Two new books by Robert Sheppard

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Two new books by Robert Sheppard from Shearsman

BERLIN BURSTS (poems)

These new poems feature territories as dispersed as Sheppard’s local Capital of Culture and the global city of division and political murder of the title poem. Yet a series of metapoems brings agency and wonder to the idea of the poem, always seeing the world as well as itself, in perceptual double-takes that tease away at the meaning of the poetic act
At the centre of the collection is ‘Six Poems Against Death’ whose lyric imperative hovers before the portals of the unknown to embrace human unfinish as the condition of our survival.

Ian Davidson in Poetry Wales called Sheppard’s Complete Twentieth Century Blues ‘a major poem of serious intent’; Alan Baker in Litter called Warrant Error ‘political poetry of the first order’, and John Muckle wrote of ‘this brilliant, disquieting book.’

“Robert Sheppard . . . composed a few words around Liverpool’s status as City of Culture. ‘Their shit’s verdure but that’s OK/ This isn’t a nature poem.’ Sheppard’s near twenty-year epic, Complete Twentieth Century Blues, outweighed the Ringo returns, the showbiz art: he cooked slow and long, with tangy sauces and bits that break the teeth. The city
averted its eyes . . . As if it were the poet’s fault that we want our meat pre-chewed.” -Iain Sinclair

Order from the Shearsman online store and read more at:
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2011/sheppardBB.html

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WHEN BAD TIMES MADE FOR GOOD POETRY (criticism)

This study presents an episodic history of an epic period in British poetry, when bad times forced political subversion and textual impaction upon its central figures and provisional institutions. Episodes cover the Poetry Wars of the 1970s; the centrality of Bob Cobbing as poetry activist and the SubVoicive poetry scene in 1980s London; he also writes individual chapters on the poetry and poetics of Allen Fisher, Tom Raworth, Iain Sinclair, John Hall, Ken Edwards, and Maggie O’Sullivan.

“A landmark study.” -Benjamin Keatinge reviewing The Poetry of Saying in The European English Messenger

Order from the Shearsman online store and read more at:
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2011/sheppardWBT.html
Order from amazon.co.uk
Order from The Book Depository

( the sixteenth letter )

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“is a monthly serialized, interweb archive of creative, heterodox texts & provocative, culturally relevant critiques, commentaries, interviews & podcasts on 21st century motifs, figures, films, literature, images & music — aimed to oppose, resist & upend any & every traditionally neutered, perpetually homogenized, mainstream objective”

More here.

Maintenant #47: Anatol Knotek

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Following in the footsteps of some of Europe’s greatest poetic innovators in the 20th century, the work of Anatol Knotek is the latest chapter in the visual / concrete / conceptual poetry legacy that has emerged from Austria, and most specifically, the city of Vienna. It is often suggested that concrete and visual poetry reached it’s apex in the 1950’s to 1970’s and since then has declined somehow. It is probably true that the vitality and power of the original movement, (led, outside of Austria, by the likes of Bob Cobbing, the de Campos brothers, Henri Chopin, Edwin Morgan, Andras Petocz, Shimpei Kusano…) could not be sustained and attention from a wider readership waned. However, it is clear when poets as young as Knotek produce work of this superlative quality the medium is not lacking, it is in resurgence and rather some of the very best poetry in Europe is part of this tradition. At it’s forefront sits Knotek and we are pleased to present a poetic artist whose work will no doubt become a focal part of the European poetic landscape for years to come.

Accompanying the interview are eight of Anatol’s poems

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/eight-poems-anatol-knotek/

Allen Ginsberg and the story of Howl

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Special Edition is pleased to present an evening exploring the groundbreaking poem by the luminary of the Beat generation. This event, celebrating the release of the film Howl later in the month, includes a reading of the poem and a talk on Ginsberg and the Beats.

Admission free but space is limited, so arrive early to avoid disappointment. To guarantee a place email specialedition@poetrylibrary.org.uk

More here. Via Steven Fowler.

Wave us Goodbye: today in Manchester at Screen at the Triangle

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Poetry films on the BBC Big Screen in Manchester will commemorate the Holocaust, bringing together the memories of older Jewish people. 

The project, titled BRING LIGHT TOWARDS YOU, is one of many arts projects run by the arthur+martha arts organisation. In the build-up to Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January, poetic texts created by the older people, most of whom are Holocaust survivors, will be displayed ‘in lights’ on the Screen at The Triangle in the city centre. These films will screen in ‘sets’ roughly every half an hour between other shows and run for a week.

The Holocaust has often been linked to trains: millions of people, particularly Jews, were taken to concentration camps by train before being killed in the notorious Nazi ‘Final Solution’ during the Second World War. These 30-second films give fragments from accounts of their journeys: to destruction and journeys of escape.  

Artist Lois Blackburn and poet Philip Davenport worked with older Jewish people living at The Morris Feinmann Home, Manchester, exploring issues related to the Holocaust. “To hear these stories has been a powerful, haunting experience,” said Davenport. “The poems are little pockets of emotion that bring alive one of the most notorious events in  recent history. It’s hard to imagine the reality of the Holocaust because it was so huge, so brutal. What these tiny moments of remembering do is connect to ordinary people’s experience.” 

Lois Blackburn added: “As in all our projects, we talked to people about the small details of their experience, because it is people’s everyday lives that collectively make history. It’s the sandwiches your mum made, or the look on your sister’s face as you said goodbye. The fact that we’ve been able to help people transform these memories into messages that will be seen my thousands is an extraordinary privilege.”

Maria Turner, Activities Co-ordinator at the Morris Feinmann Home, described arthur+martha’s work as: “Sensitive and caring.” 

Some of the pieces were shown on the electronic billboard in Piccadilly Railway Station on Holocaust Memorial Day 2009, but this is the first time that the whole sequence has been seen. arthur+martha have continued to develop the project in partnership with Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, working with young people with special needs, Roma children and many others.

THE FULL SEQUENCE OF TEXT ANIMATIONS CAN BE VIEWED AT

http://www.arthur-and-martha.co.uk/pages/kindness%20samples.htm

 

 

 

Maintenant #46 – Holly Pester

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Perhaps other than the rarefied skill of performance, originality might be the hardest attribute to find in contemporary poetry. The ability to engender an audience to one’s work without appearing reluctant or melodramatic or trite is a trait often located in the poet’s personal dedication and consideration. Originality is perhaps harder to explicate, given the nature of its newness. These characteristics are what define the work of Holly Pester, and the experience of seeing or hearing her perform leaves an indelible impression on the viewer that they are witnessing a deeply gifted poet, one who it would seem will lead the way in the UK in the near future and beyond. Her work is incisive and wise, unpretentious yet sophisticated. She is without posture or affectation and still her urbane performances entrap and captivate audiences, their exploration of tonality, voice, volume and sound forcing a profound concentration on the potentialities of everyday language, whether that is a potential for oppression or amusement. Truly representative of what we hope to advocate in the Maintenant series, the 46th edition of the series – Holly Pester.

Accompanying the interview are soundfiles of two of her poems and Holly’s reading for Maintenant at the Icelandic embassy.

Alex Davies – How Vivid the Claret

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Other Room founding member Alex Davies has a pamphlet out with Arthur Shilling press. Check it out:

£1.80 (UK & EU only), Arthur Shilling Press, 2011 (24 pages, A6, first 20 copies have unique cover images taken from “Stories for Boys”, the remaining 10 copies are reproduced prints)

To purchase from outside the UK/EU, please contact the editor Harry Godwin

LINK

Tim Atkins Honda Odes and Philip Terry Dante’s Inferno

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Tim Atkins – Honda Ode

A5 12pp. ISBN: 978-1-905885-41-1

Although largely indescribable, this pamphlet reverses fast
fusing text & photographic imagery in ways which accurately
escape the sensations of making a fireblade or traversing
expensive adverts on a mule & then a tandem.

her pencil sized
cock made me drop
the tea cup

Philip Terry – Dante’s Inferno
A5 32pp. ISBN: 978-1-905885-43-5

Everyone’s favourite Gothic nursery rhyme moves to Essex,
where Ted Berrigan takes over as guide.

I cried out

“Take pity,

Whatever you are, man or ghost!”

“Not man, though formerly a man,”

he says, “I hale from Providence,

Rhode Island, a Korean vet.

Once I was a poet, I wrote

of bean spasms,

was anthologised in Fuck You.”

£4 each (inc UK p&p). Cheques payable to P.Hughes at
4 Coastguard Cottages, Old Hunstanton, Norfolk PE36 6EL
or Paypal via Oystercatcher website