Recent reading of  Steve Ely, Geoffrey Hill and Basil Bunting have made me think about the male perspective in poetry and about how different aspects of masculinity are represented in contemporary poetry by men.[1]  I don’t think poetry can be gender neutral, no matter how generous, inclusive or aware of the other the poet attempts to be.  Nor do I think gender can be seen as binary; there must be as many versions of gender in poems as there are in the people who write them.   Nevertheless, there are certain traits in poetry, as in life, which are traditionally regarded as masculine, and may include attitudes to violence and sexuality as well as specific ways of using language.

1. Simon Armitage      

I used to be very bothered by Simon Armitage.  Is it time I changed my mind?

Some years ago, when I was a teacher, I…

I did not manage to attend Alice Oswald’s first lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry but I have just listened to the podcast: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/art-erosion . The title of the lecture was ‘The Art of Erosion’ and in it Oswald made a distinction between poetry which builds up and that which erodes, the latter being what she is more interested in. Erosion as a metaphor captures the forces of nature and time central to her poetry. She argues that the poetry of erosion is not a construct but the uncovering or discovering of what is already there. Poets (and critics) are fond of dividing poetry into categories; this one reminds me of Charles Olson’s dictum that the poet could either make something up or be ‘equal to the real, itself’. This, in turn, reminds me of Coleridge’s distinction between imagination and fancy, and, more significantly for Oswald, of Keats’ discussion of…

A Nobel prize winning poet, writing in English, that I had barely heard of. Shamed by my ignorance of the work o, I started to read her in bulk. I started withA Village Life,2009, which is comparatively recent, and which I will return to. I followed up withThe First Five Books(Carcanet, 1997) which includes all her work up toArarat(1990). The prevailing impression from this collection was gloomy. In fact, when I read ‘The Undertaking’ , the opening poem in ‘The Apple Trees’ which is the second section ofThe House on Marshland(1975), I was surprised by how upbeat it was.

The dark lifts, imagine, in your lifetime.

…

the sun is shining,

everywhere you turn is luck.

At the same time, I asked myself how long this sudden cheerfulness would last.

Five pages later the poem ’12.6.71’ opened and closed thus:

You having…

Christina Strigas Release Date : May 1st, 2021

Email: chrissystriga@gmail.com

http://www.christinastrigas.com

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Book Release Day

for

Love & Metaxa

Poems by

Christina Strigas

Quote:

Short Author Bio

Christina Strigas is trilingual, raised by Greek immigrants, and has written three poetry books. Her latest, Love & Vodka, has been featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by you.”

She has also written two novels for MuseItUp Publishing. One is a paranormal romance, Crush, and the other is a romantic/erotic novel, The Wanting, written in first-person narrative by the two main characters. Both have had excellent reviews.

In her spare time, Christina enjoys foreign cinema, reading the classics, and cooking traditional Greek recipes that have been handed down from her grandmother.

She is also co-founder of @ArielPoets on Twitter.

Book Summary:

Christina Strigas takes you on a ride through the…

Rachel Thompson featured an article I wrote, please read the link: https://rachelintheoc.com/2021/03/this-is-the-reason-being-specific-encourages-emotion-with-guest-christinastriga/

Leave a comment tell me what you think…..

Thanks for reading.

A little update on my book Love & Metaxa. I am self-publishing it on May 1st.

Thank you for reading!

Have a great week.

It’s that time of the year again! To coincide with NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) I am running my April Write-a-thon, a prompt-a-day course aimed at getting you to the end of April with enough poems, notes and thoughts to get you through the year! This year I’m running it again with all new prompts!

How it Works

Starting on April 1st, this course will run until 30th of April. You will receive a brand new prompt, every single day, including weekends, delivered straight into your email inbox. The prompts are aimed at getting you putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboards to get a first draft of a poem written. You’ll also have access to a closed facebook group where you can share your work with other members of the course and receive and give feedback. I monitor the group daily and try…