Some Words

~ A blog about poetry written from the beautiful Scottish Borders. Poetry news, reviews, and some of my own poems thrown in for good measure.

Some Words

Monthly Archives: January 2013

New Poem: Ode to Coffee

11 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by craighopton in My Poems

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

acidic, cholesterol, coffee, concentration, filter, French press, kettle, life, moisture, nervous, ode, oil, poetry, stain, teeth, water

Coffee is an ugly, muddy looking thing.

*switches on kettle*

Coffee is useless at keeping its warmth.

*scoops granules into the French press*

Coffee makes you fidgety and nervous. You lose concentration.

*fills with hot water*

Coffee sucks the moisture out of you.

*depresses filter*

Coffee is acidic. It will stain your teeth. Its oils will raise your cholesterol.

*pours*

Ah ……. Coffee!

55.934594 -3.319681

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New Poem: Some Things

11 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by craighopton in My Poems

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bag, ballet, biscuit, bus, chocolate, cloud, colour, fajita, guitar, Himalayas, ice hockey, icicle, indigo, kiwi fruit, love, Me, plants, platypus, poetry, rock, rug, sancerre, shoes, sign, sock, things, Venus fly-trap, wine, world, you

Let’s stop for a moment and think about some of the things that are this world.

Red buses.
Clouds.
Kiwi fruits.
The duck-billed platypus.
Ballet shoes.
Ice hockey.
Volcanic rock.
Shopping bags.
Socks.
The colour indigo.
You.
Fajitas.
Turkish rugs.
Icicles.
The Venus fly-trap.
Keep Left signs.
Guitars.
Sancerre.
Chocolate biscuits.
The Himalayas.
And me.

55.934594 -3.319681

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Book Review: The Dark Film by Paul Farley

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by craighopton in Book Review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ben Wilkinson, Brent Crude, Carl Griffin, Creep, Nicholas Pierpan, nostalgic, Outside Cow Ark, Paul Farley, playful, poem, poetry, startling, surface, The Cellar, The Dark Film, The Power, unsatisfying

Most of the poetry I read nowadays is online, but I do work my way through the odd poetry book too. This is the first book review I’ve published on this blog.

Paul Farley‘s The Dark Film (London: Picador 2012) is a shortish collection, running to 55 pages. It was a Poetry Book Society Choice and has been shortlisted for the 2012 T S Eliot Prize.

My Review:

The Dark Film is written in very clear, simple, lucid language. It’s an easy read. I enjoyed not having to dip into a dictionary or Google names of things and this might be why I felt this book had a lovely flow to it even though it covers a very wide range of topics.

Paul Farley often likes to startle the reader by opening a poem with an unusual, sometimes bizarre, image. This is what grabs your attention and draws you into the poem initially. The poem ‘Brent Crude’ begins:

“Each one of us could fit inside a barrel,

assume foetal positions, elbows in,

suspended in the sweet and viscous black”

At other times he creates a sense of immediacy and movement, another way of drawing you in, as in ‘The Cellar’:

“Mind your head. The ceiling is low.

Slowly down the gritty steps”

However, I rarely reached the end one of these poems feeling fully satisfied or “wowed.” Why? Well, I got the feeling that Paul Farley too often skimmed across the surface of a topic or theme, and then tied the poem up before he risked losing the reader’s attention. In a way, these poems are too easy to read.

In ‘Outside Cow Ark,’ for example, which is one of the loveliest poems in the collection, Farley develops a theme about the life force operating in different creatures: “Is mine the only heart out in this weather?” He begins to ponder how human hearts, built for the long haul, must be perceived by creatures with shorter life-spans. But the poem ends just as it’s getting interesting. We end up with a neat and tidy three stanza poem hinged around a quaint but ultimately rather inconsequential thought, but which could have been developed into something much greater.

By the end of The Dark Film I still had the feeling of dissatisfaction. It’s not a book which has left a deep impression on me. There aren’t any poems in here that I feel the urge to go back and re read. Still, each poem is, on its own account, well made, clever and often entertaining. Like I said, it’s an easy read.

Five Words that describe this book: startling, nostalgic, playful, superficial, unsatisfying.

Rating: 6/10

Stand Out Poems: ‘The Power’; ‘Outside Cow Ark’; ‘Creep.’

Killer Line: “Now look around your tiny room / and tell me that you haven’t got the power.” (from ‘The Power’)

Other Opinions:

Ben Wilkinson writing in The Guardian describes it as a “captivating” book that “pursues many of his staple themes – childhood, history, technology, landscapes and, of course, the cinema,” but which sometimes indulges in “tired laments for objects.”

Nicholas Pierpan, writing for Tower Poetry, says that Farley has adopted a powerful technique called interpellation, meaning using a powerful command telling “you” what to do or think, but warns this “can make for awkward reading.” He praise Farley for “skill with the lyrical surface” but concludes that most of the time there is “little underneath.”

Carl Griffin in the Wales Art Review thought that Farley “playfully revels in exaggeration” and that there are “poems here which probably should have been left in the folder marked ‘early drafts’.” The gem of the collection, says Griffin, is the title poem, ‘The Dark Film.’

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Poetry News Round Up: December 2012

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by craighopton in Poetry News

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127 Hours, American, archaeology, arts centre, Auden, auditorium, award, Bannockburn, book, British, Byron Johnson, Carol Ann Duffy, education, film, French, Gerard Woodward, Guyanese, Hadrian, Idaho, James Dyson, James Franco, John Agard, Josephine Hart, Kathleen Jamie, lesbian, Life Saving: Why We Need Poetry, monument, news, Penelope Shuttle, philosophy, poetry, Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, Romans, Rome, San Francisco, Sandy Hook, school, Supreme Court, Sylvia Plath, The Seacunny, Yeats

Poetry News from the month of December, all shipshape and ready for action.

Probably the story that attracted the most attention this month was the news that a San Francisco high school senior was suspended after writing a poem which appeared to sympathise with the gunman of the Sandy Hook School massacre.  The case raises questions about literal interpretations of poetry and authorial voice.

In the UK, a new schools competition is being introduced to encourage teenagers to learn poetry by heart.  Students will be asked to memorise and perform a poem.  Some saw this as a deliberate riposte to James Dyson’s criticism of literature education and “French lesbian poetry,” which we reported on in November.

In Rome, there was an exciting archaeological find.  An ancient 900-seat arts centre, built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, has been excavated.  The auditorium was built in 123 AD so people could listen to readings of poetry and philosophy.

James Franco, famous for the film 127 Hours, attracted plenty of coverage this month by announcing he is to publish a book of poems, though it’s not likely to come out until 2014.

Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie’s poem was chosen to be inscribed on woodwork and displayed at the newly restored Battle of Bannockburn monument.

The Guyana-born poet John Agard won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.  He is only the second black poet to win the award.

In December we bade farewell to the poet and former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Byron Johnson.

Finally, here is a quick look at some of the poetry books that were published in December.  The Seacunny by Gerard Woodward is considered to be eloquent, witty and beautiful.  Carol Ann Duffy has published a new selection of work by Sylvia Plath.  In Life Saving: Why We Need Poetry, Josephine Hart provides a beginner’s guide to the big guns that comprise the English canon, from Auden to Yeats.  There is also a New and Selected Poems of Penelope Shuttle.

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Earlier Posts

  • March 2015 (1)
  • May 2014 (1)
  • April 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • February 2014 (2)
  • January 2014 (4)
  • December 2013 (1)
  • November 2013 (1)
  • October 2013 (1)
  • September 2013 (2)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • June 2013 (2)
  • May 2013 (5)
  • April 2013 (2)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (4)
  • January 2013 (4)
  • December 2012 (1)
  • November 2012 (2)
  • October 2012 (8)
  • September 2012 (7)

Topics

  • Book Review (5)
  • My Poems (23)
  • Poetry from the Web (7)
  • Poetry News (19)
  • Twitter (2)
  • Uncategorized (1)

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2014 actor American art auction Auden Australian award baby BBC book British Carol Ann Duffy Cecil Day-Lewis child Chinese Coleridge competition death English FaceBook film flower Forward Prize French GoodReads interview Irish Keats life love Mohammed al-Ajami music Natasha Trethewey news New York Times philosophy plagiarism poem poet Poet Laureate poetry politics Qatari rain reading review Romantic school Scottish sex Sharon Olds shower slam poem smile social media Spring sun Sylvia Plath The Daily Mail The Dark Film The Guardian The Independent The Telegraph Tony Harrison translation TS Eliot TV twitter v video Welsh world Yeats YouTube

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