ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
Latest editorial
Poetry that does not ignore people
Legendary poetry publisher Smokestack Books will cease operations by the end of the year. JOHN GREEN looks back at its achievements
Andy Croft and some of the collections
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
POETRY is the most democratic form of literary expression — it only takes a pencil, a scrap of paper and/or a voice to create a poem of a few lines or stanzas. It won’t necessarily be good poetry but that is another issue.
Unfortunately, many people in Britain still today dismiss and ignore poetry. As socialist poet Adrian Mitchell memorably encapsulated it: “Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.”
Smokestack Books has spent two intensive decades trying to disprove this assertion. Its models were Curbstone Press based in the US and the French Le Temps des Cerises, publishers of “la poesie d’utilite publique” — poetry in the public interest.
More from this author
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a compact volume that charts the art of propagating ideas across the 20th century
MICHAL BONCZA reviews Cairokee gig at the London Barbican
MICHAL BONCZA rounds up a series of images designed to inspire women
