Palavers and a Nocturnal Journal

Christopher Middleton long a resident of the USA is one of Britains finest poets. He was writing (not for publication) his Nocturnal Journal during the two years prior to his retirement from the University of Texas at Austin where he had taught German and Comparative Literature since 1966. The journal appears here in conjunction with conversations tape-recorded by Marius Kociejowski in London during October 2002 and June 2003. In both areas Middleton attends eloquently to his concerns as poet translator and essayist: values intrinsic and peculiar to poetry the fundamental human aptitude (and craving) for aesthetic expression and the reading of sign-systems usually deemed haphazard (e.g. a Turkish sea-mew a soccer match the aprons of waiters rubbish in the Paris Metro and a fresco in Cappadocia). Also included here by way of introduction to the volume is a brief but entertaining reminiscence of his first encounters with Christopher Middleton by Marius Kociejowski.