Vera Rich• Show poetry

I am (health-permitting - see below!) a full-time writer, translator of poetry and editor of 'MANIFOLD Magazine of New Poetry'. Outside of "Allpoetry", I can be contacted at manifoldpoetry@googlemail.com.



I translate mainly from Belarusian and Ukrainian Poetry, but have also translated from Polish, Russian, Spanish, Romanian and Old Norse...



I believe strongly in the importance of form in poetry, and - in connection with my translation work, I aim to reproduce the form (rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, syllable count etc) of the original as closely as possible, as well as making it line-for-line accurate. (This may seem an impossible ideal - but it is the ideal I have tried to pursue now for more than 50 years).


Concerning my original work: to clear up a misunderstanding which frequently is revealed by those members of the Allpoetry "community" who comment on my poems may I say that although I frequently write in the first person, this does not mean that the "I" of the poem necessarily reflects my own personal thoughts, attitudes, emotions or experiences. Although obviously such things provide some of the raw material for the poem, the persona who is "speaking" in such a poem may well be simply an artistic construct (and when appropriate may be male). The "I" of "The Great Escape" or "Surviving" is no more the "real-life" Vera Rich than "Porphyria's Lover" or the Duke of "My last Duchess" were the "real-life" Robert Browning!


But sometimes "real life" does have a nasty habit of impinging on one's work - As some of you may be aware, at the end of February 2006 I had to have undergo major surgery (radical mastectomy/lymphectomy) for cancer - and after that had to go through the various stages of post-operative treatment (including chemotherapy and then radiotherapy - and also six months of daily injections to dissolve blood-clots in my lungs that had developed as a a side effect of the chemo!)...

During this difficult time, I felt greatly sustained by the prayers, "positive thoughts" and good wishes of my Allpoetry friends, and I cannot express in full the sincere gratitude I feel.


I am now much recovered (at least I think so! - though I still have to have routine hospital check-ups)) but although I never had to stop working completely, during my illness quite a hefty backlog of work piled up. I have cleared a substantial part of this (two major books published during winter 2007-2008), but others are still outstanding - some of which are targetted on forth-coming anniversaries... so the deadlines are pressing

And to make matters worse, although, as I said, I am much recovered, various side effects of the treatment have sapped my physical strength, while my "creative" energy seems to have plateaued at around two thirds of what it used to be... So by the end of the working day I am often far too exhausted to cope with Allpoetry. And with the aforesaid deadlines, what was a difficult situation now becomes virtually impossible!

For I do not consider it fair to attempt to critique someone's poem unless one is feeling fresh and receptive.

So, in effect, the most I shall be able to do for the next 18 month is to teach myoccasional "Winklings' class" and possibly to enter the occasional competition that is open to prewritten work, in the event of my having something suitable already on the site.

Apart from that... I doubt I shall be much in evidence until around March 2011.


In the meantime,if for some reason you need to contact me urgently, you can e-mail me at manifoldpoetry@googlemail.com



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