Skip to main content

Best Poetry of 2006 -- Thomas Kinsella

The National Book Critics Circle blog has a post about the best poetry books of 2006. And there are some great books there: Frederick Seidel's Ooga-Booga (certainly the best title, and a superb and disturbing poet for sure -- check out the readings on his web site), Deborah Bernhardt's Echolalia, Name Withheld by Lisa Sewell. I'm definitely going to get some of the books I haven't read yet.

But Thomas Kinsella's Collected Poems (Wake Forest University Press) -- the definitive collection of Ireland's greatest poet since Yeats -- gets no notice. As usual. Perhaps the problem is that this was published across the pond by Carcanet a few years ago. But the Wake Forest edition is not only better designed, it corrects errors in the Carcanet and it's published here. By the only American publisher dedicated to contemporary Irish poetry.

Seriously, what is the matter with these people? Paul Muldoon's great, fine, ya ya ya (actually I think that's a Muldoon line), but for God's sake will somebody pay attention?

I'll try to make a case for Kinsella soon.

Comments

Razovsky said…
I agree — Ooga Booga is one of the great poetry titles of all times. And I like the book very much. Though I'm still partial to Area Code 212, which was my introduction to his work.

Stu

Popular posts from this blog

Who else can't speak for himself? Hermagoras, that's who. Because UD won't let him.

Welcome, Uncommon Descent members ! For the record, I don't ban users or arguments (I will delete threats and suchlike.) As long as you're here, you might check out the reality behind ICON-RIDS (if you haven't heard about this before). A letter to GilDodgen, responding to this : I, Hermagoras, am banned at Uncommon Descent but apparently still discussion-worthy. Indeed, a whole post devoted to refuting someone (me) who is not allowed to respond. You guys are certainly committed to fair debate! I was trying to make a fairly simple point, which I would have thought IDers agree with: that all observations and all "facts" are theory-laden. It's simple enough. I elaborated it in a post which Dembski apparently thought was off-topic and led him [to] ban me in precisely the terms I previously discussed on my blog . Hilarious. Then continued discussion (again I can't respond) about how I'm trying to be the clever one . Nothing in my banned posts

Radical misreading: Kairosfocus on Saul Alinsky

Just a brief note to respond to kairosfocus, who claims regarding Saul Alinsky: For those who came in late, Alinsky was a neo-marxist radical who saw cultural and community subversion as the means of communist revolution. I cut my critical thinking eye-teeth on Communists, messianistic charismatic pols and cultists, and have wariness about all three. (All quotes in bold are emphasis added.) Truth be told, kairosfocus couldn't tell a Communist from a hole in the ground. He links to a passage in his bloviating web page on "selective hyperskepticism" as follows: His premise for resorting to ruthless radicalism -- as stated in his key work, the 1971 Rules for Radicals [RFR] was that: " A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of

Scott Simon and NPR hate poetry

On NPR's Weekend Edition this morning, Scott Simon delivers a commentary about the recent exposure of gang-banger "memoir" Love and Consequences by Margaret Jones (actually Margaret Seltzer). Simon observes that "the book is a fraud, but Ms. Seltzer came within hours of of being on NPR." Wrong . In fact, Jones/Seltzer did make it onto NPR's syndicated show "On Point," and the show followed with an hour-long, hand-wringing examination of how they got punked in the first place. But that minor error is nothing compared to what happens next. Simon quotes Seltzer making up some bullshit about her life and observes (my transcript of the online audio): Now if some Brooklyn or London novelist had written a story set among drug gangs and uttered those words, people might have dismissed them as pretentious nonsense. Put those sentences into a so-called memoir, people call it "gritty and real," or "raw, tender, and tough-minded,&q