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Roy Fisher celebrates his 80th
birthday this year with a new Bloodaxe collection, Standard Midland, yet his position amongst British poets remains somewhat
tangential and obscure. He is, somehow, too experimental for the anthologies
and too aware of the canon to be part of any new grouping; not only that, but
he has (a big black mark) historical
affiliations with the American Black Mountain poets. Given his noted
scepticism about such (often) media-driven acclaim, I wouldn't imagine he
loses too much sleep about this. This collection of essays, uncollected poems
and tributes to him illuminates several facets of his character yet leaves plenty
for lovers of paradox and stubborn individualism to continue to explore.
His most famous epic, City,
originally published in 1961, traced the layers and radiant building plans in
Birmingham and elsewhere, a territory he returned to later in Birmingham
River (1994). Ralph Pite's essay, 'Roy
Fisher's Waterways', one of the most interesting here, explores the tow-paths
and brick factory-ends of this Black County network, making links between
Fisher and earlier classic texts such as L T C Rolt's Narrowboat (1944), exploring the awkward persistence of such routes
through Midlands suburbia. Other essays here focus on Fisher's collaborative
alphabet-folding books (Richard Price), the somewhat haphazard ordering of
Fisher's work in his most recent collected volume (Peter Robinson) and
personal encounters with Fisher's often fugitive publications (Matthew
Sperling): all are fascinating and several demand considerable familiarity
with Fisher's work - not easy when much of which has historically drifted in
and out of print.
Apart from the more literary essays here, several contributors discuss other
aspects of Fisher the individual - his sense of humour, his letters, his
interest in jazz - and the affection his peers hold for him is evident in
many of the celebratory birthday poems included. Unsurprisingly, bricks,
roads, urban change and other quintessential Fisher motifs lurk within
contributions from R F Langley, Sian Hughes, Peter Didsbury, whilst Kelvin
Corcoran produces 'The Fisher Piano' a mischievous poem linking jazz and
Birmingham:
The headline starts from the Guardian sprite -
Sullivan Bids Bittersweet Farewell to Birmingham...
Every interested follower of Fisher's work will want to read these
discussions and tributes, but they will especially want this book for the
first section of 20-odd Fisher
poems and pieces not recently
collected anywhere.
© M.C.
Caseley 2010
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