MD's prose is indeed excellent. He has much to say of great value about the art of poetry - like Paterson, and like Zadie Smith on the novel. I just don't like much of the poetry itself. To be precise, there are about a dozen poems I like very much. Same goes for the early poems in Paterson's "Landing Light" - in both cases, these are the poems that do least to draw attention to their own cleverness, or where the cleverness isn't indulged in for its own sake.
And Donaghy undoubtedly had a great talent for friendship. He could, however, put rather too much performance into his teaching.
|