PATH
I'm pleased to confirm that HEAVENTREE PRESS are to publish my new collection, PATH, in 2008. The book covers 25 years of writing, & will be the biggest volume yet in THE MAGIC DOOR series.
It has been some years since the last book of THE MAGIC DOOR appeared, although a small sampler WOBBLY CHAIR was published by Canna Press in 2003. During this time, several lines of development occurred. The PATH section in particular makes reference yet again to the Egyptian pantheon, & becomes a lyrical investigation of number. THE GARDEN BOOK takes us through a typical year in the locality of the poet's home, in the form of letter poems to fellow poet Ric Hool. THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE WRITING TUTOR treats as subject matter my 25 years tutoring ADVENTURES IN CREATIVE WRITING at Cardiff.
FRINITE began as a short sharp shock poem to build into the repertoire of the poetry & music band HEATPOETS. Barry MacSweeney heard me do it at a reading & urged me to work it inTO a much longer poem, which I did. The poem's basic rhythm was suggested by hearing US poet Anne Waldman reading her work, & takes its propulsive beat from her poem PRESSURE, itself allegedly borrowing from the chants of shaman Maria Sabina. My poem arrived in its present form via many workshops with musician/ composer Chris Vine and acoustic guitarist Bob Middleton, & later guitarist Ric Hool. I did the poem in tandem with poet Loyd Robson on a couple of occasions. Old school rap & jazz influence the delivery in performance. This is FRINITE'S first appearance in a collection.
RORI : A BOOK OF THE BOUNDARIES is the most extraordinary book yet in the MAGIC DOOR series. It is the cumulation of the drive into dream utilised in the earlists books in an attempt to bring the dreaming faculty& the process of creation closer together. This goes hand in hand with an intimate exploration of a curious church in a remote valley, & some of the stories associated with it.
Some specimen material from PATH will shortly appear on this site. It is hoped that the book ma be launched at the Hen and Chicks pub (upstairs room), Abergavenny, but details have yet to be confirmed. Here is an excerpt from PATH ...
OFF THE WALL
intelligence
is
one mutation
beyond
inscrutability
Ezra
Pound is
a corn circle
the
price of
freedom
is
eternal paranoia
walking though walls
wasn't built in a day- - -
the BEATS their DEMONS their OTHERS
Ginsberg confronted his
by calling upon &
using psychic energy
& natural compassion
in his own way a
warrior as much
as a peacenik or a libertarian
Burroughs learnt to live with his
Grey Man, the Man Within, the
Ugly Spirit " Why I always knew
that gun fired to the left
& I adjusted"
Jack
adjusted to his demons, but not
without a heroic & doomed struggle
his mother/glue plus mystic holy/
alcohol imbablance
cosmic axle grinding
misty dust
shore hot forest
above the cunimbs
rapid field ignition
post jismic
film fragments
paper
a closed down room
memory
is
thenet of knowledge woven by
light years of spiders OK?
another black biro
sickens and dies
its harder to get
good black biros
than it is to
score dope or bullets
easy to
start
a poem
less easy
to
finish one
knowledge on thing
wisdom another
quiet as autumnI am leaves & wind
also
bonewrack
clanking for woodbone
drybone, drybone
- - -
To read a blog by Billy Mills on Chris and his new Book on the Guardian Books page go to http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/02/the_hidden_beauty_of_the_magic.html
Biography and mission statement. Publications - a list of CDs and books and link to order form Back to strange- attractor homepage
