Roddy Lumsden Responds
It's still a British poem though, if not a British subject, and so "kerb" is not an anomaly. I'd hope "death pilots" rather than "blackfly" hints at terrorism, but I do tend to keep my political images subtle to the point of near-invisibility. Yet Campion is right that that doesn't change his objections much—so can we agree to agree? I should have tucked that poem away in the depths of the book!*
*This exchange originally appeared on poetryfoundation.org
Roddy Lumsden was born in St. Andrews, Scotland. He described his upbringing as small-town and working-class. His earliest exposure to literature came from his mother and older brother, who read aloud to him when he was a child. Later, when he attended school, his writing was influenced by the works of W.S. Graham, Philip Larkin, Thom Gunn, T.S. Eliot, and Sylvia Plath, and by song lyrics.
Roddy ...