C: Poems

by Peter Reading

Genres: Poetry

61 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Peter Reading (27 July 1946 – 17 November 2011) was an English poet and the author of 26 collections of poetry. He is known for his choice of ugly subject matter, and use of classical metres. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry describes his verse as "strongly anti-romantic, disenchanted and usually satirical". Interviewed by Robert Potts, he described his work as a combination of "painstaking care" and "misanthropy".

Reviews

[Theo Austin-Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absurdly brilliant — can’t remember the last time something gave me both (i) a panic attack and (ii) the giggles. Mixes the highbrow and lowbrow wonderfully, careening from the indemnities of colostomy bags to the percentage of family fauna made extinct during different geological time periods. It reminded me oddly of Mark E. Smith for some reason that I can’t entirely explain, but I think anyone into good ol English neuroticism and gallows humour would get as good a kick out of it as I did — will remind you how awful life is/can be, as well as showing how we are all ruled over by the Furies, who’ll try any bloody trick in the book to fuck you over, one of their favourites being the big C.

Here it is, read by the man himself:


https://lannan.org/media/peter-readin...