Commentaries on Bob Cobbing - The Argotist Online

It was during that time that I met him. And it wasn’t long after that the balance of power began to
shift at The Poetry Society.
In the scale of things, it wasn’t a tremendous or long-lasting change; but, combined with Eric
Mottram’s editorship of Poetry Review, it did suggest what might be possible.
For those who could get to the Society then, the changes were enormous, as the Poetry Review
changes were, both to those who were genuinely interested in contemporary poetry and for those
who looked to poetry for behavioural reassurance.
Some of us lost the sense of dismal mediocre continuity with our accession; and others who saw
an opportunity for a fight did become quite vitriolic; and much of the linguistic vitriol was thrown
at Eric Mottram, who was grievously hurt and upset, and Bob Cobbing, who seemed sometimes to
thrive on the abuse.
It has been suggested that the changes to The Poetry Society’s policies, changes which were
interrupted before they were completed, narrowed the range of what was promoted. It was
suggested that only “experimental poetry”, whatever that is, was allowed; and that Bob Cobbing
was in some way responsible for banning and excluding other poetries.
This is an important point because without Cobbing’s belief that the changes could be made the
attempt might not have got off the ground.
A lot of the angst arose from Mottram’s daring to publish Americans... and a great deal of the other
nonsense was an attempt to camouflage that risible xenophobia. Originating in the sort of
mentalities which look to see what the rest of the pack are doing before acting themselves, the
conspiracy theories did not allow the possibility that the Society was being changed by more than
a dozen people who acted independently but happened broadly to agree.
In fact, Cobbing demonstrated his usual small “c” catholicity of taste from Vachel Lindsey to Dom
Sylvester Houédard and Mac Low to Kipling to Charlotte Mew etc, the same excitement at all kinds
of poetry making which seems to have motivated him before, during and after les evenements.
The reception of ABC in Sound may have released an immense amount of innovative creativity for,
I have suggested, 10 years or so; but I wouldn’t want to suggest that was the end of it.
I have no doubt that many of us spent far too much time on the always lost cause of The Poetry
Society; and Bob, spending more time there than anyone, misspent more time than anyone.
At times, especially as whoever they were fought back successfully, he seemed to be trying to be
The Poetry Society single-handedly, which was neither good for his health nor sound
diplomatically. And I think it may have taken him a little while longer than it might have to recover
equilibrium when we all walked out in the second half of the 70s.
But he did recover it and he went on producing work at a high rate, much of it of exceptional
quality.