[New-Poetry] What Are Odds Quoted for Armitage and Duffyat theLondon Bookmakers?

[David Bircumshaw]

> Wouldn't it be a joke and a half if Gordon Brown was so pissed off 
> with things that he appointed Tony Harrison as Pote Laureate?
I like the idea, Robin, even if I'm not entirely Harrison is quite what 
he seems, but I think he's probably a bit too old now to want the post 
as the government seem to envisage it. I guess the same applies to 
J.H.Prynne but the idea of someone whose poems almost nobody, including 
it seems his acolytes, actually understand is rather interesting (only 
four people in the whole country really know what they mean, so I've 
heard) : it would have the effect of bringing the mainstream versus 
avant-garde war right into the focus, after all, he couldn't rely on 
enigmatic absence from explication any more. Peter Reading would be an 
interesting event: the thought of someone whose literary persona is that 
of a misanthrope and nihilist reading to the little kiddies is strangely 
appealing somehow. Duffy, though, is the favourite it seems, the 
Guardian had an article yesterday as well as the Times, but they mention 
James Fenton as another front-runner, I think he could be a good bet too.

Best

Dave

-- 

David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk