An anthology of poems the like of which I wouldn't normally read, often using fantasy, fairy tales and storytelling. The poems can be quite long - ballads, etc - and there are no page-breaks. They're from the 1950s onward. There are no section headings. Poems are loosely clumped by theme, which works well for me.
To me, many are Flash/microfiction, written in an age when the classification wasn't available. Some in their final lines have a retrospective insight instead of a punch-line, which I suppose makes them more "poetic". Rioran's "Time Out" is a story plus some comments about writing stories. When I write such things, I certainly don't call them poems. I even hesitate to call them Flash or stories. I've written pieces structured like UA Fanthorpe's "Not My Best Side". I send them to microfiction magazines.
Puzzling poems
I don't get what some poems - e.g. "Johann Joachim Quanz's Five Lessons" (W.S. Graham) - are trying to do. And "Variations for Two Pianos" (Donald Justice) just looks like a bad poem. "The Taxis" by Louis Macneice puzzles me.
Confirmations
I've never liked Les Murray's poems though "Sprawl" has a few lines I like. I've yet to like anything by Peter Redgrove, Gavin Ewart, CK Williams, John Hartley Williams, Tom Paulin. "The Turtle" is another failure by WCW. I'm still baffled by Tonks. I still see little in John Berryman. Paul Durcan arrived on the scene before Flash really took off. As poetry, his work often seems too padded and arty. I don't get Ian Duhig.
Misc likes/dislikes
I like Chuilleanaín's "Studying the Language" but not "Swineherd". I like Heather McHugh's "Coming/ is the body's way/ of weeping ... 'Rise up to me,' the spirit// laughed. 'I'm/ coming, I'm coming,'/ the body sobbed." Liked "Maura" (Thomas Lynch). Hecht's "Behold the Lilies of the Field" didn't grab me. Haven't seen Bishop's multi-page "Crusoe in England" before. I won't read it again. I like her "The Blight". "Always" by Mark Strand is ok, but I think Christopher James for example could have made more of the idea. "I am a Finn" by James Tate is striking. I've been struck by it before. "Boat Poem" (Bernard Spencer) is ok. "Not Waving" by Stevie Smith is still good. I like Heaney's "A Sofa in the Forties" (new to me)
Unexpected likes
"Ecstasy" Sharon Olds. "When I Grow Up" by Hugo Williams. "My beloved compares herself to a pint of stout" by Paul Durcan. "The Lion for Real" by Allen Ginsburg. "Underwear" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
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