I can’t be sure (how can you be?) but I think this year’s Forward Book of Poetry is better than last year’s – whatever “better” means…
But I am still dismayed by the gimmicks some people use in order to appear ‘original’, and consequently the work that can get labelled as ‘poetry’. For example, there is an increasing tendency to recognise stream-of-consciousness prose as ‘poetry’. It isn’t, surely. It’s stream-of-consciousness prose. Does anyone seriously think that the “Penelope” section which finishes James Joyce’s Ulysses is poetry? Or is it still okay to call that prose because it’s so long. If I write very short pieces of s-o-c prose – and I have – am I at liberty to enter them into poetry competitions? Clearly I am. So I may do.
The fact that the exact same piece of writing – with no changes – could be entered for both poetry and flash fiction competitions really says it all. There are no boundaries any more. It’s the literary equivalent of the Wild West.
Which on one level is really exciting isn’t it? But if you’re a ‘traditionalist’. by both age and education…?
One of the nice things about this year’s Forward collection is that there are people in it not only who I recognise, but with whom I am connected one way or another (mainly via the great god of Social Media). Something to cling to perhaps when I’m wringing my hands over the prose wolf in the poetry sheep’s clothing…
Ian Gouge - Writer 