P.W. Bridgman, Writer

Seamus Heaney: a new glimpse of his life and poetry With previously uncollected or unpublished works, a definitive edition deepens our understanding of the Nobel laureate’s creative process

"...always aware of the human alchemy of writing and reading, how you let creativity flow in yourself and how the results land in the reader."

Read the insightful @ruthpadel.bsky.social's tender paean to S. Heaney & the new Collected, out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/d562...

From P.W. Bridgman, Idiolect (Ekstasis Editions, 2021)

From P.W. Bridgman, Idiolect (Ekstasis Editions, 2021).

Perhaps the presence of a ghost qualifies a poem as "spooky" & worthy of posting on a rainy Hallowe'en?

"You Have a Visitor, Sir" features Philip Larkin, a talking parrot called "Lickspittle," an undertaker called "Mr. Bottle"... Something for everyone.

Congratulations, Nicholas. This is wonderful news. Please DM me with details, if you can, about how I might be able to purchase an inscribed copy. Tom aka PWB

READS OF THE YEAR 2016: P.W. Bridgman - Glasgow Review of Books Karen Solie The Road in is Not the Same Road Out (House of Anansi)

Bravo! Kevin Barry's celebrated Young Skins was one of my Reads of the Year in 2016. Great to see it receiving this new recognition. I also put Karen Solie's The Road in is Not the Same Road Out on my 2016 RoTY list. This year her Wellwater won the Forward.

glasgowreviewofbooks.com/2016/12/31/r...

Patricia Lockwood · Poem: ‘Garnets’

"...My father removed
The pope’s blessing and replaced it
With his own. That might work
Better for you, he said."

From "Garnets," a spellbinding new poem by @tricialockwood.bsky.social in the latest issue of the @lrb.co.uk.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

In time, Heaney confronted the Troubles with the full weight of his talent. (See esp., Station Island, section VIII).

Other NI poets ably navigated the Odyssean challenges O'Toole notes--none better than Ciaran Carson in "Belfast Confetti" (here in his own voice).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI9...

Seamus Heaney’s poems for a darkening age | The Observer Collected in a landmark new edition, the late Irish writer’s work is attuned to wonder, replete with humanity and rooted in the tragedies of history

@fotoole.bsky.social on Heaney's initial reluctance to engage with the Troubles in his poems.

"He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference."

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Coming in November. Don't Speak To Strangers. Our next series of Online Poetry Pamphlets. Featuring Moyra Donaldson, Scott McKendry, Alicia Byrne Keane, David Nash, and Lianne O'Hara. @artscouncilireland.bsky.social @poetryireland.bsky.social

Interview | Forward Prize for Best Collection: Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie - The London Magazine Joint winners of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie discuss each other's collections.

'I have my own poet’s preoccupations that come back to me more or less uncontrollably, which I then have to turn into something basically legible that someone else might be interested in.'

Joint winners Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie in conversation: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-fo...

Hope you and John had a glorious anniversary celebration!

Thanks, Theresa. Progress in recovery is better and swifter than last year but, even so, getting out to tomorrow's concert is not on the cards, alas. I'm missing the entire Writers' Festival this year too! Timing is everything. Still, I'll be fully mobile and pain-free in a few months.

I think that might be a poem.

Nothing less than recovering from the knee-replacement surgery I underwent ten days ago could keep me away from seeing Dan Bejar and Destroyer perform at the Vogue in Vancouver tomorrow night.

Break a leg, Dan.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg...

Is there anyone who could read this poem aloud & not have his or her voice catch?

Finding work like this sets me on an obsessive search for more writing by the poet. It's plain to me now. Gregory Orr deserves more of my attention than he has received.

So the search begins.

Thank you, Phillip.

FAWLTY TOWERS on X: "Basil: “Oh dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Hmm? Not enough cream in your eclair?” #ClassicFawlty 🇬🇧 https://t.co/xxaMRTFVML" / X Basil: “Oh dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Hmm? Not enough cream in your eclair?” #ClassicFawlty 🇬🇧 https://t.co/xxaMRTFVML

And the tragedy echoes down the ages. Basil Fawlty to Sybil: "“Oh dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Hmm?"

x.com/FAWLTYTOWERS...

When AI climbs over the little plastic fence that surrounds the daycare's sandbox, toddles unsteadily indoors (diaper is full so centre of balance is off) and starts mashing the keys on somebody's laptop with its tiny, moist hands.

Tiny moist hands have much to answer for in this world of ours.

Happy 46th to you and John, Theresa! Hoping you have something wildly imaginative in mind for your celebration. Tom

Did you know that Tess Gallagher formed an enduring friendship & poetic axis with Ciaran Carson in the mid-1970s? CC admired her writing & Irish subject matter is plentiful in her poetry. She read at his memorial in 2020. Clip from an interview circa 2007 is attached.

inside.ewu.edu/willowspring...

"No world, no meeting..."

This poem, from Moon Crossing Bridge, perfectly transmutes a shimmering, crystalline Zen moment into language.

My favourite Tess Gallagher poem. Nicely chosen, Phillip!

A new collection by @annajswan.bsky.social, entitled The Garbage Poems, has been released by Brick Books. This is big CanLit news!

Anna's about to begin a cross-Canada reading tour. See the events page on Anna's website for dates & times. Vancouverites: 29 Oct, 6:30, Iron Dog Books

annaswanson.ca

Very much looking forward to this, Theresa. Your publisher (undoubtedly with guidance from you) has made very sound and aesthetically pleasing design choices. Your book will be a wonder, inside and out. Congratulations.

Thank you, Theresa. Once I'm through this and the recovery period, I truly hope to regain some writing momentum. It's been a bit of a lost year in that regard. Hope all is well with you and John. Tom

On my way to getting a matching set.

I’m scheduled for knee-replacement surgery no. 2 on Oct 15 so I’ll only be making rare appearances here for a while. The procedure last Nov was surprisingly disruptive (although the outcome was excellent). Hoping for less of that & a return to better writing productivity. See you on the other side!

The Great Beauty (2013) ⭐ 7.7 | Drama 2h 21m | Not Rated

La Grande Bellezza. One of the best films ever, IMHO. And a writer is at the centre of the action who's not managed to gain traction after one successful novel. (Life lessons...) The gorgeous cinematography captures Rome at its finest. www.imdb.com/title/tt2358.... (In Italian but with subtitles)

The high note she hits in "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" is worth the price of admission. We bought tickets hoping to see her once, years ago, but like Madeleine Peyroux, Teresa Stratas had a habit of often cancelling her concerts & she cancelled the one we hoped to see. Pity... she's brilliant.

"...Sleep softly spirit of earth
as the days and nights join hands
when everything becomes one thing..."
-- Al Purdy, "The Dead Poet"

Made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Al Purdy sculpture in Toronto's Queen's Park--truly one of CanLit's secular stations of the cross. RIP AWP

"...'you're not in Ireland now.'"

Such deep feeling in Martina Evans' reading of Eavan Boland's poignant childhood memoir, beautifully framed and filmed, as always, by @brinkerhoffpoetry.bsky.social.

brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/an-iri...

Lovely, Phillip.

From our meanderings yesterday, taken during a short visit to Toronto.

A year ago, Ars Notoria published my story, "The Assignment." It concerns capital punishment. The barbaric #deathpenalty persists in some jurisdictions because their citizens can look away. There's nowhere to hide here.

Meet Jesse Nazaire & his executioner, Mr Bell.

arsnotoria.com/2024/09/23/t...

On the ineffable joy of being loved. @janezwart.bsky.social knows it and transmutes it into words worthy of their subject. Again.