Monday, August 01, 2011



McCready and Downie in Conversation

Fellow Calder Wood Press poet Morgan Downie (swiss) and I review and interview each other on our respective poetry collections. I've been reading Morgan's poetry and conversing with him via the blogs for a couple of years now and I enjoyed this wee joint venture. Morgan's first full-length poetry collection, stone and sea, was published last year and is packed with excellent poems. I was pleased to get this opportunity to ask him some questions on his collection and his answers are interesting and very Morgan!

Thanks to Michelle McGrane for featuring us on her wonderful Peony Moon blog!

9 comments:

Danish dog said...

Very nice interviews, Marion! I've gone and ordered Morgan's book straight away. How come neither of you mentioned George Mackay Brown?

Duncan

Marion McCready said...

thanks duncan, you won't be disappointed with morgan's book!

well I can't speak for morgan but I always considered GMB very much an Orkney poet. I picked up his collected a couple of years back, obviously loving the imagery, especially the sea imagery but it's only really now that I feel ready to really explore his poems. until last summer I hadn't been back to the western isles for over a decade so that aspect hadn't really come into my poems until recently. I'm glad you mentioned him, I might just add him to my current in-depth reading and see how it goes.

one scottish poet morgan and I have both been very impressed with is Kenneth White, certainly the music of his poems influenced the writing of several poems in my pamphlet.

Dominic Rivron said...

A great conversation. I'll have to go back and read it in more detail.

A drumkit falling downstairs makes a fantastic sound but don't try it at home as they say. Cymbals are blighters for taking chunks out of the wallpaper.

Marion McCready said...

the drumkit falling downstairs is a great illustration isn't it?
glad you enjoyed the post, dominic :)

swiss said...

i have addressed the gaerge mackay brown question. and got myself his collected poems!

Roxana said...

sheer delight!!!

i think it was essential that both of you had such a long and deep knowledge of the other's writing and writing process, over time...

congratulation on a brilliant idea, brilliantly put into practice...

Anonymous said...

Duncan: your copy posted yesterday.
Colin

Marion McCready said...

thanks roxana! :)

Danish dog said...

Thanks, Colin! I've posted a note on swiss' blog.