Covid Anthology
 

A nice review of the anthology Poems for the Year 2020 in that I managed to sneak into. My poem gets a little quote in the review, too.

https://londongrip.co.uk/2021/04/poe...the-year-2020/

Very cool! Congrats.

That's a good review, and a nice quote too. I don't like the idea of lockdown poems, although this seems like a more sensitive anthology than most. I still would worry it errs on the verge of highlighting specific, quite privileged voices. Sorry.

Sarah-Jane

This anthology has the advantage of having waited a year, unlike the anthologies that were rushed out a few months into the pandemic, when submissions were more likely to be only from those with a great deal of leisure on their hands. Time brings more diversity of experience in the submission pool, as well as more reflection.

Anyway, it's a very fine poem, Mark, and I'm glad it's getting more visibility.

Good old London Grip, eh? Nice review, Mark. And thanks, Julie.

But - what are these specific, privileged voices of which you speak, Jane? How have they been highlighted?

It's a "one poem per poet" collection and I don't think Merryn selected anything on any other grounds than that she felt it displayed a degree of poetic quality.

What have you found that makes you think otherwise? (I ask as a concerned contributor.)

Ann - it's not about you or Mark, both of you I have read enough to like and respect (well, I don't really know you but I like what I've seen/heard of you on here).

I am also REALLY sorry I posted as this should be a celebratory thread for you and Mark and you both deserve it.

And it's one of the more sensitive anthologies. It does present some different perspectives and it tries to include different voices - I can see that. Also, it draws from the pool it has available to it, and it has to sell.

But looking at it in a relatively detached way - in terms of poets, not poems - even a quick recce of the first 10 poets (and a random sampling of about 5 others) shows that although they've a good F/M ratio, and there's one non-white voice in my sample, most of the poets represented here are over 50. And looking at their bios, their websites, they also look to be relatively comfortably off (by this I don't necessarily mean uber-affluent, either - but not poor).

Of course, this is a really basic/general way to go about things, and to do it properly I'd have to research every poet on the list and break it down accurately.

I'd like to read more young voices/perspectives in there, more inclusive voices, basically. Even if they had to be mentored to write in a way that would sell/reach this audience. I think the pandemic has hurt our young very much, although not as obviously as our older population, but as deeply in terms of mental health/economic deprivation. And they could do with being heard.

And I don't read their voices very often, compared to the wealth of (engaging and entertaining and intelligent) middle-aged or older voices, and that makes me sad.

Also I'm biased - I know that - and not against you or Mark, or even this anthology - but because it was such a sod of a year to work through, trying to contain the damage 2020 wreaked on enthusiastic cohorts of our creative youth - missing out not just on education but great chunks of social interaction at a time when it's crucial. So, I do get annoyed sometimes when I read about how 'it's not all doom and gloom'. That's my flawed perspective. The economic crash from this will be appalling for many.

Apologies, to both. I will drop now, and congratulate you both, as that's the more appropriate thing to do.

Sarah-Jane

Congratulations, Mark

Thanks folks

Sarah-Jane, if it helps I'm under 50 (just about) and I've been poor for more years than I've been, well, not-so-poor.

Seriously, no need for apologies. Everything you said was so obviously heartfelt and I do get it. I have 14 year old twins and it has been a really difficult thing to watch their lives kind of grind to a halt just when they should be opening up.

Thanks for your honesty, Sarah-Jane. I appreciate it.

And I'm sorry I posted, too. This is Mark's thread and his poem is such a good one. I'm not particularly proud of my contribution to the anthology. It was a Facebook post and Merryn asked if she could use it instead of the one she'd already chosen, which was about soup.

I am not financially very well off, but I am white and a long way past fifty; of an age, in fact, that brought with it a degree of vulnerability that has kept me under house arrest for over a year. Perhaps that's what made me so defensively tearful when I read your post. I can't help being who and what I am and I'm not quite sure how I can atone for it.

In a world of Millennials and Boomers and X-Y-Z's, I must remind myself that mine is, officially, The Silent Generation. I shall try to behave accordingly.

I shall try, too, to trick out my paranoia with a sprig of objectivity. Forgive me?

Editing in: reply to Mark (below). Post-Bobbins? Yer on.
.

Annie, I loved your horse racing poem. Your Facebook posts have more wit and vim than most people's... I dunno...entire brains. You're still the only Spherian I've met in real life and and I love ya. You trudged up to Leek like an absolute trooper and Gen X and not-so-silent Gen Annie painted that tiny town red that night. We're doing it again when this bobbins is all over.