Year of the Olive Oil

Poetry. Charles North writes urban idylls: fragments of perceptions, things seen and thought about: ‘Exfoliating the leather of a wallet stuffed with dry goods.’ Wit is never distant from the scenes he invents, a metaphysical wit suggestive of Marvell, and one that is not satirical, but informed with pity. His joy in words, and the things words adumbrate, is infectious: we catch a contagion of enlightenment. To me, he is the most stimulating poet of his generation -James Schuyler.