Glad to see my anthology being discussed here, but dispiriting to see people making negative comments while admitting they haven't actually read the book! Thanks to Tim and Rob for making amends with their comments.
It's quite unfair to suggest this is a book which does not favour form. For what it's worth, I'm a predominantly formal poet, whose work generally splits about 70/30 into formal / non-formal, though even my less formal work always employs lyricism, musicality, cadence, things which I consider to be formal tropes.
Flicking through BBP again, I'm seeing much more form than has been suggested. There are few poems in nameable, strict forms, but that doesn't mean that there isn't form involved. There's plenty of regular metre, lots of musical cadence, ample inventiveness with formal principles.
The Allnutt poem posted above is a good example - though it's been posted here illegally - can a moderator please remove it or replace it with a link to the book on the Salt site, where the poem can be read legally on the sample pdf? Am I right in thinking it has been posted as an example of something non-formal? I think it's a beautifully lyrical, minimal piece, carried forward by a clear iambic rhythm.
As to the business of 'Best', this is dealt with in the intro (which can also be read on the Salt page pdf). We are carrying on a tradition of books thus styled which goes back to when I was a child, books which appear annually in the US, Oz, Canada, Ireland etc. It may be contentious, but for better or worse, it means that the book will sell better and get more attention for poets. It means the book will be carried by WH Smith, by the discount chains, be taken by libraries and used in schools and colleges.
Re the dating - the poems selected were published in magazines etc between summer 10 and spring 11 - we were hardly going to hamper the book by erring towards BBP 2010!
On a more personal note, it also means I can afford to take part in such a project. Given that this book took a great deal of research and a whole lot of collating, admin and checking on my part, even if it sells better than expected, I'm still looking at a few pounds per hour for my work.
And is it really so wrong if the book contains free verse poems? Am I misrepresenting UK poetry? Isn't it possible that a free verse poem (and I'm not convinced there is such a thing) might be among the best poems of the year? Is anyone here really so hardenedly factional that you want such a book to be so swayed towards one style of writing?
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