Shelfie: Penguin Modern Poets

The wonderful Penguin Modern Poets series

I bought my first Penguin Modern Poets when I was thirteen. I was staying with my uncle and aunt in Dumfries in Scotland, and spent much of my days wandering around the town, revelling in a new kind of freedom five hundred miles away from home. I visited the museum with its wonderful Camera Obscura several times, and I also spent a lot of time in bookshops, where I discovered these slim black volumes. At the cost of 20p or 4/- (both decimal and pre-decimal currencies were marked on the back) I could afford several, so I went home with numbers 2,4,6 and 7, and numbers 13 and 16 which were far more expensive at 25p! I think they must have been old stock, because by the time I bought The Mersey Sound (number 10) six months later, I had to fork out 75p.

I've been adding to the collection ever since, letting serendipity guide me: I don't seek them out, but wait for them to appear before me in charity shops and village fetes. It's like a very quiet mission: I'm playing a long, slow game. One day I might have them all - I'd particularly like number 24, which features Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler and Kenward Elmslie, and 26 which is Dannie Abse, DJ Enright and Michael Longley.

But I'm reminded of the old Arthur C Clarke story about the monks who wanted to discover all the names for God. They set a computer running to discover all the permutations possible, but when the program had finished and they had what they wanted, they suddenly noticed that one by one, the stars were all going out. The purpose of the Universe had been fulfilled. So perhaps I ought to make sure that there is always a space on the shelf - just in case.