Oxford Poets and Haiku

Edited by Iain Galbraith and Robyn Marsack, Oxford Poets 2013 An Anthology is consistently enjoyable. Substantial selection of each poet's work. Particularly glad to make the acquaintance with the poetry of Gregor Addison, David Attwooll, Paul Batchelor, Andre Naffis-Sahely and Jan Wagner. The last writes in German and is translated in the anthology by Galbraith. His poetry is of a piece with his introduction, which strikes a chord with me:

A good poem can pool the maximum linguistic resources in the smallest of fields, harmonising opposites and paradoxes, allowing them to chime, amplifying musicality and meaning. t will also uphold the fundamental poetic virtues of surprise and transgression (whether in violating conventions of its own making or rules imposed from without), granting the greatest possible freedom in the most compact space.... 
The striking, original quality of a successful poem lies in its ability to grasp or say something that has not been put in the same way before, while making it seem perfectly natural to do so - as if, in the past, people had simply neglected to see things in the right light, while knowing instinctively that such a way of seeing must exist. Such a poem will be unpretentious, while drawing on unlimited resources; multi-layered, but not gratuitously so. 


*


with the sun
emerge the birdwatchers
i fluff

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