Inspired by Sacred Trespasses post ‘Reading Plan(s) for the New Year’, I thought I’d share the tip of the iceberg… My reading plan: get through the leftovers from last year!
Not to mention, last year’s unacknowledged, but gratefully and delightedly received chapbooks and small press publications.
From antiquarian bookseller Nicholas Pounder‘s private Polar Bear Press, the superb The Handwriting of Marianne Moore by Peter Minter (2016); in imitation of a record single, West End Blues (for Carl) by Pam Brown (2014); and a broadsheet foldout for A Picture by Ken Bolton (2009).
From Pete Spence‘s New York sojourn, a Red Duck (Accent Editions, 2016), an Elephant (November 2016), an albatross or two, a stray feather, and a ‘Breeze’… or a ‘Mexican Wave!’ as the case may be.
AND
Last but not least, the formidable Oz Burp 3 from Donnithorne Street Press, with 3 poems by yours truly, 1 of which I actually quite like: ‘Nine Variations on the Book of Changes’…
着手 Start / embark
overhead
predestined breath divides
allow once, never twice
below
pitch black
wave shallow hand
空間 The void / space
dense clouds overhead
provide cover
deny regret
below forgive
years since
leap into unknown
時間 Time / repetition
over and above (beyond the pale)
dislocated rumble
resist temptation to explode
hollow cut underground
ringed in metaphor
like trees
間 Between / time and space
above ground
rebuild walls
relinquish claim, hide
between, legless and armless
instant dread
hit water
門 The gate / opening
advance ahead
the ideal script
wrong fit
circle behind
cut through limestone
gate opens
余白 Margin / blank space
family framed in the margins
fill the eye
film and see
revenge below
珍糞漢糞珍糞漢糞珍糞漢糞珍糞漢糞
珍糞漢 (type-writer error:
gobbledygook, babble, gibberish)
白 White / the void
arrive
the container fills
and empties
depart
the gate closes
survival depends
末 End / close
ghosts above
demand tribute
emphatically metaphoric
ghosts below
pay tribute
conclude emphatically