Thriving poetry scene captured by new collection

it seems to me that we’re in good times for poetry these days, particularly in Yorkshire. There are lots of smaller and larger presses around, workshops and poetry groups galore, and an acceptance that poetry is a vital component not only of the local cultural scene, but also the political and social arenas of the North.

This new Grist Anthology, A Complicated Way of Being Ignored, is a welcome addition to the mix. Not all the writers here are from the area, but there are strong Yorkshire connections. Poets have featured in the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, The Albert Readings in Huddersfield, and the local slam and performance circuits.

I like the way the collection is organised, with the names of the poets at the front, and their biographical notes at the back, but no name of the poet under the poem, which gives the poem space to breathe. It’s also, gloriously, not in alphabetical order. So many anthologies go from A to Z that they’re more like dictionaries than collections of poems that have been carefully placed next to each other to make maximum impact.

Singling out particular poems isn’t fair, but I did enjoy Geraldine Clarkson’s In Praise of the Office Cleaner (Her bottom on the partners’ chairs/fetches up a shine of walnut/When she sneezes, she disinfects the telephones) and William Thirsk-Gaskill’s moving villanelle Throwing Mother in the Skip (Those seven colanders have had their day;/so has her dirty, old DAB radio/The Dorothy L Sayers books can stay).

If I have a tiny criticism of the entire collection, it’s just that I wanted a bit more adventure, a bit more looseness, a bit more linguistic exploration. But it’s still well worth reading.