The World Record

International Voices from Southbank Centre's Poetry Parnassus

This week sees the poets from all over the world gathering on the Southbank London  to record their hopes and dreams for 2012. Throughout the week there is a wide range of poetry events and on Monday evening I went along to the Poetry Library Book Club to take part in a discussion of 'The World Record: International Voices from Poetry Parnassus edited by Neil Astley and Anna Selby (Bloodaxe Books,2012) an anthology featuring work of the 204 poets. We focused on five poems each by a poet from one of the five continents:

Indonesia  Laksmi Pamuntjak  'A Traveler's Tale'

Luxembourg  Anise Koltz (translation by Anne-Marie Glasheen) 'Prologue'

New Zealand  Bill Manhire 'Entering America'

Nigeria  Wole Soyinka 'Her Joy is Wild'

USA  Kay Ryan 'Flamingo Watching'