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Title: Clive's guest poet a "literary star" Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 20:52 The poet Simon Barraclough (http://www.simonbarraclough.com/), whose poems Clive has said have “the unmistakable stamp of a vision asserting itself through vocabulary”, and whom he has as a guest poet (http://clivejames.com/simon-barraclough) on his Clivejames.com (http://clivejames.com/) website, was recently chosen as one of The Times Online's Top ten literary stars of 2008 (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3358452.ece) Kevin Cryan EXTRACT Clivejames.com (http://clivejames.com/) Simon Barraclough Sharing with other admirers of the late Michael Donaghy a winning propensity for using mythical America as a lexical paint-box, Simon Barraclough stands out even among the stand-outs in his readiness to make a knowing reference to the popular arts twice per line. The emphasis on the word "knowing", however, doesn't mean that the reader has to know too: all the reader has to do is follow the argument and the rhetorical rhythm, which in his case is as impossible to miss as the pulse of a mainstream jazz band rigged for dancing. Even if you doubt the iconic importance of Christian Slater, or can't spot the references to a dozen different Hitchcock movies buried in a single poem, you will recognize the suggestion that the Empire State Building, lit up at night, looks like a popsicle. Those of us veterans who felt as if we had joined the Parachute Regiment when we dared to mention a Ford Thunderbird will just have to face the fact that the new kids on the block behave as if they poured the asphalt.....[read on] (http://clivejames.com/simon-barraclough) |
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