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Wising Up, Dressing Down

Killing Time in Arcadia

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Edward Mackinnon

 

 












 

LOOK AT ME

Look at me, says the poet
Why should I? says the onlooker,
who would rather look at the world
Please, says the poet, please look at me
The onlooker looks
but finds the world more interesting
So the poet tries again
Look at the world, he says
and the onlooker says, Oh, the world,
I already know the world
The poet tries again
Look at us, he says
and the onlooker looks
and looks

Edward MacKinnon's first collection, 'Wising Up, Dressing Down'
Edward Mackinnon's second collection, 'Killing Time in Arcadia'

Five poems from each of my two collections Wising Up, Dressing Down and Killing Time in Arcadia, both published by Shoestring Press of Nottingham (UK), can be found on this website, together with examples of the work of three other poets.

* * *

Wising Up, Dressing Down was published in 2002.

"I enjoyed the energy and wit of these poems .. some real gems here, refreshingly clever without being smart-arse"

The Frogmore Papers

"His formal control is always in evidence ... He wears his learning lightly and you feel the 'compulsion necessary' for poetic success throughout this well-hinged and carefully constructed collection ... Mackinnon's poems display trepidation and defiance: knowing when to stop and when you have to start"

Tears in the Fence

"a compelling story-teller .. completely free of the charge of having nothing to say"

Orbis

In Killing Time in Arcadia (2006) the author traces the contours of a personal and political geography of Lincolnshire, Scotland, the United States and other parts of the real world, before exploring a virtual home in the warmth of Arcadia.

"Mackinnon explores ideas of home and memory, time and change, person and place in poems characterised by their inventiveness and adroitness. The twelve pages of The Bus to Arcadia demonstrate Mackinnon's control of largeish masses and interconnected structures of thought; a set of twenty-six one-couplet poems demonstrates an entertaining skill in pointed brevity ...
... this is a collection of sustained interest, full of ideas and imagination, of serious wit, and is warmly recommended".

Elizabeth Heywood, review in Acumen

You can also read some of my own "poetry criticism" on this website, a close reading of one poem by each of the following British poets: Stuart Henson, Keith Armstrong and Peter Phillips. In my comments I have tried to show why I value these poems. These are not "big name" poets, though in my view their work ought to be much better known. They have all published several collections.

Edward Mackinnon studied modern languages at St John's College, Cambridge and Warwick University. He lives in Eindhoven, Netherlands, where he works as a translator.




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Last update: 17th May 2007