Spreading difference
These days, especially it seems, reviewers, panels/judges, constructors of ‘canons’, etc, seem to want a singular style or approach, a kind of unified body of poetry at least for each book if not overall, something they can theorise about or judge or slot-in easily. In other words, there has to be a focus, a centre, if you will. A poet is not allowed to wander where she/they will or may, not always constrained by the ‘signs’ of category. OK, ‘allowed’ to do so but as a consequence not taken seriously, or neglected, because she/they can’t be pinned down. I’m aware of that working in my own case – it’s been said to me more than once – and I suspect it is so for others. I take my work seriously (and sometimes not so seriously, because you just have to let all that go as well). As Gertrude Stein once wrote in T ender Buttons : “Act so there is no use in a center.”. Forms, procedures, styles or themes don’t need to be centralised, rounded-up. If I approach composition as making, f...