That’s not a typo. I did say “bog.” You’ll understand soon enough.

Drawing by Stevie Smith

Happy birthday to poet Stevie Smith, born Florence Margaret Smith. Had she lived she would be 114 years old today, though I’m sure she’d be annoyed about it. As it was she lived only 69 years, and while you may know nothing about her at all, I guarantee that she was an influence to many contemporary poets, maybe even you? Nobody, especially in the UK, was writing the way she was at the time.

Below, in the first video, I talk a bit about that and read her poem “Pretty,” originally recorded on my YouTube channel six years ago. The still shot for that is kinda weird, but I’ll leave it there for posterity. In 2012, I wrote more extensively about Stevie and recorded the second video,