Poems and Mushrooms

I picked this up from Rob McKenzie's blog, who in turn is talking about Don Share's take on a poem by Katherine Kilalea which is called 'Henneker's Ditch.

Share quotes the poem - if it is not the whole, I'd be dying to get the collection it's in, New Poetries V - and then goes on a really interesting meander, showing us not only a good appreciation, but a good insight into his own thought processes when he comes across a poem that needs unlocking.

I last felt this interested in a poem when reading T.S. Eliot's Prufrock, or Ginsberg's Howl. This is a poem that's got me thinking about hybridity, dream sequences, and - of all things - some of the things I used to do, twenty or so years ago before I got sense.

They would be drugs - well, mushrooms in particular (that's about as hard as it got around here - they were free!) - which I'm not advocating in any shape or form - but these were the first thing I thought of when I read Kate Kilalea's poem... I've put this here more as a note or reminder to myself, more than anything - but the poem is exciting, and has me thinking hard.

Finding Out Shantih, or, how to get from A to W

There is a post on George Szirtes blog where he mentions a novel that has been written about the Byzantine world of collegiate bureacracy (at least that's what I thought). He mentions a spoof of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, by Edward Pygge, with the line "shantih, shantih, shantih / it's only a shantih in old shantih town"

So this sends me off looking on the internet, because I love spoof poems and I like mysteries too. First I find Waste Paper - A Poem of Profound Insignificence by H. P. Lovecraft, which presses a few of the right buttons, but not the line I'm looking for. Interesting p-take of Eliot though. Don't get me wrong, I do like Eliot in small doses, but I also like what came afterwards too, even if it is irreverent.

Then I search under Edward Pygge, and find this is connected to Ian Hamilton, John Fuller, Clive James, Russell Davies and Julian Barnes. They used Edward Pygge as a cover all pseudonym for publishing spoofs and Ian Hamilton was involved with The Review, and later The New Review, poetry journals that looked to extend and push against the prescribed poetics of the times (sound familiar?).

Further research shows that the poem The Wasted Land, the Eliot spoof, is contained in Clive James collection, The Book of My Enemy. Naturally there is a website for Clive James, and a little poking has revealed that there are some poems contained there like The Australian Suicide Bomber's Heavenly Reward and this too, Statement from the Secretary of Defense .

I've been threatening to go round to Amazon and pick up that list of books I keep adding to. Now seems like a really good time to get The Book of My Enemy as well.