Alan Bold (1943–1998)

Pretending to equally represent 'the elegantly erotic and the basically bawdy' , 'Making Love', funnily enough, fails to achieve such balance. Yet, it's precisely in its failure that it ends up being a well crafted display of lovely suggestive poems, largely ignoring the salacious. Ordered chronologically, it also is a very fluid read with a great introduction. Recommended!

41/2021. This is a 1969 collection of work by Alan Bold, Edward (Kamau) Brathwaite, and Edwin Morgan. This is at least a partial re-read for me. Alan Bold's work is justly neglected now, while Brathwaite has achieved classic status as a Caribbean poet, and Edwin Morgan is a national treasure in both Scotland and the rest of Britain.

Firstly, my review of the 60 page selection of Alan Bold's poems: no. 1*

Next, the 50 page selection of Edward (Kamau) Brathwaite's poems from his first three show more books Rights of Passage, Masks, and Islands, had a few good lines but on the whole they didn't make me want to re-read any further into his works. 3*

From The Emigrants: "In London, Undergrounds are cold.
The train rolls in from darkness
with our fears."

From South: "And gulls, their white sails slanted seaward,
fly into the limitless morning before us."

Lastly, the 50 page selection of Edwin Morgan's poems: YES. 5* show less

Some wonderfully vulgar poems - many of which bring back memories from my youth !

The secret sex lives of Scots revealed with frankness and humour