Craig Raine’s lusty poem stirs up a Twitterstorm

Craig Raine’s poem Gatwick sparked a Twitterstorm of protest but at least one eloquent fan leapt to his defence.

What would Charles Bukowski have made of Twitter?

What Charles Bukowski would have made of Twitter I do not know. But it would have been fun to watch the 140-character reaction to a piece such as a poem for the swingers, a poem for the playgirls of the universe, which he wrote in late 1974. (Chosen from numerous possibilities.) The opening stanza runs: “I like women who haven’t lived with too many men or / who haven’t had too many one night stands./ I don’t expect a virgin but I simply prefer a woman / who hasn’t been rubbed dry by experience.’’

Against that, Craig Raine’s poem Gatwick, published in the June 4 London Review of Books, seems tame. But, boy, did he cop it. “craig raine’s gatwick makes me sick / i want to kick him the dick’’, wrote one tweeter in a parody of the poem’s opening, which name-drops Tom Stoppard and rhymes Gatwick with sick. But others objected more earnestly to the “perviness” of the poem in which Raine, who is 70, thinks of kissing a former student he meets by chance at the airport and, later, admires the “big bust” of a young Swedish woman but not so much the “hefty can” of her mother. Towards the end, the poet thinks: “I can say these things, I say / because I am a poet and getting old.’’

Not on your life, you dirty old man, was the Twitter verdict, which overlooked the next, concluding part of the poem: “But of course, I can’t, / and I won’t. I’ll be silent./ Nothing said, but thought and told.’’

Interestingly, one who sprang to Raine’s defence was English novelist Sophie Hannah, who noted the “cruelly ageist aspect to much of the bile’’. “Many apparently find the sexual desire of an elderly man disgusting .’’ She went on: “We don’t need more of the male gaze in literature, Twitter pronounced. Well, if you want to screen out the thoughts of half the population, you can choose not to read men. That’s up to you. Meanwhile, Raine should be able to write about a fleeting moment of horniness without getting bullied for it.’’ Hannah concluded her piece in The Guardian with a personal plea that is the hands-down quote of the week (see below).

It didn’t make Twitter, but John Burnside has a poem, Mother as Script and Ideal, in the same issue of the LRB and it is gorgeous.

I always enjoy the Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers, established in 1994 by Nita Dobbie in honour of her pioneering aunt Nita Kibble, the first female librarian at the State Library of NSW. The awards ceremony, usually a lunchtime affair, is held in a spirit of inclusion and generosity. The awards have an emphasis on life writing, and this year’s shortlists are typically strong. The contenders for the $30,000 Nita Kibble Literary Award for an established writer are Sophie Cunningham for her exploration of one of Australia’s worst natural disasters, Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy; Helen Garner for her account of the Robert Farquharson case, This House of Grief; and Joan London for her novel centred on a 1950s Perth polio rehabilitation house, The Golden Age, which is also in the running for the Miles Franklin. Garner is a previous Kibble winner, for True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction in 1997. The $5000 Dobbie award for emerging writers is to be decided between three debut novels: Emily Bitto’s Stella Prize winner The Strays; Christine Piper’s Vogel Award winning After Darkness; and Ellen van Neerven’s Heat and Light. The winners will be announced on July 15. Congratulations to all.

Quote of the week: “After this episode, many poets will nevertheless still dare to publish whatever they want to express on the subject of lust. I suspect there are as many who won’t. As a poetry lover, I find that a terrifying prospect. Given the choice, I’d far rather Raine looked at my amply padded 43-year-old bottom and put his thoughts about it — complimentary or otherwise — in a poem.’’ Sophie Hannah.