As an eclectic writer – passionate about and committed to varying styles – I am delighted to be a part of the dynamism that is Beir Bua Press and its publishing editor Michelle Moloney King who in June will be publishing my book &there4. This is a collection of found/erasure/cut-up and other poems based mainly on philosophical texts.

Here are further details about the book and a launch event on 30th June (click on images to enlarge):

The eventbrite link is here

The unbearable
force of a wrong

incoherent and
rigid,

you futile in a
universe holding this.

Kicking, slaps, battling –
each emptier against

the injustice;
the power of it.

You well up
but do not quite dare

cry, holding on
from behind the blood.

Once tall
– six three –

the red burst makes
you inches shorter.

(cut-up: Rabbit, Run – John Updike)

I do like this collection of ‘old-school’ (is that OK?) concrete poetry: writing that delights in playful and meaningful exploration of individual words as well as phrases – and more. As Stephen Bann explains it in his back-cover blurb, ‘moves from spare one-word poems to expansive typographigal structures’. I am frankly dazzled by both poles, so the ascent of limbs engages as much as the ash washed ashore.

These aren’t poems to present/reveal here in a brief review as that’s all in the reader’s joy when turning actual pages (though there is a possible cheat and peek if you must on the book’s Timglaset page, link at the end). But what can be done with hearded and deepened and evening and those forward slashes is just so much fun.

And I’m going to admit, I thought there was a printing production error, but when I discovered and folded out that page…!

On the day I received ‘particulates’, a friend arrived at my house as we had some Coleridge business to attend to. Sitting outside, I couldn’t resist enthusiastically showing him some immediate favourites, he not a natural fan of the innovative/experimental, but I could see him being swayed to understanding and appreciating the goings on.  It’s the kind of genuine delight I’d have with students, using these concrete gems if I was still teaching.

For more details and how to purchase, go here.

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concerned citizens
are taking faecal matters
into their own hands

Everybody is their own
dismantling artist
in the binary system

of God and technology, piece
of value by piece of computer
divided and layered back as

clippings and deeds of cut-up –
disorder sorted and
organized to

collapse into entertainment.
It is the business of
these notes about this book.

(cut-up: JR – William Gaddis)

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