[David Callin]

"An invitational anthology. 12 poets selected for their delicious poetry. It is intended as a sampler of their work, so please look them up, find their wonderful books and make their days and your lives better (or a little better) by buying them."

https://hybriddreich.co.uk/blue-oranges/

[David Callin]

Each contributor to "Blue Oranges" was asked to produce "a short essay from the poet on their craft/ why they write/ as an introduction to the poems." Some good stuff in there, and some serious name-dropping. One references Daniel Barenboim, William Faulkner and Zbigniew Herbert. How could I match that? I couldn't. All I could come up with was Keats and Tommy “Poppa” Quayle - not, sadly, an early Manx jazz musician, but - well, read on ...

*****

Dreich: poetry?

I blame – in part, at least - Tommy “Poppa” Quayle. A cousin to my mother, he was the headmaster at the primary school my sister and I attended. One day, handing out fresh exercise books, he required the whole class to copy Keats’ “Ode to Autumn” into them, and then to learn it by heart. And so we did.

Keats. Streuth. The gateway drug. But Young Lochinvar – who came out of the west, via Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopedia – had something to do with it too.

But then, to what end? Well …

To show (as someone said) that we have lived. To sound our (usually) not very barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. Or, to be a bit loftier about it, to deal out that being indoors each one dwells. To say, like Kilroy, I was here. Twas such and such we lived. More or less.

*****

Darn it. Twas such and such ..." was supposed to be "Twas thus and thus ..." My lazy eye.

[Cally Conan-Davies]

Well, how lovely to see and hear you read again, Mr Callin!

Can you still recite Ode to Autumn by heart?

Cally

[Sarah-Jane Crowson]

Yay! (and I recognise some of the other poets in the anthology too) - love Jenny Mitchell's writing in particular.

I like your interview writing too. It feels real, which is more important than name-dropping imo, unless you're doing the name-dropping in a very specific context (in which case name-drop for all your worth and argue for your principles).

And you didn't bang on about all-night garages and twix bars (I did that in my first interview)!

Sarah-Jane

[David Callin]

Thanks Cally! I lost the Ode to Autumn over time, but over time (more recently) I have added it (and the Nightingale and the Grecian Urn) to my store of Poems That I Know By Heart.

And thank you, Sarah-Jane. Glad it comes over okay. I will have a look at Jenny Mitchell's section now. (So far I find myself drawn to Mike Jenkins's Welsh dialect poems.)

David

[Jim Moonan]

.
Congrats David; your poetry rarely disappoints this reader (I can't remember it ever). The title of the anthology Blue Oranges is playfully indicative of the conundrum that is in the mind's eye...

Poetry is hard to read aloud to an audience, invisible or visible. You do both well.

Had your elbow slipped and hit the keys of the upright it would have made for a surprise ending : )

.

[David Callin]

Thanks very much, Jim. I appreciate that. (That upright is badly out of tune anyway.)

Cheers

David