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description= 10 posts published by tearsinthefence during July 2022;
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this, by, share, like, press, the, books, with, tears, in, fence, archives, no, broken, sleep, collected, poems, 1997, follow, us, on, monthly, july, 2022, trumpets, stuffed, cloth, ralph, hawkins, crater, covodes, 19, an, interview, robert, hampson, belinda, giannessi, that, which, touch, has, name, jennifer, dick, black, spring, group, there, are, angels, walking, fields, marlon, hacla, translated, kristine, ong, muslim, emptying, houses, gerald, killingworth, dempsey, windle, at, raucous, purposeful, prynne, conversations, diana, di, prima, ed, david, stephen, calonne, university, of, mississippi, late, summer, ode, olena, kalytiak, davis, copper, canyon, anxious, corporals, alan, morrison, smokestack, one, 1968, two, 2021, peter, finch, seren, latest, issue, 84, help, survive, blog, find, facebook, twitter,
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the (430), and (301), that (83), this (80), with (63), new (51), for (47), which (42), are (42), like (41), there (40), poetry (39), 2022 (36), but (36), july (35), window (32), she (32), share (31), opens (31), more (31), was (30), her (26), poem (25), email (24), from (24), poems (24), about (24), have (23), into (23), book (22), books (21), you (21), out (21), also (21), one (21), his (21), not (21), posted (20), reddit (20), print (20), were (20), all (18), what (18), they (18), find (16), work (16), when (16), january (15), march (15), may (15), june (15), august (15), september (15), even (15), first (15), would (15), their (15), can (15), december (14), april (14), october (14), other (14), friend (14), because (14), reading (14), him (14), november (13), february (13), 2016 (13), 2020 (13), 2021 (13), small (13), press (13), 2012 (12), 2013 (12), 2014 (12), 2015 (12), 2017 (12), 2018 (12), 2023 (12), 2024 (12), finch (12), them (12), time (12), its (12), way (12), self (12), loading (11), tearsinthefence (11), english (11), link (11), often (11), than (11), different (11), then (11), how (11), very (11), 2025 (10), tagged (10), bookmark (10), permalink (10), tumblr (10), tweet (10), over (10), poet (10), much (10), some (10), has (10), line (10), just (10), 2019 (9), 2026 (9), could (9), who (9), make (9), read (9), collection (9), poetic (9), language (9), been (9), any (9), form (9), here (9), words (9), prima (9), long (9), references (9), john (8), something (8), hand (8), own (8), things (8), people (8), these (8), always (8), only (8), back (8), davis (8), rather (8), prynne (8), covodes (8), comments (7), follow (7), course (7), did (7), get (7), our (7), had (7), wanted (7), where (7), space (7), working (7), such (7), through (7), seems (7), say (7), don (7), whole (7), will (7), reader (7), comment (6), little (6), think (6), since (6), see (6), great (6), everything (6), used (6), might (6), american (6), doesn (6), title (6), being (6), late 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avoid, conventional, techniques, figurations, meanings, confront, slabs, sheer, verbiage, bands, composers, brought, albums, pure, dissonance, noise, challenge, complacent, assumptions, constitutes, clean, banality, clogged, ears, racket, listen, attentively, birds, garden, surround, engrained, habit, queen, receiving, gold, medal, enduring, linked, continuing, prolificity, face, dwindling, powers, thinks, tight, leash, retirement, putney, churning, hollowly, sonorous, lyrics, referential, formulaic, wrote, release, requires, reason, genius, melopeia, rate, runs, outrun, coddle, sedate, dotage, augustus, carmichael, sent, doze, notebook, lawn, scattershot, confounder, guns, cryptic, formed, bedrock, facile, conveniences, airing, waiting, update, seminal, unwieldy, bloodaxe, para, taxis, called, established, ago, spite, manifold, formal, permutations, developed, reinvented, ever, eventually, forced, parodic, loop, consuming, hyper, tail, choking, détournement, eighties, enjoying, 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Text of the page (random words):
uña s calligraphic and hand drawn introduction is physically unreadable here despite looking wonderful it s a shame because broken sleep books have got better and better designed since the press started because i m sure she had something useful to say and because this is a marvellous book kristine ong muslim s useful translator s note explains that this collection was originally published in the philippines in 2010 and frames the book as a gathering of ekphrastic poems which manifest real or imagined artworks through various poetic devices it s not the kind of ekphrasis that the reader or english readers will recognise as few sources or artists are mentioned instead we get intense and often disturbing snapshots along with captured moments most often set in stark desolate or abandoned settings and populated by nameless characters and personified objects the language is often voluptuous the images engrossing even when describing violence diorama 26 tells us the fingers were like dragonflies as they strangled her whilst serial killer enters the mind of the subject now about that man on the first page of the newspaper this morning the one whose mouth has been slashed don t worry i let him scream just a little always knives are reasonable priced in the public market the titular angels appear in the final line of diorama 54 they are the memories or ghosts of those already dead at the scene the poem is about a grenade which was useless at this point because there was no one else left to kill hacla s landscapes are often populated by the unexpected cicadas which sound as if they are trying to tell him something the trysting place a child s invisible friend the playground or a being that was not yet an infant some forsaken things time and action are frozen here where everything begins with a long wait behind the window 5 26 p m a long wait that is shared by many others behind their own windows all aware that everything ends with a long wait behind the window even the white stones have been crushed into teardrop shaped pieces still life moments after the blast and suppressed moans can still be heard next door the starry night vincent van gogh only by remembering can the world be understood and there be the possibility to forget caught in this contradictory tension the poet and reader are like the characters in the brief poem the room reproduced here in its entirety he led me inside the room where she kept his past each day is like a corpse like sapphires devoid of luster their open eyes all night we stroked and closed every eyelid by recognising and confronting the war torn abusive and violent world hacla animates and subverts the darkness offering us an awkward exit point in the exchange the final poem here tell me everything you want to say before the light silences us this is powerful moving and lyrical poetry and i hope to be able to read more of marlon hacla s astonishing writing in due course rupert loydell 23 rd july 2022 share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet more print opens in new window print share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like this like loading 1 comment posted in american poetry books and tagged broken sleep books kristine ong muslim marlon hacla tilde acuña vincent van gogh bookmark the permalink emptying houses by gerald killingworth dempsey windle posted on july 20 2022 by tearsinthefence if you relish words their sounds and subtleties of meaning then this is the book for you i say relish deliberately because gerald killingworth s masterly skill turns words into something one can almost taste and savour for a long time afterwards water words illustrates this perfectly syllables become fragments of ocean and their length corresponds to the different sounds and sizes of liquid the monosyllables drip and splash represent the moment of the ocean s birth but soon both syllables and water grow into puddle and rivulet then into cataracts and finally with a thrashing surge into the magnificent four syllabled inundations tongues is another example of the pleasure that words bring the joy to be found in the arcane quaintness of ariff crizzle fizgigging slaughter and budge but this poem is about more than the fun of playing with parts of speech it s about erosion loss and the incomprehension that occurs when history shifts its axis and once rich languages are fractured becoming irrelevant a footnote at best concern with this erosion of language is an important motif in emptying houses and one that particularly appeals to me but the main feature of this collection the quality that makes this book so extraordinary and unique is the way gerald killingworth handles humour very very dark humour anyone who has heard him read a tale of a turd will know instantly what i mean no details of the dead viking s excrement are spared rather they are elaborated on the owner of the turd now a famous exhibit in york s museum is given the name snorri his eating habits are analysed by scientists who sniff this marvel weigh it and pick it apart concluding that snorri lived on meat a human touch is added as the reader imagines this character vowing to eat more greens with his bacon so there is a lot of humour laugh out loud humour in the first part at least of this poem but then we have the extra brilliant touch that gerald killingworth brings to all his poems the poignancy that overrides despair the sadness and regret that is always just below the surface snorri s turd is what remains of him the one thing he is remembered for that is his reputation though hardly a blueprint for the whole man another poem that illustrates this blend of horror and pathos is rigid with indignation where the skull of asra a former temple dancer is being analysed the poet wonders if the process might reveal her thoughts and unconfessed ambition but any splendours sadly do not show up in this vacuity which is dull as an empty ice cream scoop there are also vacant spaces in the title poem emptying houses which is about the sadness of clearing a house after the death of the occupant whose history is over even more poignant and tender is j i working through the house we found roll upon roll of it christmas wrapping paper as if present giving were assured for decades to come impossible to read these lines and not share the grief at the waste and finality of it all emptying houses is a unique poetry collection and gerald killingworth is an original and special writer i appreciate all the poems but would find it hard to choose just one as my favourite maybe it would be pebbles where the stones make a plea for wetness to be on a tide line not inland and faded dusty dim or there is the beautiful in praise of chlorophyll where everything on the earth has been destroyed except for the soft green throw of grass but if i could only choose one piece i think it would be habits which seems to echo the mood of the john clare epigraph at the beginning of the book it s short and simple and perfect take the long way round sometimes b doesn t always have to follow a scuff leaves kick stones drift jump into puddles more remember they hold the sky peep around corners gaze unfocused dream mandy pannett 20 th july 2022 share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet more print opens in new window print share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like this like loading 1 comment posted in books english poetry and tagged crizzle emptying houses gerald killingworth john clare snorri bookmark the permalink at raucous purposeful by j h prynne broken sleep books posted on july 19 2022 by tearsinthefence well into his eighties now jh prynne is enjoying the most prolific period of his career and indeed one that exceeds the output of every other poet i can think of since 2020 he has published some 25 new works mostly chapbooks with small independent publishers this puts into shade other notable late flowerings like those of geoffrey hill jorie graham and john ashbery although presumably it could be argued that because prynne s publications are all short form sequences at raucous purposeful for example amounts to only 15 pages of text in terms of actual word count they might tally with the prolix ruminations of say the daybooks and the book of baruch by the gnostic justin i ve always thought that late prynne and late hill have a good deal in common sharing the hermetic fulminating tone of a slightly unhinged don over erudite and over immersed in the historical etymologies of their beloved oed bent on an increasingly private vision that seems to distantly footnote their earlier momentous breakthroughs who on earth could keep up with prynne at this rate of production perhaps that s the point as time runs out is he trying to outrun any attempt to coddle him into sedate poetic dotage like an augustus carmichael sent to doze over his notebook on the lawn on the one hand this scattershot approach feels like the great confounder sticking to his guns keeping faith with the small presses and sequences of cryptic linguistic détournement which have formed the bedrock of his practice since the 1960s not for him the facile conveniences of airing new work on the internet or quietly waiting to update his seminal and increasingly unwieldy bloodaxe poems every few years the big yellow para taxis as a friend once called it on the other hand with a style as distinctive as prynne s a poetic approach established over 50 years ago which in spite of manifold formal permutations has not really developed or reinvented itself ever since eventually we are forced to read the work as self parodic caught in a loop of its own making consuming its own hyper extensive tail or choking on it if poetry can become an engrained habit as john heath stubbs said to the queen on receiving her gold medal for poetry there is a sense in which enduring poetic identity might be linked with continuing prolificity in the face of dwindling powers one thinks of swinburne kept on a tight leash in early retirement in putney churning out volume after volume of hollowly sonorous lyrics which are almost non referential in their formulaic melopeia as ts eliot wrote of one swinburne poem that so little material could release such an amazing number of words requires what there is no reason to call anything but genius turning to the ten poem sequence at raucous purposeful i was caught between open mindedly approaching it as robert potts advises like a painting or a piece of music teasing out connections and possible chains of association potts again sonically prosodically thematically and metonymically and at other moments wondering if these were just random word lists generated by a computer an algorithm whose parameters are set to explicitly avoid any conventional poetic techniques figurations or meanings to confront the reader with slabs of sheer aleatory verbiage in the same way that many bands musicians and composers have brought out albums of pure dissonance and noise why to challenge our complacent assumptions about what constitutes music to clean out our banality clogged ears or even to make us want to turn the racket off and listen more attentively to the birds in the garden or the human voices that surround us no doubt it would be unreasonable or irrelevant to expect an 86 year old poet to change course or develop his practice at this late stage but reading at raucous purposeful i also thought of prynne s own words about a poetry reading he d just been to from the fascinating paris review interview he did in 2016 i want a poet to break out of his or her poetic identity to establish a whole new set of possibilities for the reader and for him or herself to hear poems that must have been written by a poet is to find them trapped in the poetic habits from which they originate there wasn t a poem anywhere in that sequence that i heard that i would have been glad to read for a second time i can t imagine why he did them what was the motive what was the serious development of his practice that poems like that would help him to find his way to oliver dixon 19 th july 2022 share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email tweet more print opens in new window print share on tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit like this like loading 2 comments posted in english poetry pamphlet and tagged algernon swinburne geoffrey hill j h prynne john ashbery john heath stubbs jorie graham bookmark the permalink conversations with diana di prima ed david stephen calonne university of mississippi press posted on july 16 2022 by tearsinthefence although recognised and remembered as a radical political and feminist poet diane di prima 1934 2020 always questioned what was happening and chose what to engage with having read and reviewed a recent complete edition of her revolutionary letters i wanted to find out more about the author and this new book offered just the opportunity on the very first page of this book in an interview from grape published by the vancouver community press we get this grape you mentioned earlier that you ve stopped reading underground papers why is that diane because i find that level of information just isn t giving me anything i can work with at this point it s not interesting to me all that s happening on that level is a kind of sick history repeats itself piece of nonsense as far as i can see which seems in part anyway a rational response to the popular and fashionable revolutionary discourse of the time but is somewhat undermined by the writer s statement later on that she goes for information to things like astrology things like whatever like the i ching the first of which gives her concepts of form a feel of energy nodes of vortexes and how they might interact she talks of stepping back and giving herself time to find out about more of the things that were going down what was going down according to di prima is the fact that she thought there was a lot more black magic involved in the manipulation of the planet that s been going on she chose different areas to investigate including those mentioned above as well as homeopathy and self awareness rather than science desiring intuitional leaps rather than slow understanding this of course is as much of its time as what di prima was questioning she doesn t have any answers that will mend society or heal the planet but she states that what she is basically saying is that we were all taken in by a bunch of bullshit this includes the counterculture options of back to the land farmers reclaim the wilderness games commune dwellers the acid tests the diggers and much else which along with schooling food television fluorescent lights and the whole trip is resulting in a pathy and cynicism people who don t believe anything it s scary depressing reading both diagnosis and di prima s answers and that s only the first piece she declares that people must be strong physically and mentally an...
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