Over the Bridge

Edited by John Loveday, this collection arose out of a series of readings by modern poets at Whitchurch School Oxfordshire. The readings were to adult audiences but eventually John Loveday, who organised this 'poetry power-house', began to ask the poets to contribute work for a book for the children of the school. It was assembled over two years and on completion Kestrel agreed to publish it, simultaneously in hardback and paperback. The brief to the poets was 'poems that might be enjoyed by some young readers of ten or eleven and yet were likely later to be included in books for adults'. Auden's words 'While there are some good poems that are only for adults, because they presuppose adult experience in their readers, there are no good poems which are only for children,' became the touchtone.

Has it succeeded? Well, not really. Some of the poets seem over-conscious of writing for children (certainly not kids) like Donald Campbell's That Night; others smack a little o poetry for poetry's sake - Robert Wells' Woodman's Song and Roger Garfitt's Blue for starters. There are some hits, for me John Wain's Poem for Kids and James Simmon's Olive and Davy. But it's a patchy affair. Certainly nothing to grab those not already willing to listen; but perhaps that was deliberate. At the launch John Loveday said he had deliberately excluded poets who write for 'the ready response' or the 'laugh' from the audience because in them there ware more 'performance' than real poetry. Ho Hum! Sadly within this closed circle collection there's not a lot for the willing to bite on either. I'd buy the paperback for a few poems...