Tom Jenks Interviews Richard Barrett

Politics is something I can’t get away from. Nor want to get away from. It is, nevertheless, a subject which disappoints me intensely. Thinking specifically of ‘The Rushes’ - and this has never been a secret - that was a deliberate attempt to try and do something like Sean Bonney did with The Commons. When I first read The Commons (when will that have been? Late 2008?) I was just absolutely blown away by it. I felt as though I’d found the direction I wanted to go in. It was just a matter of finding my own subject and trying to work out the best way of writing about that subject. Gradually ‘The Rushes’ began to take shape. Since ‘The Rushes’, however, I’d say I’ve begun to think my primary interest, now, as far as poetry goes, isn’t politics but rather culture in a broader sense. Of course, politics is part of that, but it’s a part I just happen to be less focused on at the moment.

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