Magma Poetry

…in our ‘banned poems’ competition, that is:

Andy Jackson! (entry number 3)

For his very funny and well thought-out comment on banning Andrew Marvell’s ‘To his Coy Mistress.’ Congratulations, Andy! You’ve won an annual subscription to Magma and a copy of the banned AQA anthology will be winging its way to you very soon.

It was a very tough decision for the judges. It even took us a day longer to make this announcement than we had expected. Many entries impressed us for one reason or another and narrowing down our shortlists to a single winner was a hard task.

We’ll try to mention a few of the entries that came close in the comments section. Thanks to all of you who gave this a shot!

In the last year, I’ve no idea how many poetry books were published, but I can get an idea of numbers by looking at how many books were entered for some of the prizes. 109 books were entered for the Forward Prize’s Best Collection category and 57 for Best First Collection. There were 92 entries for the Aldeburgh First Collection prize. In both cases, these figures represent record numbers. I know this is the tip of an iceberg. The figures won’t include the majority of self-published books or collections from small and experimental presses, many of which wouldn’t have considered entering.

In some ways, these large numbers are a good thing. Why not have a huge variety of poetry available? After all, readers will decide what they want to read and what they don’t, and restricting that choice by offering less variety would hardly be a positive step. On the other hand, a large number of books makes it harder for individual collections to come to the attention of readers. If you walk into a room, find ten books on a table, and you have to choose one, you might have a flick through all of them. If there are a hundred books, you might still flick through ten, but the perfect book for you might be among the ninety you never set eyes on.

In these uncertain times when it’s hard for some people to distinguish between a poem and a random act of violence, it is comforting to know that we have the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) to protect us from harm. You might recall that the AQA made the decision to pulp an anthology of poems for an English Literature examination because it contained a poem, Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy, in which a teenager flushes a goldfish down a toilet and then carries a bread knife onto the streets. I need hardly warn you not to read the poem, which comes at the end of the linked article. One teenager made the mistake of reading it and, not having a goldfish to hand, found himself hauling a box of breaded haddock from the freezer. He flushed away a fish and then attacked the family washing line with a pizza cutter. This is a mild case but constitutes conclusive evidence (if such were needed) that teenage poetry readers are the main cause of everything currently wrong with this country.

Since the anthology was pulped and the offending poem removed from the school syllabus, knife-crime figures have plummeted and there has been an otherwise incomprehensible increase in the world’s goldfish population. Despite this, recent attempts have been made to persuade the AQA to reinstate the poem. I’m relieved to note that the AQA has – so far- ignored such attempts.

Ever looked at a Poetry Festival programme and wished you could be there to hear some of the readings? Well, here’s a festival you can attend, even though the readings take place as far apart as Tblisi, Geneva, St Andrews, Stavanger, London, Mumbai, Vicenza, Skye, New York City, Amsterdam, Ghent and Sacramento.

This Saturday 14th November from 1pm, Distant Voices: StAnza’s Virtual Poetry Festival can beam in – live – to your computer screen (details at the link). The readings won’t be available after the time of broadcast though – you need to watch in real time. You can tune in throughout the day to a huge variety of sounds, styles and languages: major literary figures and recent award winners, teenage slammers, sound poets, poetry in English and also in a range of other languages. Scottish poet and publisher, Colin Will, has an impressive post on the festival programme, complete with poems, photos and interesting links.

Magma 45 is now available. The issue is edited by Clare Pollard, with the theme ‘Telling Stories’. You can read a selection from the issue online and buy the magazine via our website.

Don’t miss the launch reading on Monday 16 November at The Troubadour, Earl’s Court, London.