I need routine...at least some routine, somehow...and routine of late has been writing this on a Sunday and it's 11.51 so I might just make it. I would have written earlier but I was in Dundee this evening seeing Don Paterson and Mondo Mimmo and Mr Gavin McGinty at the Acoustic Cafe so I thought there might be something to say about that. So... is there?
I went along with another Fox poet - Pat Fox, recently moved to Dundee from Edinburgh. There are a lot of poets called Fox, I think.
As for the famous poet tonight - I'd read some poems but never seen or heard Don Paterson so was keen to go. Even better Acoustic Cafe (as you might guess from the name) is not a poetry night as such (more music with some words now and again..). Call me a philistine (or worse) but I'm not a big fan of whole nights of just poetry. The intensity you get from poetry...I like a few moments, at least, to let it sink in before intensity strikes again.
So...I'd heard and read so much about Paterson that I was a bit terrified really but he seemed just another merrily neurotic soul in the flesh. I expected confidence and arrogance and he may have all that but it was nicely dressed up with twitches and self-deprecation and mumbling. I liked him...couldn't hear the poems very well (he seemed almost embarrassed to do any serious poems) but he relaxed with funny ones and short ones and a long prose piece about being in a band and he played some great guitar. Was he nervous about being on home ground..about being in a music place with young not-balding people in the audience? Maybe he's just twitchy all the time. I know I am...the train in nearly finished me off...especially as there was Alan Partridge (in student form) sitting behind me. It was too weird for words.
Anyway...it is now Monday and bedtime.
p.s. Don Paterson 'fucking hates blogs' - in case you were interested...
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5 comments:
Pat Fox is another friend, and a fine poet.
I know Don P, so I'm not surprised by his views on blogging. He's usually a very clear reader though. Interesting.
It was a bit weird but enjoyable all the same. He even said something like 'I'm going to read funny ones because I want you to like me'. I love to see insecurity in others so it did make me like him more than I expected to as a result and I may even buy a book. Maybe that was the idea (but I doubt it).
It's funny... you imagine that poets published by Faber & Faber are above insecurity but I suppose that's a silly thing to think really! I just always see Faber as the great seal of acceptance or something...
Forgot to say...I met Pat at the Stanza pamphlet fair last year. We were at adjoining tables but no family connection.
I'm not doing the fair this time...waiting till I have something new to sell.
R
Hates blogging? Presumably bloggers too then, by extension. These too-precious poets!
Not everyone has the same shot at serious publication as Don Paterson has, let's face it: for many thousands of people, a blog is the only place their poetry and ideas can find a readership. And that makes the blog a pretty 'fucking' marvellous thing ...
Sorry Rachel, couldn;t resist linking to this...
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