Not much to say about this one other than it’s a cluttered poem for a cluttered topic – as with yesterday’s, I was thinking a lot about what to bring into the work and what to leave out, and the pressure of that synthesis, again widening out from the personal to the civic. A couple of references are to plaques and signs in the city centre, and some of the reflection on change in the city over the centuries is broader, perhaps a little too broad. This feels to me like quite a ragged piece, but working out how to trim it down is perhaps something I can only do once I’ve got it all on paper and considered what’s actually important and not, the point being that this is a point about not quite knowing that in the first instance. I’m also experimenting with a blend between mundane frames of references and more conventionally poetic reach, and don’t feel certain the balance is right. Feel free to let me know what you think!
Rotunda #5: Clutter
Published by Richard
Hello! My name is Richard O’Brien, and I’m a critical-creative practitioner interested in early modern theatre and its creative afterlives in the present day. My PhD was on Shakespeare and the development of verse drama. I won the 2015 Ben Jonson Journal Discoveries Award for an article on fictional representations of Jonson. I’m also a widely published poet, and the winner of a 2017 Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. You can contact me about the course on r.t.obrien@bham.ac.uk, or make an appointment to see me in my office, shared with Dr Elizabeth Sandis, just through the computer cluster. View all posts by Richard
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