What I intend to do here is outline my take on poetry theory and practice (both plural notions) in poetry written in English, though not exclusively English poetry since I am interested in translation and so I will mention the most impressionable of the ones I’ve read. Since I grew up in the Caribbean and I was educated in the UK and now live in the United States, my perspective will, in part, be post-colonial, that is, concerned with recent history between the UK and the Caribbean and the US as a force in shaping the imagination of writers. But I extend my map to include Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand (and the poets from countries whose work is translated into English and who have influenced poets writing in English, for example, George Seferis). There will be a news component to this blog as I find them in my daily readings of the leading newspapers here in the UK and UK and in the literary journals around the world. Some of what I write about may go as far back as Aristotle’s Poetics if need be since all of poetry history should be available to me in order to supply an informed reading of a poem. I’ll start with a manifesto of sorts to declare my personal preferences in a poem and how far I am willing to travel in my reading in order to be challenged and surprised by a poet.

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