A
newsletter form Chris Torrance
I would like to thank
everyone who was involved in the successful launch & performance of RORI : a
BOOK OF THE BOUNDARIES at Chapter Arts Theatre, Cardiff on 23 February
2011.
The launch was the
culmination of much work by many people, important seed money,& much goodwill &
encouragement, which enabled Chris Vine to produce both CD & booklet.
RORI : A BOOK OF THE
BOUNDARIES was written in parallel with the development of POETHEAT, now
HEATPOETS, without my realising there was going to be a combination of the two
somewhere along an enablement, & somehting I hope to follow up in a furhter
exploation of poetry and performance.
I would like to mention
another successful launch, that of the fine first anthology of haiku to be
published in Wales, ANOTHER COUNTRY (Gomer Press 2011). The restaurant at the
Dylan Thomas centre on 18 February must have contained well over 100 people,
which is a really good crowd for a poetry event.
Some years ago written
in whitewash on the concrete wall of an underpass near Briton Ferry I saw the
words AGREAT REVIVAL IS COMING TO WALES. Could it be a lyric revival
that being referred to ? Is this little bit of rant at least applicable in a
period of recession? The last real surge of toots activity in creative writing
occurred during th alte 70s & inot the 80s - the Thatcher years. As official
funding dries up will writers and poets free themselves of the prescriptive
thinking & once again find alternative ways of keeping up their practice
Chris Torrance April
2011
New CD/Book - Rori, a Book of the Boundaries by Heat Poets Chris Torrance and Chris Vine
When I began
writing poetry back in the 60s, I had no idea I would end up collaborating
in the sort of work presented here.
An early, crucial discovery for me was that poetry at
a public event becomes performance, involving the body as instrument of
the poem. By the mid 70s, now
in Wales, I was drawn into Barry Edgar Picher's band DRAGONS BLOOD.
In response to the greater volume demanded, I had recourse to Allen
Ginsberg's long prophetic chanting line as a model. When, after a
few years, the band broke up, I assumed that was the end of my association
with poetry & music. In the mid
80's however, I met musician/composer Chris Vine, & soon we were working
on the title poem of our CD FRINITE, mightily influenced by Anne
Waldman's poem PRESSURE. The
new CD & booklet contains a compressed version of my book RORI: A BOOK OF
THE BOUNDARIES. The theme is one of those giants of the landscape
who figure in myth & legend. The giant is a wise fool who at first
succeeds. The he is tempted. He falls, is pronounced dead ; he
dreams in the tomb; then - perhaps like Osiris - he resurrects.
Chris Torrance |
 |
The Rori book/CD, a limited edition which contains
previously unpublished
material by Chris Torrance, is obtainable for £12 - contact cv@chris-vine.com
Some critical judgements of Chris Torrance's work:
“Written episodically over the past 35 years, Chris
Torrance's exploration of myth and landscape in prose and
verse is a buried treasure. The Magic Door is the overall
title of an ongoing long sequence in prose and verse
by Chris Torrance, a Scottish born, London-reared,
resident of Wales, and is a work very much in the
tradition of Ezra Pound, David Jones, Charles Olson, and
the Beats.
This is one of those very interesting works that have been
quite systematically written out of the official view
of contemporary British poetry. If Torrance was American,
he would be a cult figure. But he's British and
almost totally neglected". Billy Mills, The Guardian
2008
“His influence has been enormous on "unconventional" poets
in South Wales, especially while he was running
his "Adventures in Creative Writing" class at Cardiff
University. Poetry is a pulsing, vibrant thing to Chris
Torrance – he walks the walk - and moves in multiple
contexts: the beats yes, open field, but also the
tradition of radical sublime from the bards through Blake
to urban deejay vigour." Graham Hartill
“Working together since 1985, Torrance and Vine have
developed a startlingly contemporary form of poetrywith-
music. No broody basses or folky acoustics here; these are
versatile, muscular and lyrical soundscapes
which, while sidestepping obvious definitions, are
influenced by rock, rap, free improvisation and European
art music". Planet: The Welsh Internationalist
