Songs Without Music
Mal Foster
An introduction to a lesser known English poet...
to find himself
The thinking man has returned
He has resumed his childhood
and relives everything.
He looks for proof
he sees himself in a mirror
he smiles, he grimaces
he compares.
There is a strong suspicion here
he questions his identity
with hows and whys and wheres
and holds a crumpled photograph.
A small boy with hollow eyes
in a seaside town
Circa: 1950s.[Poem: A Bastard's Lament - taken from Re-Invented 2004]
“Mal Foster has achieved a great deal since the emergence of WIRE Poetry Magazine in the 1990s and has published a fair volume of work by other poets that will stand as a worthy record; the most important part of which has been Mal's encouragement to new and younger poets.
The ’emerging’ – some of whom will develop as a result; will no doubt pay him due credit. I hope they do! I will long recall the regard shown by Mal to my own work and will send him my next collection when it is ready. Meanwhile, I will continue to follow his progress. Any poet blessed with the talent to write a poem such as 'Peepshow' has an obviously growing ability which will grow much further.”
- Bill Littlewood, author of two National Poetry Foundation ttitles