Tomorrow is the British General Election. It's still too close to call, but many polls are suggesting a small Tory majority. In my seat, Westminster North, the Labour candidate Karen Buck is up against the Tory candidate (a so-called Cameron Cutie) Joanne Cash; so, Buck vs. Cash. The Lib Dem is one Mark Blackburn. This seat is considered the 61th easiest for the Conservatives to swing their way (they need a little more than a 3% swing to take it from Buck). So, I, like many other voters, am faced with a choice - to vote for my preferred party, the Lib Dems, or vote tactically, to help keep Cash out. This is a tough call, because while I don't want there to be a Tory government, I also am loathe to support the morally-bankrupt and exhausted Labour party; New Labour was ugly to behold. However, I admire the way Brown has been (finally) expressing his truer convictions. If only he'd found his soul sooner.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
Comments