Poetry, Sex, Penguins, Cake

Hi, thought that title might wake you up! Ok, this is the first blog post of the year and I think we're all beyond resolutions and have returned back to our inevitable selves. Personally, I don't bother with them on New Year's Day, I make them up and give them up all year round. As I said in a previous post, life doesn't adhere to calendars. Things started last year spill into this one. In my case around July last year I received an email saying a poem I'd submitted had been accepted for a Penguin anthology, 'The Poetry of Sex' edited by Sophie Hannah. Didn't quite believe it. There were follow-up emails in the autumn which made me believe a bit more, but the other day this landed on the mat:

Now it's starting to feel real. This book is going to be on shelves in bookshops very soon, at the end of January in fact. Here's something from the book's synopsis:

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.
Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.
From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere.

My own contribution is a slightly eccentric piece. Obviously it's very exciting and rather surreal being in a book with so many well-known poets. I didn't set out to become a sort of poetic Virginia Johnson, but you can never predict what you'll write about next...

Let's think about Cake now. I also have a poem in the long awaited issue 5 of Cake.























Here is a copy of the front cover of the magazine in all its coffee coloured glory. The editors are Martha Sprackland, Andrew McMillan and Fin Jackson and they've done a fine job.

So there you go, January. In the time taken to write this post a rejection letter arrived on the mat. One I didn't want. So there you go, swings and roundabouts. So although I have no new year's resolutions I have some idea what to expect. Let's see what the rest of the year will bring...let's keep going, everyone.

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670921836,00.html#swZFeYPRlsLcJiv7.99

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670921836,00.html#swZFeYPRlsLcJiv7.99

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670921836,00.html#swZFeYPRlsLcJiv7.99