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Let's face it, most people think
poetry is a pile of pish; and it's no surprise, because it's been the
plaything of privileged Oxbridge graduates for what feels like forever. The
Poetry Society and Arts Councils are overrun with them. All the major poetry
publishing houses are run by them. Almost all the Arts Council funded
literature magazines are edited by them. Go into Waterstones and pick up
almost any poetry book, read the 'about the author' section, and the chances
are they'll have gone to a private school, followed by Oxford or Cambridge.
It's small wonder that few people dig poetry, when the poetry world is
controlled by such a tiny, privileged elite.
Fortunately, there's a sizeable minority of poets out there who haven't
trodden the well worn boards of academia, who have developed a distinctive
voice of their own. They struggle to find outlets for their work, but where
there's a will there's usually a way, and as a result, there's a burgeoning
underground poetry scene. You'll never hear this sort of poetry on Radio 4's
'Poetry Please' and you'll probably never read it in 'The Poetry Review', but
it's out there nonetheless. Dee Sunshine is one of the leading lights of this
alternative scene. His first collection, 'The Bad Seed', is a
chemically-distorted, kaleidoscopic view of the underworld; an hallucinogenic
trawl through the dark underbelly of Thatcher's Britain, peopled by drifters,
dreamers, losers, lunatics, the unemployed, the homeless, junkies, punks and
other assorted 'skum of society'. This is poetry, Jim, but not as you know
it...
Read what other people have said about 'The Bad Seed', click here
Buy a signed copy of 'The Bad Seed', click here
Download free e-book here
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