Here are two extracts from an interview with the editors of Stand in Poetry News Winter 2002/3:

"We exist in a climate where scientists and musicians and visual artists accept the necessity of innovation. Isn't it embarrassing and sad that for so many writers innovation doesn't feature on the agenda?"

"We remain open to the best of all the vibrant variety of poetry written in English either in its original form or in translation."

The comparison of artists with scientists doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Science is progressive and sequential. Art (especially in the medium of words) is more like drain-maintenance, a repeated clearing away of dead leaves and rubbish so that the water can again run clear. Walcott doesn't supercede Homer in the same way that Copernicus supercedes Ptolemy. Phrases like "the vibrant variety" are themselves dead leaves. Can't we attempt to outlaw this word "vibrant", with its connotations of manic wide-eyed jerking and juddering?

A special welcome to Fleur Adcock, John Agard, Patience Agbabi, Moniza Alvi, Simon Armitage, John Ashbery, Andrew Bailey, Ros Barber, Jonathan Barker, Eavan Boland, Alan Brownjohn, John Burnside, Ciaran Carson, Julia Casterton, Charles Causley, Helen Chaloner, Gillian Clarke, John Cooper Clarke, David Constantine, Wendy Cope, Alison Croggon, Martyn Crucefix, Maura Dooley, Carol Ann Duffy, Douglas Dunn, G F Dutton, Terry Eagleton, Kate Fagan, Peter Fallon, U A Fanthorpe, Paul Farley, Elaine Feinstein, Peter Finch, Peter Forbes, Tom French, Frank Geary, Jon Glover, Jorie Graham, Jane Griffiths, Barbara Guest, Michael Hamburger, Tony Harrison, David Harsent, Seamus Heaney, John Hegley, W N Herbert, Dominic Hibberd, Geoffrey Hill, Sue Hubbard, Frieda Hughes, Jackie Kay, Stuart Kelly, Mimi Khalvati, Jennifer Langer, David Latane, Tom Leonard, Ruth Lilly, Liz Lochhead, Edna Longley, Roddy Lumsden, Sara Lundquist, Wes Magee, Sarah Maguire, Jules Mann, E A Markham, John McGahern, Medbh McGuckian, Jamie McKendrick, Ian McMillan, Robert Minhinnick, John Mole, Edwin Morgan, Sinead Morrissey, Andrew Motion, Paul Muldoon, Grace Nichols, Alice Oswald, Ruth Padel, Michael Palmer, Tom Paulin, Pascale Petit, Mario Petrucci, Janet Phillips, Katrina Porteous, Peter Porter, Robert Potts, J H Prynne, Sheenagh Pugh, Jean Sprackland, Justin Quinn, John Redmond, Maurice Riordan, Neil Rollinson, Carole Satyamurti, Robert Saxton, Jo Shapcott, Henry Shukman, Ian Crichton Smith, Ken Smith, Elizabeth Smither, John Stammers, Anne Stevenson, Tom Sutcliffe, Matthew Sweeney, George Szirtes, Matthew Sweeney, Charles Tomlinson, Lorna Tracey, John Tranter, Jeffrey Wainwright, Derek Walcott, Matthew Welton, John Whale, Richard Wilbur, Jackie Wills, Kit Wright and Benjamin Zephaniah.

bfewster@gn.apc.org
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