John James

It was a great pleasure to hear John James (above left, moderated by Simon Smith, right) talk about his work at the University of Kent on Thursday afternoon and then to read at the Veg Box aka Free Range Café in the evening after dinner at Café Mauresque. Sometime in the seventies or early eighties I picked up a copy of James’ Striking the Pavilion of Zero (1975) at Collected Works bookshop in Melbourne. His Salt Collected Poems came out in 2002 and there have been subsequent books like In Romsey Town (Equipage, 2011) and Cloud Breaking Sun (Oystercatcher, 2012). The poems take on board the energies of popular culture referencing various sources from The Who to Tricky: they’re alive and negotiating with what’s around them sharply, precisely, without condescension.