Poetry

Janet Suzman and Leo

With Janet Suzman at the National Poetry Centre, for the publication of his Return to Zululand

Poetry Collections:
The Day The Grass Came (Muswell Press)
Dancing the Impossible: New & Selected Poems (Poetry Salzburg)
Jumping-Shoes (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Red Alert: this is a god warning (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Return to Zululand (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Sunflower (Sidgwick & Jackson)
I,Odysseus (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Discontinued Design (Venture Press)

His poetry has been published in approximately 100 anthologies, including The Methuen Book of Theatre Verse, 100 Major Modern Poets, The 1991 Arvon International Poetry Competition Anthology, The Ring of Words (Arvon prizewinning anthology 1998), The 2002 Bridport Prize Anthology, 100 Favourite Animal Poems, Laugh or Cry or Yawn, Tunes on a Tin Whistle, The Sun Dancing, The Oxford Poetry Books, The Blue Nose Poetry Anthology, 101 Favourite Poems, One River Many Creeks,  A Glass of New Made Wine, The Works (Macmillan), The Moonlit Stream (Oxford) , The Poetry Store (Hodder) Greek Poetry: New voices and ancient echoes (AGENDA), as well as in AGENDA (vol 39, number 4) Memorial Issue for William Cookson, Dark Matter (Calouste Gulbenkian)

photo - Chris Pearce of Panic Pictures

from Return to Zululand The light that surrounds these faces Is as tough as the soles of the feet That, hardened to rhino hide By running on thorns and rocky outcrops, Chased the Imperial Army from Isandhlwana.

Fellowships & Residencies
Poet in Residence, Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey,
Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor, McMaster Univeristy, Ontario.
Cecil Day Lewis Fellowship.
Royal Literary Fund Fellowship.
Poet in Residence, The Orange Tree Theatre  Richmond.

Leo is listed on the Poetry kit website
Poetry Kit Listed Site

 

 

 

 

The visceral intellectualism with which he attacks his subjects is exemplified in The Day the Grass Came which defines an ambitious work — and triumphs. The shorter poems are just as impressive.                                      Melvyn Bragg

 

Leo Aylen is that rarity, an extraordinarily effective poet whose verse not only cries out to be spoken aloud but which also survives on the printed page to communicate, most tellingly, to the inward ear. His work has vitality, technical agility, considerable subtlety and range. If, as I believe, poetry should be a living organism, demonstrably of the here and now, this is it. 
                                                                                                                                                   Charles Causley

 

There is nothing safe and conventional about his poetry. Vigour, enjoyment of playing with the fire of words and images, and an exuberant appetite for rhythms and sounds.                                                                             Alan Brownjohn