Plums: lecturer's first book of poetry inspired by William Carlos Williams
Kate McLoughlin has published her first book of poetry through the poetry press, flipped eye.
Kate McLoughlin, Lecturer in the Department of English and Humanities, has published her first book of poetry. Plums was published at the end of 2011 by cutting-edge poetry press flipped eye, directed by Birkbeck Creative Writing alumnus Nii Ayikwei Parkes. Plums was inspired by one of the best-known poems in the American canon, William Carlos Williams' This is Just to Say, a free verse note in which the speaker confesses to having taken someone else's plums. Plums writes back from the perspective of the person whose plums were taken.
The response is framed by another artistic template: Pablo Picasso's re-imaginination of Velázquez's painting, Las Meninas. The result is 58 variations - short poems that respond both to Williams' pithy wit and the mystery of Picasso's 58 adaptations of Velázquez's famous painting. Where Picasso's paintbrush transforms Velázquez's muted tones to bold colours, the 'I' of Plums says 'They are the last things you'll take of mine'.
Plums (£5.99) is available from Amazon.