Thursday 8 January 2015

My review of poetry collections by Angela Carr & Mary Madec in today's Galway Advertiser

"THERE ARE those for whom being a poet is, to paraphrase Angela Carr’s fine poem ‘Occupied’, “the new black”. If you are young and fit, all you need do is write long poems about what is going on at street level and wave your arms around when you read them.

If you are too weather beaten to pull that off, then find a major issue – cultural or political – and pretend to be anguished about it. The poses adopted may change but the emptiness inside remains. Such types are useful, though, because their prevalence enables one to immediately recognise the real thing, when one sees it."
You can read the full review here.