Poet causes TwitterStorm after writing about his fantasies

zainab quadri

June 8, 2015 2:20 PM

Seventy-year-old poet’s Gatwick, fantasising about a young airport worker, unleashes stream of tweets and replies

Craig Raine

The poet, Craig Raine release his new poem printed in this week’s issue of the LRB thereby unleashing anger among Twitter users.

The poem, which is called Gatwick, is a fantasy about a young official at passport control. “She is maybe 22 / like a snake in a zoo,” writes Raine “I want / to give her a kiss / But I can’t... I want to say I like your big bust. Which you try to disguise with a scarf.”

He wistfully concludes: “I can say these things, I say, because I’m a poet and getting old. / But of course, I can’t / and I won’t”.

After today’s backlash the 70-year-old poet and novelist might be feeling he shouldn’t and wishing he hadn’t.

zainab quadri