Three Poets
...[T]his evening I went to The Arches, Glasgow, to see three generations of Scottish poets read their work, as part of the Margins festival that’s being held there and around town. The readers were William Letford, Don Paterson, and Tom Leonard.
I was particularly keen to see William Letford, as he’s in New Poetries V with me, and has had a lot of praise in the Guardian and elsewhere. He was given an un/enviable introduction, in which he was called “the future of Scottish poetry”, which is quite a weight to bear. But Billy’s poetry has quiet confidence: he describes himself in ‘Sunburst’ as “aware of my youth / aware of my strength”. He read that poem (which is in NPV) today, but not as one lyric among many, like isolated suites in a hotel corridor. It’s often been noted that Billy’s a great performer of his own work – Don Paterson praised him for that this evening – but there’s more to it than just the fact that he recites from memory and looks around at the audience. His whole set was structured around a narrative account of a bus journey, and the incidents that happen on it, with other poems interspersed as if dreamed up along the way. Billy’s poetry appeals to a wide readership because he inhabits his verse rather than striving for objectivity, and writes about recognisable things, including his work as a roofer; but tonight’s performance shows that he also has bold sense of structure that’s intellectually arresting. I spoke to him briefly afterwards, and can add friendliness to his appeal, too. If the spirit of Edwin Morgan has transmigrated somewhere, then here it is.