The Poetry School attracts 1,000 poets a year, and is against both elitism and parochialism, its director, Ollie Dawson, affirmed last night at the launch of its spring term courses in the hospitable Tea House Theatre, amid the frozen wastes of Vauxhall and nearby rumbling of trains. The Poetry School itself is located close by, in Lambeth Walk. Reading were three Poetry School students from the previous term: Edward Doegar, who was also appearing at the latest Poetry Review launch tonight, Sue Robbins, and John Canfield, who said disarmingly that all his poems had been “workshopped, commented upon, improved … that’s my way of spreading the blame”. Canfield has a poem about Ringo in the forthcoming Seren Beatles anthology, Newspaper Taxis. Tutor Chris McCabe’s poems were inspired by his young son; his huge number of early baby names, including Little Big Boy, Koala Boy, and Our Little Prince, and as source material for the title, You’re Meat, Book. McCabe’s course, Collaborations, “the unknown alchemical terrain of working with other poets”, was all above board, with no plagiarism issues, he was quick to add. The launch evening was serenely and sublimely concluded by the Poetry School’s founder, Mimi Khalvati, with poems about the inclement weather, mouse-lemurs, ghostfish, and souls that travel on horseback.

Review is about Poetry School: Spring Term Launch & Poetry Reading on 23 Jan 2013 (event)