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So Much for Life: Selected Poems
A long awaited collection of poems by Mark Hyatt, one of the great lost writers of mid-century British poetry.
Scarcely published in his lifetime, Hyatt’s work survives thanks to the intervention of poets and friends who saved his manuscripts and kept his poems in circulation. Queer in the decades before Gay Liberation; Romani; incarcerated in prisons and asylums; illiterate into it’s tempting to read Hyatt according to the familiar script of the doomed poet, resounding with loneliness and isolation. But his poetry—“hot and tender,” funny and sad—tells another of love, liberatory commitment, and desire.
Scarcely published in his lifetime, Hyatt’s work survives thanks to the intervention of poets and friends who saved his manuscripts and kept his poems in circulation. Queer in the decades before Gay Liberation; Romani; incarcerated in prisons and asylums; illiterate into it’s tempting to read Hyatt according to the familiar script of the doomed poet, resounding with loneliness and isolation. But his poetry—“hot and tender,” funny and sad—tells another of love, liberatory commitment, and desire.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 2023
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December 19, 2024The artist who is discovered posthumously, an all-at-once unsealing of a voice that almost lost to us, is seductive. Mark Hyatt was practically never published during his lifetime and he never lived on his writing. He was a gay Romani man who was born in South London and died by suicide in Lancashire in the 70s. He spent some time on the edges of London's 60s bohemian scene but he was fringe and it sounds like he struggled in life and love. And he wrote poems.
I'm crap at discovering and reading new poets. All the poetry I've ever read was put in front of me by others and while I've never regretted reading it, I've never sought it out. This book was a thoughtful birthday present from the person I love and it's the life of a man told in arrestingly direct and passionate verse. He talks about wanking, cruising, fucking. He talks about friends and betrayal and money.
His friends saved his poems and now they're seeing the light of day with a nice little foreword laying all this out for me. It's one of those works that makes you think about a life, what mark you leave behind, and whether you'll be known and understood by anyone when you're gone. It's ugly and beautiful.
I'm crap at discovering and reading new poets. All the poetry I've ever read was put in front of me by others and while I've never regretted reading it, I've never sought it out. This book was a thoughtful birthday present from the person I love and it's the life of a man told in arrestingly direct and passionate verse. He talks about wanking, cruising, fucking. He talks about friends and betrayal and money.
His friends saved his poems and now they're seeing the light of day with a nice little foreword laying all this out for me. It's one of those works that makes you think about a life, what mark you leave behind, and whether you'll be known and understood by anyone when you're gone. It's ugly and beautiful.
January 2, 2024
finally some good poetry
October 28, 2023
Some of the best poetry I've ever read. It's a book that will always stay with me.
January 17, 2024
“
And if you don’t know what human means
well!
it’s shattering
“
Truly truly incredible collection of poems. Mark Hyatt may be my new favourite poet, these works are honestly outstanding.
Illiterate for much of his life, many of these poems are dictated or edited and proofread by friends of Mark. Very few of his pieces were ever published during his lifetime and of those none were particularly celebrated or known - just in very small local papers and such. Details of Marks difficult life are described in the editors introduction, with much implied also in his work - all of the adversity faced, the lack of training, and above all Hyatts illiteracy make the fluency of his poems unbelievable. The pain of his life comes bleeding through in many poems, but so does his absolute love of life and people. So much beauty and disgust is contained within this book. Often centralised around the experience of living as an openly sensual and loving queer man (“Of course sex is making love,”) in a time and space of hate (“what is it in these eyes that burn? the knowledge of tragedy.”)
If I hadn’t read the biopic introduction I would never in a million years have thought that Hyatt was anything but a much celebrated lifelong author and poet.
Anyone that wants to borrow this collection please hit me up - every poem is beautifully crafted and impactful.
And if you don’t know what human means
well!
it’s shattering
“
Truly truly incredible collection of poems. Mark Hyatt may be my new favourite poet, these works are honestly outstanding.
Illiterate for much of his life, many of these poems are dictated or edited and proofread by friends of Mark. Very few of his pieces were ever published during his lifetime and of those none were particularly celebrated or known - just in very small local papers and such. Details of Marks difficult life are described in the editors introduction, with much implied also in his work - all of the adversity faced, the lack of training, and above all Hyatts illiteracy make the fluency of his poems unbelievable. The pain of his life comes bleeding through in many poems, but so does his absolute love of life and people. So much beauty and disgust is contained within this book. Often centralised around the experience of living as an openly sensual and loving queer man (“Of course sex is making love,”) in a time and space of hate (“what is it in these eyes that burn? the knowledge of tragedy.”)
If I hadn’t read the biopic introduction I would never in a million years have thought that Hyatt was anything but a much celebrated lifelong author and poet.
Anyone that wants to borrow this collection please hit me up - every poem is beautifully crafted and impactful.
February 29, 2024
i'm biased and i loved this
March 28, 2024
At times heavy, then funny, then plain human. Loved this. Also loved loved loved getting to know Mark Hyatt in the preface, beautiful portrait.
November 22, 2025
I picked this up from the bookstore after loving Love, Leda so much. I have been trying to read a little more poetry. Like my recent review for Rupi Kaur's The Sun and Her Flowers, I have no idea how to review poetry. I don't know what good poetry looks like or what bad poetry looks like. All I know is that sometimes words are strung together and they give me an emotional reaction. So that's what I'm rating this collection on.
I liked them! Some are depressed, some are lovesick, some are funny, some are farcical. In some, you can imagine the poet sitting at a typewriter and hitting his head against it trying to make things come out. I can understand that, at least to an extent. None of them hit me in any way comparable to how Love, Leda, did. They are not really personal (to me), but they're nice to read.
It was lovely to read poetry written by a man about a man in a romantic or yearning way. I am pretty sure I've never had that experience before (at least, not knowingly). You do certainly feel the 60's England of it all. Some of the yearning is written in very rigid gender roles and that is a bummer. Still, there is an emotional thing that it sort of communicates. It comes across most starkly in "'Let Him Go In My Mind'", "Oral Pictures of Love" and "True Homosexual Love" (and the age certainly in the title of that one). In some of these, words like man and girl are juxtaposed in a transferencial (cannot believe I just wrote that sentence, what a snob I sound like). In some, Hyatt writes about being a wife or a woman to the object of the poem.
It's a pretty interesting way of writing, to read in 2025. You wonder what is poetic license, the author communicating the ideas that go along with those concepts, and what is just a reflection of the author's understanding of gender constructs at that time. Still, if you're willing to empathize with the words, I think you can understand them. Two of those were some of my favorites (favs in a table below).
Then again, another one of my favorites is this little ditty:
Another one that gave me a big chuckle:
Now, I have absolutely no idea what that is saying (other than the first two lines, I guess). But it is hilarious. I haven't read much poetry, but what I have didn't ever have the words "you're" and "fucking" and "weird" in that order. Gave me a good chuckle.
It's impressive and admirable. Hyatt was illiterate until adulthood and worked with others to get his writing together. I think that is fascinating. He had a hard life, and it ended badly. But I am glad that he gave us these things. It is sad that they were not widely available for generations and only have been rediscovered and put out in the last year. Still, I very much appreciate being able to read these and read about queer experiences over time. Sometimes, despite all my reading and schooling and all of that, it feels like we tumbled out into the world over the last 30 years. It feels like so much of our literature deals with AIDS and oppression that having stuff about regular old love and heartbreak and cornflakes is rare. That's probably just a side-effect of me being so poorly read. I'm glad at least that I'm reading more of this.
Some other favorites that I haven't mentioned in the review so far:
- Daggers, p74
- Poem. p86
- Dear Friend Go Away, Please, p106
-He is a Rose, p155
-Queers, p35
-"Two queers live on a hill", p80
I liked them! Some are depressed, some are lovesick, some are funny, some are farcical. In some, you can imagine the poet sitting at a typewriter and hitting his head against it trying to make things come out. I can understand that, at least to an extent. None of them hit me in any way comparable to how Love, Leda, did. They are not really personal (to me), but they're nice to read.
It was lovely to read poetry written by a man about a man in a romantic or yearning way. I am pretty sure I've never had that experience before (at least, not knowingly). You do certainly feel the 60's England of it all. Some of the yearning is written in very rigid gender roles and that is a bummer. Still, there is an emotional thing that it sort of communicates. It comes across most starkly in "'Let Him Go In My Mind'", "Oral Pictures of Love" and "True Homosexual Love" (and the age certainly in the title of that one). In some of these, words like man and girl are juxtaposed in a transferencial (cannot believe I just wrote that sentence, what a snob I sound like). In some, Hyatt writes about being a wife or a woman to the object of the poem.
It's a pretty interesting way of writing, to read in 2025. You wonder what is poetic license, the author communicating the ideas that go along with those concepts, and what is just a reflection of the author's understanding of gender constructs at that time. Still, if you're willing to empathize with the words, I think you can understand them. Two of those were some of my favorites (favs in a table below).
Then again, another one of my favorites is this little ditty:
when cornflakes fart
boy how I sing
Another one that gave me a big chuckle:
"I LOVE MY ARSE TO BE SUCKED"
------------------------------
I love my arse to be sucked
it makes me come awfully nice
and I stretch the body open
..................................................................
you and today's fixed fantasies
report you are bored by shit
that's because you're fucking weird
..................................................................
you write ugly poems to death
and you are a whore for words
you're a lovely tragedy
..................................................................
balls on your stupid words
have games with your bloodless wife
and let imagination go
..................................................................
now if you really care
and honestly understand
then gently die
Now, I have absolutely no idea what that is saying (other than the first two lines, I guess). But it is hilarious. I haven't read much poetry, but what I have didn't ever have the words "you're" and "fucking" and "weird" in that order. Gave me a good chuckle.
It's impressive and admirable. Hyatt was illiterate until adulthood and worked with others to get his writing together. I think that is fascinating. He had a hard life, and it ended badly. But I am glad that he gave us these things. It is sad that they were not widely available for generations and only have been rediscovered and put out in the last year. Still, I very much appreciate being able to read these and read about queer experiences over time. Sometimes, despite all my reading and schooling and all of that, it feels like we tumbled out into the world over the last 30 years. It feels like so much of our literature deals with AIDS and oppression that having stuff about regular old love and heartbreak and cornflakes is rare. That's probably just a side-effect of me being so poorly read. I'm glad at least that I'm reading more of this.
Some other favorites that I haven't mentioned in the review so far:
- Daggers, p74
- Poem. p86
- Dear Friend Go Away, Please, p106
-He is a Rose, p155
-Queers, p35
-"Two queers live on a hill", p80
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews