celebration

One of the pleasures in connecting with the British poetry scene is that people here take the opportunity to celebrate the work of others. The frequency of festschrifts, birthday volumes and general celebrations testifies to a desire to let some poets know they are valued. Friendship is one thing (and a good thing) but these works make it a public fact. Accordingly I was more than happy to participate in the loose leaved Uplift: a samizdat for Lee Harwood. This publication, produced by Patricia Hope Scanlan and Timothy Weston of Artery Editions in East Sussex includes poems, artworks, a CD, memoirs and critical pieces but is, especially by virtue of its ‘open’ mode of production, not the kind of tombstone such an item might otherwise become. The samizdat was a surprise for the poet, presented to him at a reading in Brighton for the launch of a Shearsman selected and a book of conversations with Kelvin Corcoran. I couldn’t, unfortunately, be at the reading, though I hear Lee was in fine form.