Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan, 70 today.
Who’d have thought it?
How did that suede-jacketed, smooth-skinned enigma walking down the snow-covered Greenwich Village street – West 4th or Jones? – on the cover of the Freewheelin’ album, Suze Rotolo hanging on his arm, get to reach 70?
Thinking about the album cover image and its affect on my teenage self led me to write my poem, 'Girl From The North.' And I’m excited to let you know that the poem appears in The Captain’s Tower, published today by Seren.
The Captain’s Tower is a birthday present to Dylan from the world of poetry. The book includes work by seventy poets who have met, seen or heard Dylan. The poems are about him, his work and how it has influenced their lives. There’s even a foreword by Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood.
Contributors range across continents and ages, from contemporaries and friends of Dylan such as Allen Ginsberg, Laurence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure, to young writers such as Rachel Boast and Holly Hopkins. In between are familiar names from the poetry world – Paul Muldoon, Simon Armitage, Mark Ford, Jane Draycott, Linda France, Roger McGough, Glyn Maxwell, Robert Minhinnick, Matthew Sweeney, and many more including me!
I’ll be among the line-up of poets reading to launch the book at The Troubadour, London, on Monday 13 June, and at the Latitude Festival in July.
Hope to see some of you Dylan fans there!
You can buy the book, from Seren, or Inpress or from good, poetry-stocking bookshops.
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