however subtly, expressed concern with the world's current political ills - 1, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, especially - 2, 3, 4 and 10 rather reflecting the more-or-less apolitical sounds of an earlier era or time (whether the 60s or 70s) - which, ironically, were also very politcal moments. But, as I have suggested in my reviews, The Shins and Interpol are, in their ways, obliquely relating to current events. The strength of this list, and the longer one it draws from, argues that the 00s will be considered a good musical decade for popular music - even if no one dominant style has emerged - unlike the 90s with, say, Grunge, the 80s with Rap and Alternative, and the 70s with Disco and Punk.

1. In Rainbows - Radiohead.

2. Our Love To Admire - Interpol.

3. The Reminder - Feist.

4. Wincing The Night Away - The Shins.

5. Magic - Bruce Springsteen.

6. We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank - Modest Mouse.

7. An End Has A Start - Editors.

8. Zeitgeist - Smashing Pumpkins.

9. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire.

10. Back To Black - Amy Winehouse. [not previosuly reviewed at Eyewear].

11. New Moon - Elliott Smith. [not previously reviewed at Eyewear].