Playlist
Ian McMillan hosts another lively and captivating edition of The Verb. This week's he's joined by the poet Don Paterson, whose latest collection is a reworking of the Sonnets to Orpheus, written at the turn of the last century by the great German poet Rilke. In an astoundingly short thirteen days Rilke produced a beguiling collection of poems which stand as a landmark in modern poetry. Don Paterson explains how the desire to memorise the sonnets and carry them with him in his head drove him to compose a new edition, and why he thinks Rilke's madness was also his genius. Also on the programme, another scintillating aural cartoon from the Verb's resident eartoonist, Peter Blegvad, plus an intriguing dramatic monologue from the novelist Matt Thorne which addresses our strange relationship with internet search engines. There's also performance from Janice Perry, described as a `cross between Doris Day and a high velocity rifle' and new work from the young Zimbabwean poet Togara Muzanenhamo.
Orpheus by Don Paterson is published by Faber and Faber. Cherry by Matt Thorne is published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Janice Perry's details can be found at www.janiceperry.com Spirit Brides by Togara Muzanenhamo is published by Carcanet.
