Calling the new words into existence
Oliver Bernard
GRANDCHILDREN OF ALBION: VOICES AND VISIONS OF YOUNGER POETS IN BRITAIN edited by Michael Horovitz
New Departures, Bisley, Glos, GL6 7 BU, £9.99 ( plus fl p & p), pp. 416
Forty writers of prose and verse including song lyrics and a sprinkling of cubist, concrete and calligramatic jeux d'esprit — are included in this anthology. It is, in fact, a quite useful directory (includ- ing, as it does, passport photographs, biographies and samples of work) of per- sons it might be all right to invite to read or perhaps sing to a gathering of punters who want something not too old-hat, and who will take the editor's word for it that what they will be listening to is a 'Younger Poet'.
But although Britain contains vast num- bers of persons of all ages who write poems, mostly in verse, there might be some misunderstandings here, disappoint- ments even. Many of the contributors to this volume don't even claim to write poems. Billy Bragg is perfectly straight- forward when he calls his work 'lyrics and music'. On the other hand, it is claimed for John Cooper Clarke that he here 'unlocks his word-hoard'. Yes. Well.
The prize for descriptiveness in the table of contents goes to Pat Condell, who announces 'Cameos, parodies, spoofs, sounds, satires and sketches.' This is fine and we know where we are. For the rest, there's a lot of mention of `poetry'. Who was it wrote:
Poetry is the poem, or a part of it; nothing else and nowhere else.
It's the first sentence of The Private Art by Geoffrey Grigson.
Among the real poets in Grandchildren of Albion, John Agard, Sujata Bhatt, Valerie Bloom, Zoe Brooks, Merle Collins, Carol Ann Duffy, Mahmood Jamal, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Grace Nichols, Ben Okri, Fiona Pitt-Kethley, Elaine Randell, Michele Roberts and Neil Sparkes are worth reading. They and the book's illustrators — some of them — help to make it not just a useful book, but good value. Not choosy, and certainly not elitist — another suspicious expression — but then Michael Horovitz is a very likeable person.
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