Gwilym Williams: Genteel Messages

Despite being around for a good while now, this is Gwilym Williams' first poetry collection. The sexegenarian, now based in Vienna, was born in Wales but brought up in Runcorn, Cheshire, a town which features in my favourite poem from the collection

RUNCORN EAST

with apologies to Edward Thomas

Yes, I remember Runcorn East
the name, because one afternoon
the beat-up local train squealed to a halt
unexpectedly - and I swear it wasn't my fault.

The heater thrummed and someone lit-up
his fag in the no-smoking carriage
and someone else coughed. And what I saw
through the murky window was the usual weeds

and the ticket-collector out on the platform
badgering the driver and pointing excitedly
at the signal ahead which was on red. It seemed
we'd stopped unexpectedly - like the end of time.

And for those few moments we wondered what
the hell was going on in sleepy Cheshire.
Had some idiot pulled the emergency cord or was
there an H5N1-infected blackbird down the line ...

Note:
the designation H5N1 is used for a type of
bird flu that is said to affect humans

Birds are the subject of another poem, SPOTTING

On Mull and the Ardnamrchan
...
golden eagles and white tailed eagles,
...
plus a possible rail
and a probable crake
not crossed off.
...
...
So now we're rugged-up in the Beetle
with our paste sandwiches and tea
and the crake firmly crossed off.

As for the rail we've gone off it.

GWILYM WILLIAMS: GENTEEL MESSAGES
Poetry Monthly Press
39 Cavendish Road
Long Eaton
Nottingham
NG10 4HY
UK

ISBN 978 1 906357 17 7
£5.25

The author's blog is Poet in Residence.

Bridge over Corporation Street

This month's contribution to Broer som Binder (Bridges between) finds us near to home in Manchester with a photograph taken in November 1999.


The new walkway bridge over Corporation Street was constructed to replace the old one destroyed in the IRA bombing of Manchester in June 1996.

The story is told in this BBC News item which includes a photograph of the original bridge across Corporation Street.

The new bridge is cylindrical, instead of oblong, but otherwise fits exactly as the original had. The walkway is neither level (sloping downwards from the Arndale Centre into Marks & Spencer) nor straight, as it was discovered that the original walkway entrances in the two buildings were not directly opposite one another, but slightly askew.


This view shows construction work still taking place in July 1998.

Additional images can be found on the BBC Manchester website.


I used an image of the old bridge on the cover of my collection Limbo Time.

A full list of participants to Broer som Binder can be found on Runes TX-blog.

ABC Wednesday - Z is for Zen Speug

photograph © 2008, Euan McDonald

Z is for zen speug which is the blog of John McDonald who publishes haiku in Scots together with translations into English.

Now you don't have to squint at the screen to read his work. He has just published a collection in print titled THE THROU-GAUN CHIEL. Crows, cats and children are perhaps the topics that dominate the book. My favourites are:

furst gorblins -
voar juist gat
roarier

first fledglings -
spring just got
noisier

***

coortin kipple
a coffee atween thaim -
stame heavin

young lovers
a coffee between them -
steam rising

***

ahint steekit hingers -
the new weedower
blethers tae's guidwife

behind closed curtains -
the new widower
talks to his wife

John is not the first poet to write Scots haiku and some might argue he is not the greatest but he is certainly the latest.

JOHN McDONALD: THE THROU-GAUN CHIEL
Cyberwit.net
4/2 B, L.I.G. Govindpur Colony,
Allahabad-211004 (U.P.)
India

ISBN 978 81 8253 117 8
Rs. 100/-

visit the website of Cyberwit.net

You nearly only got a sidesway view of John. I spent a lot of time trying to upload his photograph to blogger. As I wrote in an earlier post, blogger kept rotating the image. I've only solved the problem now by hosting the image on my personal website.

To visit more ABC-Wednesday Z posts go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

New Titles from Cinnamon Press

A number of new titles from Cinnamon Press have arrived on the doorstep in recent months.

WINTER LINES by Daniel Healy (ISBN 978 1 905614 57 8) is a collection of rather minimalist poems. A typical example is

Impression

frost cold
breathing mist
parkland crow
with a broken neck

a vague unease
black, red & white.

DINNER TIME by Holly Howitt (ISBN 978 1 905614 53 0) consists of prose-poems or microfictions. There is quite a lot of quite subtle humour in many of these pieces. One is an account of someone who calls their girlfriends by the names of stores, Lidl, Woolworths, Sainsbury's.

YOIK by Bob Beagrie (ISBN 978 1 905614 40 0) is a much more meatier offering. Yoik we are told

is an original form of Sami music and an integral part of the ancient religion of Shamanism.

and whilst there are sometimes obscure references scattered throughout, the poems in general are accessible like STORM DAMAGE which paints a scene of flash-floods in Newcastle. There is a series of poems about Staithes:

Old Nab squats, a snub at waves and sky
hoarding its rumoured seam of jet
and watching like it always has
for Viking longships
Spanish galleons running before a storm
German battleships in the fog
and the diminishing fleet of Steers cobles
coming and going on the edge of extinction.

ALPHABETS OF ELSEWHERE by Time Keane (ISBN 978 1 905614 38 7) is different again in style with much variety of form from prose poems to the chopped lines of LINES FOR AN IRISH DANCER

for fleet
sweeping feet
spinning reels
fiddles for the air
word crazy epistles
of could-be's
& yesterdays,
...

THE FOSSIL BOX by Richard Marggraf Turley (ISBN 978 1 905614 35 6) is a collection mainly focused on specific places, Blakeney, the Forest of Dean and elsewhere. There is even a series of poems on giants, Welsh, Irish, Norwegian and South American.

JASON SMITH'S NOCTURNAL OPERA by Nick Malone (ISBN 978 1 905614 26 4) is a book of eight chapters; narrative verse interspersed with short prose sections. It is a surreal metaphysical dream. Almost all the verse has centered lineation which I personally found a bit off-putting.

Other collections include BENEATH THE DELUGE by Catherine M Brennan (ISBN 978 1 905614 54 7), SIMPLE ARITHMETIC by Lloyd Rees (ISBN 978 1 905614 45 4), WAITING FOR A WARM BODY TO FILL IT by Kelly Moffett (ISBN 978 1 905614 44 8) and HAULED HEAD FIRST INTO A LEVIATHAN by Iain Britton (ISBN 978 1 905614 42 4). The books retail for £7.99 each.

Steve Sneyd nominated for 2008 Science Fiction Poetry Association Grandmaster

Photograph © 2001, Gerald England.

Steve Sneyd has been nominated by the Science Fiction Poetry Association for the 2008 SFPA Grandmaster award.

He faces tough competition as the other contenders are Ray Bradbury, Joe Haldeman, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Marge Simon.

people who have vanished
pressed into poems in small defunct magazines
still breath sometimes athwart my dreams

he wrote in Tributary Fractions which I published in The Hallamshire & Osgoldcross Poetry Express back in 1973.

I've published numerous poems by Steve Sneyd over the years in the magazines I edited, as well as his collection A Mile Beyond The Bus.

Two of his talks have been archived on Zimmerzine

• The Number Of Language — writing poetry the OULIPO Way
• The Inclusion Of Poetry In Novels

and you can read brief reviews of some his other collections on NHI Review.

Pauline Kirk: Names

artwork © 2008, Pauline Kirk.

NAMES

My mother had a liking for names.
She collected curiosities like others collect stamps.
'Hitchin Herts' she would say, and smile,
'Crawley Down', or 'Sandy, Beds'.
She told of Cowes that would not milk,
yachts that would not sail.
We joined in her game, watching from buses.

There were oddities round our way we found:
Cross Houses, Button Oak and Blissgate.
Some melted in the mouth like candy,
Cruckmeole, Ditton Priors, Clows Top.
Others drew strange pictures:
Inkberrow or Frog Pool, Halfpenny Green.
The local auctioneer was Doolittle and Dalley,
our walks crossed a Devil's Spitalfull.

When we moved Down Under new riches abounded:
Wagga Wagga and Coober Pedy,
Wangaratta and Murrumbidgee,
sounds that set tongue and lips watering.
Duchess, and Doubtful Bay, Darling Downs,
Toowoomba and Broken Hill.
Southern England was tame after that.
There's not a lot you can do with Southend.

Berkshire was better. Nettlebed might be painful
but I rather fancied a house in The Gutter.
Christmas Common and Hare Hatch had potential,
Chilton Foliat sounded positively spiffing.
By then the games were for another generation.
New children liked making Banbury Cross
and Wyre Piddle was still good for a giggle.
Then we moved up North, to riches untold.

Mum would have made tongue twisters from them:
'Arkengarthdale Arthur', or 'Osie from Osmotherley'.
Nowadays road maps gives me as much pleasure.
There's Boggle Hole and Cleckheaton, Gomersal and Troy;
this Spring I'll walk The Valley of Desolation,
open the Fairies' Chest or stand on Buttertubs again.
When we next move, I shall insist my home
is worth naming. With a bit of luck,
I might even end up writing in Hope.

Pauline Kirk

artwork © 2008, Pauline Kirk.

NAMES is from Pauline Kirk's latest collection ENVYING THE WILD. The poem together with the cover and frontispiece illustration are reproduced here with the poet/artist's permission.

PAULINE KIRK: ENVYING THE WILD
Fighting Cock Press
45 Middlethorpe Drive
York
YO24 1NA
UK
ISBN 978 0 906744 31 4
£5.50
Visit the website of Fighting Cock Press

Read reviews of other books by Pauline Kirk.
Read a poem by Pauline Kirk at Pickings

Mention you saw the book here and you can order a copy post free direct from the publisher for just £5. (Cheques payable to "Fighting Cock Press")

caucasus carcass

caucasus carcass is one of the latest publications by Atlantean Publishing.

It is a collection of "Reissian Haiku" - so-called because it derives from the work of poet Ed Reiss and the poems are in the style of haiku. "in the style of" is a fair enough description. The main rule of the form is that only letters with no ascenders [d, f, h, l] or descenders [g, j, p, y] can be used in their composition.

This restriction actually produces some excellent poems, particularly the ones by Steve Sneyd and D J Weston who are the major contributors to this anthology.

My favourites (all by D J Weston) are

rain runs on us,
on crosses, moss, our names -
our veins are ice

*

war-zone mess
enemies cower in ruins
no-one wins

*

warm summer comes
as sun-cream oozes over me
sere verses simmer

the last, although it has eight "m"s, has only one "n". I don't think there is a single poem here that doesn't include at least one "n" and most have several.

It is certainly good value at just £1.

I have to confess to being much less happy with editor D J Tyrer's collection THE ATLANTEAN. It is called "Collected Haiku" but hardly any of these compositions are haiku by almost any stretch of the imagination. He says he

came to haiku fairly late, initially as a challenge, then for the practical reason of needing occasional filler material for his magazines

and unfortuneatly he seems to have bought into the notion that any collection of seventeen-syllables split into three lines can automatically be called a "haiku".

There are a number of good short poems, clerihews, brief jokes, proverbs here:

Ten-sixty-six: fight!
Invade blood-red foam sword slash
King dead new king now

*

Too much sun skin cracks
Red-raw, head hurts, lotion
Rub it in and trust

*

a snowfall in March
how strange! cry amnesiacs
forgetting past snows

*

editorial
letters of comment reply
debate if you dare

so I do dare, because I care. Tyrer is a writer who could do so much better if he didn't try to shoe-horn his verse into something it doesn't fit. Whether he would be better discovering more about haiku (which takes years rather than weeks) or better honing his skills in other directions is for the author to decide.

Atlantean also publish five magazines titles including Bard (latest issue #64) and Awen (latest issue #51)

Atlantean Publishing
38 Pierrot Steps
71 Kursaal Way
Southend on Sea
Essex
SS1 2UY
UK

visit the website of Atlantean Publishing

Read reviews of earlier issues of Bard.
Read a review of another collection by D J Tyrer.

Adina Enachescu: Miresme si greieri

Miresme si greieri (Fragrances and Crickets) is the latest collection of haiku from Adina Enachescu.

It is a tri-lingual book in Romanian, English and French.

Marcel Crihana in his preface admits that

many lyrics can not be translated. Others ones lose their unrivalled artistic quality of Romanian language. It is necessary as the haiku to use a universal language, even if this thing is to the detriment of the promotion of our culture and and our language.

My favourites from this collection are:

At the Waterfall -
among the water sounds
the nightingale...

*

On the northern lake -
only one moon
and so many water lilies!

*

Path on the bank -
dating with the moon
our shadows!

ADINA ENACHESCU: MIRESME SI GREIERI
Editura Perpessicius
Bd 1 Decembrie 1918 Nr.72
Bl. VN5, Sc A Et 3Ap 14
Sector 3, O.P.72
Cod postal 032469
Bucaresti
Romania

ISBN 978 973 8477 68 1

Read a review of an earlier work by Adina Enachescu

Ban'ya Natsuishi: Earth Pilgrimage

The latest collection by Ban'ya Natsuishi to come my way is EARTH PILGRIMAGE.

The text is in Japanese, English (translations by the author and Jim Kacian) and Italian (translations by Luca Toma). There is a preface by Julius Franzot and a postcript by Giorgio Gazzolo, both in Italian but without an English translation.

My favourites from the collection are:

Scattered here and there
on the ground of an island
the elements for life

On the pitch-black
horizon
the shark's bride

Searching for
the 13th floor
New York evening

Black thrushes in a squabble—
this wall lasting
two thousand years

A church on the rooftop
the memory of blood
not yet restored

BAN'YA NATSUISHI: EARTH PILGRIMAGE / PELEGRINAGGIO TERRESTRE
Albalibri Editore
Via Sesto S. Giovanni 31,
20126 Milano
Italy

ISBN 88 89618 52 3
ISBN 978 88 89618 52 3
€10
visit the website of Albalibri

Read reviews of other collections by Ban'ya Natsuishi

ABC Wednesday - D is for Ducks Crossing

The photograph is from August 1986 and was taken somewhere in Huntingdonshire. We were staying in our touring caravan in a field at a site known as a certificated location.

This poem was first published in the magazine Periaktos and included in my collection Stealing Kisses and the anthology Positively Poetry. Copies of both these last two publications are still available, direct from myself.

BY A SLEEPY ENGLISH VILLAGE

Beyond the wooded embankment home of Flopsy, Mopsey, Bobtail -
over which the diesels thunder
on their flight from King's Cross to Waverley,
the village lies hidden from view.

The green is split but each side cottage-lined -
a wood of shelter for snails
opposite bare grass and war-memorial
with Church Lane a "No Through Road".

Between the Post Office Stores, half of a house -
and the Elephant & Castle's bloated car-park
leading to beer-garden, swings, play-area,
stands the twice-a-week bus shelter.

The parish notice-board is discreet but manifests -
a note from the US Airforce concerning
a vital twenty-four hour NATO exercise
during which the commander will ensure

night-time flying is to be kept to a minimum -
On the approach lane to a nearby hamlet
a warning-sign establishes priority
- "Slow ! Ducks crossing !"

© GERALD ENGLAND, 1986.

Although not officially partaking in ABC Wednesday, my post today at Hyde DP is D for Daffodils.

Bill Griffiths and Lollipop

Bill Griffiths died in September 2007.

The obit in the Newcastle Journal describes him as a poet, Ango-Saxon [sic] scholar and champion of North-East dialects. Nicholas Johnson in the Independent has him down as an experimental poet fascinated by the dialect and history of north-east England. William Rowe in the Guardian describes him as a poet, scholar, translator, pamphleteer and publisher.

The Times Online goes further and tells us that he was not only a gifted poet, publisher and Anglo-Saxon scholar but also an accomplished book designer, small press publisher, biker, houseboat owner, pianist, archivist and social historian.

My own contacts with Bill came about initially through the Association of Little Presses. He was the editor of PALPI, a magazine that listed publications by members of ALP. We exchanged publications, and I reviewed some of his poetry and dialect pamphlets in New Hope International. I also recall meeting him at some of the Small Press Poetry Conventions that were held in the 80s and 90s.

In the late 90s there were problems with ALP and, as I recall, it drifted into oblivion rather than being officially wound-up. Whatever happened, what followed was the creation of the Lollipop: List of Little Press Publications, an internet listing opportunity open to little presses of the U.K., free of charge. It was inaugurated by Bill Griffiths, Bob Trubshaw, and Peter Finch, in March 2000.

Peter Manson has now re-launched Lollipop at http://llpp.ms11.net/ as a tribute to Bill, and will continue his work in support of small press publishing in the UK.

Bill's own website is still accessible. It contains a wealth of material, poetry, art, articles on dialect and social history. It is hoped that the majority of it will find a place somewhere before the plug is pulled on the site.

There is a great deal of information about Bill on Tom Raworth's memorial pages from where these pictures have been taken with permission.

There is also an excellent personal memoir and critique on David Caddy's Poetic Letters From England.

The photograph below is by John Seed and was taken in September 2004

a poem in the classroom

I've just received a copy of Literature 2nd edn: a resource book for teachers by Alan Duff and Alan Maley, published by Oxford University Press

It includes by poem To M.M.

The first time
we met as strangers.
We parted as friends.
The second time
we met as friends.
We parted as lovers.
The last time
we met as lovers.
We parted as friends.
We did not meet again.
We are now
not even friends.

below it is a similar-themed poem by Brian Patten.

Students are given a worksheet with a list of all the individual words from the poem and asked to make sentences using them. Then, in groups of four, they are to string the sentences together to create a new poem.

The book is aimed at teachers of language, particularly those of students for whom English is not their first language. It seems to be quite a fascinating book and if it encourages students to look at literature in fresh ways, that can only be worthwhile.

John Light

Picture courtesy of The Berwick Advertiser

Most of us in the small press world know John Light as the compiler of Light's List a long-standing guide to little magazines. The 22nd and latest edition is due shortly from Bluchrome Publishing.

His black and white illustrations have adorned the pages of many magazines, as have his poems and short stories, often in the sf genre.

His own imprint Photon Press has published various pamphlets, poetry anthologies, science fiction novels, genealogical works and childrens books.

His latest childrens book The Flower has just been published by Child's Play and John has been featured in his local paper, Berwick Today.

reflections

she does not reflect
upon the mirror but it
reflects her beauty

gerald england

The theme at One Deep Breath this week is reflections.

This poem was first published in Platform (Hampshire, not to be confused with the Yorkshire magazine of the same name) in 1972.

It is included in my collection Stealing Kisses.

This haiga was completed by Kuniharu Shimizu and published in 2000 on his digital haiga gallery see haiku here.

Other haiga he has composed using my haiku can be viewed here.

Arrival in Nottingahm

(1969)

ARRIVAL IN NOTTINGHAM

The train
trundles
over the Beeston Canal
with swans cruising up past barges parked townward
into that long
track-covered curve
of ground
Stops
in the Goods Yard North
for passengers
to take stock
of the view
of the castle
standing at
the other end
of the curve's radius,
impressive,
imposing
on its solid rock foundation
Shunts forward
into the Goods Yard West
Further aspects
of the castle
Lurches gradually
into the Goods Yard East
leaving the castle
behind an engine shed
Reaches
eventually
the station.

GERALD ENGLAND


(2007)

The photographs are courtesy of Gail's Man at Nottingham Daily Photo.

Although written in 1971 this poem wasn't published until 1991 when it appeared in the US magazine The Vincent Brothers' Review.

It was subsequently published in the anthologies THE POETS ENGLAND: NOTTINGHAMSHIRE (Brentham Press, 1993) and MARIGOLDS GROW WILD ON PLATFORMS (Cassel, 1996) and is included in my collection LIMBO TIME.

Amazing Amazon

I'm in shock.

I just discovered that Amazon are listing my book The Art of Haiku as available second-hand from dealers in the USA at price in excess of £80.

Who are these people?

I'm selling copies privately for £5.

I'm stilling getting orders from bookshops who are selling it at the retail price of £7.95

Want a bargain? Buy direct from me! See my current special offers.

Bolts of Silk

Juliet Wilson was just published my poem Why Did You Come? on her Bolts of Silk blog.

Written forty years ago, the poem was included in a now obscure pamphlet The Wine, The Women & The Song published in 1972 by Arthur Smith's Kenfig Press in South Wales.

I knew Arthur as a member of the British Amateur Press Association. He published a number of a different small magazines before concentrating on editing the well-loved short story magazine Cambrensis. He died in November 2006.

Another poem of mine on Bolts of Silk is Escape