ALAN Riach starts with Macbeth at his most cornered, trapped, and yet momentarily reflective, piercingly poignant, with nowhere to go except into violence, but then introduces a couple of contemporary poets who offer more tender possibilities and prospects …
Alan Riach takes the long way round to explore some further thoughts on distances and differences, and to find some unanswerable questions and unresolved enigmas …
THERE is an urge towards distance, different from commissioned purpose.
HOW pleasing to return from the Scottish Literature Festival in Carhaix, Brittany, and find a letter in The National from Brian York (Nov 1) sending me good advice with a recommendation for the Librairie Cheminant, a wonderful bookshop in Vannes.
I’M away this week to a small town called Carhaix, in Brittany, for a literature festival focused this year on “Scotland”.
Alan Riach introduces two new books of poetry which recharge us with the virtues of everyday human value, so badly under attack today...
THE intimacy of language itself is the first priority: how it sounds and is heard; where it comes from, in terms of the poet’s body, voice, nation and history; her or his geography; domestic circumstance; political position – all these have bearing and deep significance, especially for the poet.
I WAS writing a few weeks ago about the publishing house Rymour Books, which produces its fair share of poetry collections that remain valuable resources but also do more
THE best way to feel something of the texture of this book and taste something of its flavour is to sample a few of the poems ...
THE most famous speech in Shakespeare, I imagine, is Hamlet’s. (Act III, scene one.) This is how it starts:
