This month's book is Rain by Don Paterson. Rain won the Forward poetry Prize for best collection in 2009, whilst the poem Love Poem For Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze won the Forward prize for best individual poem in 2008.
Questions
The book contains some loose translations of other poets – Vallejo, Cavafy, Desnos, Machado, etc. How do you feel about these translations? – Should there be more indication that that is what they are?
Love Poem For Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze won the Forward Prize for best single poem in 2008. The poem has extremely long lines and uses a great deal of technical jargon – how did you feel about this? Was it accessible to the reader? Was it too dense/impenetrable? Why do you think it won the Forward prize?
The themes of loss and yearning run through the book (loss of his friend Michael Donaghy, loss of a child, yearning for a singer beyond his reach). How do you think Paterson deals with these themes? Could you relate to them?
Paterson uses a lot of rhyme in his poetry – how do you feel that he handled rhyme in this book? Did you like it? Did you feel it was overdone, just enough or would you have liked more?
What was your favourite/least favourite poem in the collection? Why?
What do you think of the way Paterson uses form – for example in Renku?
Notes on Poems
Love Poem For Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze (p.17) – Natalie Beridze is a singer from Georgia (Eastern Europe)
Renku: My Last Thirty-five Deaths (p.22) – Renku is a Japanese form of linked verse poetry (usually collaborative) which was formerly known as haikai no renga. At renga gatherings poets would take it in turns to provide alternating verses of 17 syllables and 14 syllables. The poems initially were coarse and witty but later developed into Haiku.
Unfold (p.31) – Akira Yoshizawa (1911 – 2005) was considered to be the grandmaster of origami. He created over 50,000 models and wrote 18 books.
Parallax (p.38) - Parallax – is an apparent change in the direction of an object, caused by a change in observational position that provides a new line of sight. (The Online Free Dictionary)
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and Critical Theorist. Michael Longley is an Irish poet and was Professor of Poetry for Ireland (2007 – 2010).
The Poetry (p.43) – Li Po (701 – 762) is also known as Li Bo or Li Bai and was a major Chinese poet of the Chang Dynasty.
Sky Song (p.44) – Robert Desnos (1900 – 1945) was a French surrealist poet.
March Wind (p.45) – Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968) was an Italian poet who won The Nobel prize for Literature in 1959.
The Wind (p.46) – Antonio Machado (1875 – 1939) was a Spanish poet and a leader in the literary movement Generation of 98.
The Bowl Maker (p.48) - Constantine P. Cavafy was a Greek poet (1863 – 1933).
Miguel (p.49) - César Vallejo was a Peruvian poet (1892 – 1938). He is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language.
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