Shopping List of Modern British Poetry - Further Wrappers
Addenda to Shopping Opportunity List (updated February 97) A.D.
The list has been available on the Internet since October 1996 (in the Supplement to Angel Exhaust Twelve)http://angel-exhaust.offworld.org/html/issue-9-10/booklist.html, and some responses have been sent to me. Peter Smith suggested the inclusion of: Loquitur, by Basil Bunting; Logbook, by Denis Goacher; Deep Tap Tree, by Alexander Hutchison; and Masks, by E.R. Brathwaite. I would like to add:
David Barnett, Fretwork; All the Year Round
Isobel Thrilling, Spectrum Shift
Tony Lopez, The English Disease; Change; Stress Management
Emyr Humphreys, Ancestor Worship
Conductors of Chaos, ed. Iain Sinclair;
Out of Everywhere (ed. Maggie O'Sullivan)
However Introduced to the Soles, by Nick Macias, Niall Quinn, and Nic Laight
Elizabeth Bartlett, Two Women Dancing
Tom Lowenstein, Filibustering in Samsara
Alexander Hutchison, Deep Tap Tree, The Mooncalf; Brian Marley, Springtime in the Rockies; "Fower Brigs ti a Kinrik": four Fife Poets; David Wevill, A Christ of the Ice-Floes, Where the Arrow Falls; John Hartley Williams, Canada
I am still pondering works by: Caroline Bergvall (Oh Strange Passage and Oblique View of a Room in Motion are fine, but Eclat is very weak); Norman Jope; Elisabeth Bletsoe (too many weak points in her first two books); Chris Bendon (fine individual poems but his books are not good overall).
Both the Hutchison books are amazing. Publications of 1996 will be added later, after I have had time to read them.
An extra rule needs to be voiced, i.e. that no-one established before 1950 has been considered. This simplifies the list; but the volume Poems 1942-67, by Alan Ross, should be added, as Ross was nothing like "established" in 1950.
Allen Fisher writes to suggest, for the seventies, the following: Anthony Barnett, Mud Settles; B. Catling, Pleiades in Nine; cris cheek, some of the 1970s work in A Present; Thomas A. Clark, some particular, or a few of the later small chapbooks; Andrew Crozier, Printed Circuits and Pleats; Roy Fisher, The Cut Pages and The Thing About Joe Sullivan; Veronica Forrest-Thomson, On the Periphery; Ulli Freer (U. Flamme) Links. Links.; W.S. Graham, Implements in Their Places; Bill Griffiths, Cycles; Alan Halsey, Yearspace; Mark Hyatt, A Different Mercy; John James, A Letter from Sarah; R.F. Langley, Hem; Tom Leonard, Bunnit Husslin; Dick Miller, The () on Whim; Eric Mottram, Local Movement; Doug Oliver, In the Cave of Suicession; F.T. Prince, Drypoint of the Hasidim; J.H. Prynne, Brass and Down Where Changed; Barry MacSweeney, Odes; Tom Raworth, Ace, and one of the earlier books; Denise Riley, Marxism for Infants; John Riley, Ways of Approaching, and some of his translations; Peter Riley, The Linear Journal; Iain Sinclair, Lud Heat; John Wilkinson, The Central Line; Asa Benveniste, Dense Lens; David Miller, The Caryatids.
Richard Caddel writes to suggest: Lee Harwood, The White Stones, The Sinking Colony, Monster Masks, Crossing the Frozen River; Gael Turnbull, A Trampoline, Scantlings, A Gathering of Poems; Eric Mottram, A Book of Herne, Selected Poems; Tony Baker, Scrins; Doug Oliver, Kind; Alan Halsey, Five Years Out, A Book of Robin Hood; Elaine Randell, Beyond All Other. The exclusion of these books was not accidental. Richard was also a bit vexed that his own book Uncertain Time was not included. ("White Stones" may be a mis-realisation for The White Room?) Also, J.H. Prynne, Brass, The Oval Window; John Riley's late work. Obviously, Brass was included in Poems 1982, which we have listed. Caddel also recommends Dense Lens (Brian Marley, one half by Asa Benveniste), Springtime in the Rockies (Marley), and Tony Jackson's poetry; valid choices, these are very interesting poets of whom I simply had not heard. (I confused Tony Jackson with Alan Jackson, a ghastly Scottish confessional hippie.) AE alleges that both Marley and the quality Jackson are very much ecole de Benveniste, but this is a recommendation.
I hope it's clear that we're not trying to tell you what to do, but just trying to make information publicly available. The scene is still hurting from episodes like the Introduction to the infamous Morrison/Motion anthology saying that nothing of great interest happened in the sixties and seventies. To get to understand the modern history of British poetry, you have to be nearly a genius at shopping.
David Kennedy writes to add: Maggie Hannan, Liar; Medbh McGuckian, Marconi's Cottage, The Flower Master; John Welch, Out Walking; Kim Taplin, Muniments; Michele Roberts, The Mirror of the Mother; Psyche and the Hurricane; Lee Harwood, Crossing the Frozen River; Veronica Forest-Thomson, Collected Poems and Translations (1990)
Keith Jebb's ludicrous contention in a review of AE Thirteen that Logue was a bad poet and Mitchell a good one provokes me to release this survey of Mitchell, which I also don't expect to be published anywhere.)suppl13
update sometime in 98
Colin Simms writes from Alston to commend:
Barry MacSweeney, Odes; The Last Bud; The Boy from the Green Cabaret Tells of His Mother; Colonel 'B'; Glad Wolf Battle Gosling
Gael Turnbull, A Gathering of Poems
Tom Pickard, High on the Walls; Hero Dust; Tiepin Eros
Tony Harrison, A Kumquat for John Keats
Tom Raworth, Moving
Lee Harwood, The Sinking Colony; The White Room; title illegible; The Man with Blue Eyes
Stuart Montgomery, Circe
Roy Fisher, Poems 1955-80
Mike Shayer, Poems for an Island
Bill Griffiths, Nomad
Eddie Flintoff, Crossing Bowland
Fred Reed (title unknown)
Jeremy Hilton proposes: John Hall, Between the Cities (1968); John Welch, Out Walking (1984); Greeting Want (1997; Bill Griffiths, A Tract Against the Giants (1984); John Freeman, The Light is of Love, I Think (1997); Geraldine Monk, Inter-regnum (1994)
(amended Jan 2002)
This is an unlocked swiki file, so you can add data to it if you wish. The original Shopping List was part of an issue of Angel Exhaust in 1996. The imperative was to share information with as many people as possible - deeply offensive to the gatekeepers of an avant-garde where the restriction of knowledge is one of the main sources of emotional reward, where people don't want to share their enthusiasm and publishers don't much want to sell you their books. Modern poetry is essentially not secret, not written in code, not attached to an exclusive social group - it is public and articulate. That is to say, it is art.
There are, however, a number of reservations I have to make. For example, the research was made possible by review copies and catalogues sent to Angel Exhaust, and since I resigned from it in 1998 the list doesn't really go beyond 97 at best. I think the list made mortal enemies of several hundred people who Thought they were Wonderful and who didn't feature on the list. But, what's the point of making propaganda for modern poetry if you can't point to the books you are arguing for.
I am pondering whether to add discussion of books I decided not to include. For example, with Harry Guest, the conclusion we reached after discussion was that his books are very repetitive, so although he has written good poems his books don't really cut it (and a pamphlet called 'Elegies' did, being short). His poems in the anthology State of Independence are a good sample.
This list is some five years out of date. Depressing. No doubt you deserve something more comprehensive and upkept. (maybe you don't?) Suppose someone wanted to do so much work to produce an up to date list, they would need setoff lists to help them search. Therefore, having a list up to 1997 is Helpful - even if it is five years out of date. But everything in the small press world, except the poetry itself, is ruin, neglect, roofless barns, mould growing on foodstuffs soggy with flooding or filtered by weevils.
Anyone who can supply information (and, hopefully, photocopied texts) for Charles Madge, Graeme Jukes, Una Kroll, Eddie Flintoff, David Wevill (among many others) would earn my deep gratitude.
I hesitate to make a list for the 1990s because there is so much I haven't read yet. These additions are tentative but I also emphasize the tentative nature of the whole project.
1995 Brian Catling, The Blindings; Niall Quinn, Nick Macias, and Nic Laight, However Introduced to the Soles; David Greenslade, Burning Down the Dosbarth; Tim Atkins, Folklore 1-25; Alan Ross, After Pusan
1996 Robert Crawford, Masculinity; W.N.Herbert, Cabaret McGonagall; Elizabeth Bartlett, Two Women Dancing, selected poems 1942-95; Rod Mengham, Unsung: New and Selected Poems; George Mackay Brown, Following a Lark; Tony Lopez, False Memory; David Greenslade, Creosote; Gavin Selerie, Roxy; Kelvin Corcoran, Melanie's Book; Geoffrey Hill, Canaan
1997 Grace Lake, Parasol 1 Parasol 2 Parasol Avenue; Tondo aquatique; Robert Hampson, Seaport; Vittoria Vaughan, The Mummery Preserver; Christopher Middleton, intimate chronicles; John James, Schlegel eats a Bagel; Karlien van den Beukel, Pitch Lake; Frank Kuppner, Second Best Poems from Chinese History; Tom Raworth, Clean and Well-Lit, Selected Poems 1987-95; Barry MacSweeney, The Book of Demons; Kevin Nolan, Alar; Rob MacKenzie, Off Ardglas; Helen Macdonald, Safety Catch
Anthologies: Conductors of Chaos, edited Iain Sinclair; Out of Everywhere, edited Maggie O'Sullivan; Worlds of New Measure, ed. Clive Bush
Someone wrote in threatening to send a list of deletion requests. I am sure this is a good idea, but nothing concrete has followed.
What would you like to see in this list? This space is open for anyone who wants to supply other lists or comments.