I sometimes think that Masthead ought to be subtitled "stuff I like". One of the great satisfactions of putting it together is the opportunity to see work I admire in conversation with other works, to put in one place a little of the great variety of art that stirs me in different ways.  I am sometimes asked if a particular issue has a "theme", but I find myself more interested in pursuing the themes that the works themselves suggest. Sometimes the serendipity of editing means that an issue can look as if, indeed, a theme has informed the choices; but if so, it is chance who orchestrated it.

Inevitably, the magazine reflects my tastes and interests. And looking at this issue, I suppose that what strikes me most of all as a connection between the works presented here is, yet again, a sense of eroticism: the obvious erotics in the sensual layerings and displacements in the beautiful artworks of Paul Cava, of course, but also a sense that language is, in a complex and challenging sense, a bodied phenomenon. This weaves through the works presented here in a wide variety of ways, from the disturbed cyber-carnalities of Kenji Siratori to the rawly-nerved longings and vertiginous anxiety expressed in Chris Goode's "score for performance"; from the displaced romantic sensibilities of  Flemish poet Hugues C. Pernath or  Peruvian modernist César Vallejo to the tragic eroticism discussed by playwright and critic George Hunka; from the sheer, tender tissue of the ordinary in Geoffrey Squires' poetry to the full-blooded sexual anger of Jasmine Chan's theatrical voice. 

I am delighted in this issue to realise a long-held ambition - the Masthead special for this issue is a survey of Irish poetry, taking in a taste of a selection of contemporary  poets notable for their variousness, but also harking back to a modernist lineage which is sometimes obscured in contemporary narratives of Irish literature.  In editing this selection, I owe a great deal of thanks to those who helped me with suggestions or with seeking permissions. I'd particularly like to thank Michael Smith, Trevor Joyce and David Lloyd for helping me to put this fine selection of  poetry together, and I'd like to thank also the literary estates of Denis Devlin, Niall Montgomery, Brian Coffey and Thomas MacGreevy for permitting their work to appear. The special also includes an essay by Alex Davis which contextualises some of the vexed issues that both divide and link the whole notion of Irish poetry.

I am also very pleased to include several texts for the theatre, again coming from a variety of approaches to language in performance. Margaret Cameron, Jasmine Chan, Chris Goode, George Hunka and Daniel Keene span three continents: the safest thing to say about the works presented here is that none of these texts in any way fit the convention of the "well made play" and all of them, in their differing aesthetics, offer exciting ways to think about language in performance. And Eliot Finstushel has contributed some sharp prose, to give this issue a genre edge.

There is, as always, a good body of poetry in translation: in this issue are translations from Flemish, Polish, Spanish and Tamil. And the poetry expresses a range of approaches and aesthetic - from the meditative reflection of  George Szirtes to MTC Cronin's witty, passionate, unclassifiable writings, to the complex musical rhythms of Fred Moten.  And much in between and beyond. 

But I'll leave it to you to explore the rest.

This issue's cover image is Man/Woman by Paul Cava, whose work is also displayed in the Gallery, with extracts from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Don't miss the opportunity to read Whitman again: I truly had forgotten, in the years since I've read him, how wonderful he is.

Yes, stuff I like.

Alison Croggon
Editor
March 4, 2006