The last recent reading of 2018

Billy Mills reviews my book, ‘some time we are heroes’, and three others. An excellent review.

Elliptical Movements

logbook, Hiromi Suzuki, Hesterglock, £10.00

some time we are heroes, Reuben Woolley, Corrupt Press, €15, ISBN 979-10-90394-58-2

A Long and Hard Night Troubled by Visions, Tom Jenks, if p then q, £8.00, ISBN: 978-1999954710

The Balthus Poems, William Minor, Coracle Press, €10.

Hiromi Suzuki is a Japanese visual poet/collage artist who is associated with the VOU group of Japanese poets founded by the surrealist Kitasone Katue and whose work I first came across in the excellent Empty Mirror. The work collected in this enterprising volume from Hesterglock consists for the most part of collages using scraps of images and text from magazines, newspapers and other ephemera in a style that is highly reminiscent of certain Dada artists, including Kurt Schwitters. Interspersed between these are a number of prose statements that act as commentary on both the work assembled and Suzuki’s methods.

Interestingly, she appears to reverse…

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Gerry Potter

The Wombwell Rainbow

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Gerry Potter

is a poet, playwright, director, actor, and both creator and destroyer of the infamous gingham diva, Chloe Poems. His published works are included in both the poetry and philosophy collections at Harvard University, and the portrait documentary My Name is Gerry Potter premiered at Homotopia in 2015. An Everyman Youth Theatre alumnus, National Museums Liverpool lists him amongst the city’s leading LGBTQ+ icons.

The Interview

1. When and…

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The golden piano of Queen Elizabeth

Peace Poet Antony Owen

Photo by sergio omassi on Pexels.com

Your Majesty –

in the golden piano lay your keys to your kingdom

black and white keys making discordant music if listened to.

Your Treachery –

speak of your poverty not ours as our jewels are stars

the universe of collieries blew out years ago by knighted men.

Your Speeches –

Grenfell was a palace for Shohab and John sweet disciples

they cannot refurbish soil so hang your imported slave silks

Your Palace

I read it will cost three hundred and sixty-nine million pounds.

if you walked to the park you will see your soldier raiding bins.

Your anthem,

I hear it in the wheeze of a dying vagrant who served in Iraq

his friend exploded like an English rose in an armoured rover.

Your Majesty,

I do not condone the letter ‘E’ for empire it died a million times,

my heart gave me…

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The Word Factory: a miscellany by Mark Young, reviewed by Clara B. Young

the curly mind linguistically innovative poetry - weird & risky

The Word Factory: a miscellany
Mark Young
2018
gradient books (Finland)
Available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/gradientbooks

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones taking a journey on the path of experimental book reviewing…

“There exists no science of word creation” Velimir Khlebnikov

Author: Mark Young is an internationally recognized writer and publisher of the poetry journal, Otoliths, who has produced dozens of books and has been featured in jacket2 and by the Poetry Foundation. He lives in Australia.

What is The Word Factory about? From the author: “A strange mix, a miscellany as the subtitle says. Some pieces written during & about the George W. Bush presidency; the Allegrezza translations; prose works that investigate the landscape where the writing takes place; poems that don’t fit elsewhere. All put together to try & hold up a night sky, to give it faint stars & distant constellations.”

Formal structure:

Arrangement: various textual forms…

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‘some time we are heroes’ by reuben woolley – corrupt press

gravyfromthegazebo

In most moments throughout this collection of poems, John and Mary are meeting – physically or through memory or in their words – though they are hardly together, separated by differing views/experiences, and by presentation on the page.

They do share similarities. Mary ‘can’t talk to everyone’ and ‘even John/doesn’t say much’. And they have a history together, if not tightly together, and the poems display this visually, as well as darkly in the language that mixes everyday companionship – say through dancing – and the struggle of even this,

Everything seems once, a time before. So there was a time when ‘flowers/were for cutting’ and the now or after is ‘not/time for sharing’.

In the reality of dislocation which, as I have said, the poems visually reflect the distances, the poems also reflect beauty/grace through their lyrical expression,

The poems also convey significant drama, at times of despair…

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Death Comes as a Master from Academia, by Colin James

I am not a silent poet

                              Surprisingly my nemesis

                              was substantially larger than me

                              and quite a bit younger.

                              I managed to distract him

                              with an ambiguous question.

                              Far be it me to throttle someone

                              when their back is turned.

                              I hit him straight on violently.

                              To divert blame I had designed a lettered

                              sweater always open at the neck,

                              compensating for a particularly thorough

                              good hiding at someone else’s convenience.

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Spangle McQueen

The Wombwell Rainbow

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.
The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Spangle McQueen

is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield. She is proud and grateful to have work accepted and/or published by Three Drops Press; Picaroon; Lonesome October Lit; Bonnie’s Crew; Burning House Press; Dwell Collective Zine; Strix; Awkward Mermaid; I am not a Silent Poet; The Writers’ Café; Foxglove Journal and Sad Girl Review.

http://dancingtosyllables.blogspot.com/

The Interview

1. What inspired you to write poetry?

I have…

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