Particular nowheres

Displacement is at the heart of Ken Smith's poetry. Introducing three of his poems, the e-journal spacesofidentity.net observes that ‘Smith's verses come to us from a no-man's land that lies in-between placement and displacement. His fascination with languages and mobility makes him constantly wanting to be somewhere else.’ Bloodaxe, the publisher of Smith's last book before his premature death from legionnaires’ disease in 2003, the selection of new and earlier work called Shed, spelt out in a blurb that was probably written by the author himself the ambiguity of his title:

In an interview with Brad Evans in The Poetry Kit, Ken Smith recorded that he was born in 1938 in the Yorkshire village of Rudston, the son of an itinerant labourer who was ‘always moving around’, so that he attended junior school all over Yorkshire, before getting a scholarship to grammar school, and subsequently Leeds University, interrupted by two years of National Service in the Royal Air Force.