Andrew Motion: recovering in Foothills Medical Centre, Calgary

Tension has been mounting between the two state poets since late 2006 when Motion published a novella in verse containing lines disparaging Simic: "me Merican brada him write okay but him facety. Him have big bufu-bufu batty and him a hitey-titey blackheart man. What him write bout? Lagga head bizness, sufferation and wutlessness. Cha. Skin your teet, maama man."

Simic quickly claimed in an online poetry forum that Motion "dissed [his] boyz and his bitches," and that he (Simic) "ain't taking no bojangling from no limey motherfucker, I don't give a fuck if he the QUEEN of England or some shit. That busta white foo best rise up, cos I be strapped. He wants a curb job, he gon get one. That's right. Uh."

Motion responded, in international poetry journal Nimrod, that Simic "have hisself (sic) some serious crosses. Him gan all boombaklat over neegle yeye ting don matta neva. Him can cuss-cuss all him want. Why him no ku I an I in de face? Is him feard? Aw, de little pickney's all feard!"

The increasingly threatening exchanges continued, culminating in the incident at the 2008 Banff Literary Jamboree. Organisers were nervous about inviting both Poets Laureate to the event, but felt that inviting only one, or neither, would be bad form. "I thought that the literary world would be above such petty squabbling and violence," a member of the BLJ2008 committee told The Ferret on condition of anonymity, "but I guess I was wrong."

	- by Patrick Pending (Editor-in-Chief)
:) bopp , 15:00, 2 February 2009 Post a comment Name 4 + 3 = (security to avoid spam) Email (optional)

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