Introductions

Hi, well, this is my first venture into blogland. I intend this space to be a repository of all my thoughts and idea about poetry, religion and life in general. And possibly other peoples' writing too if I find things I like. And reviews of books too.

I'm a poet with an interesting development. Lately, I've been largely reading linguistically-innovative poetry - Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk, Robert Sheppard - but I started off reading Larkin, Hughes, Brain Patten, etc because they were in my local library (Accrington at the time.) Then I went to Manchester University to do a Theology degree (yup, I'm religious; a sort of Liberal Quaker type with a side-order of High Anglican) and there I found Ashbery & O'Hara & the rest of the New York mob. I'll talk later about how that affected me; but let's just say I've been a fan of the New York school since then.

I think I'm probably going to be somewhere between linguistically-innovative and mainstream for the rest of my life. After reading too much linguistically innovative stuff, I have to confess to what I've taken to calling "the drum-solo effect." You know, when prog rock bands descend into twiddly, muso, look at how long I can keep this sustain going mode? It's like that. Then I read a lot more mainstream for awhile; and when I get bored with reading little closed in narratives with beginings, middles and ends, I go back to the weirder stuff.

Well, there's a lot more to be said, but this will do for now.