You Must Write As If Your Life Depended On It

I have returned the poems of mine previously on the site, with improved coding where necessary. I have also added a page explaining and linking to the complete set of texts that compose "In the Dirt of the Post-Lyric: A Collaborative Cycle by Robert Blake, Connie Beauchamp, Gerri Dixon, Simon Gregory, Mark Hall, Erwin Hass, Tina Hyett, Emma Liukunas, Mikaela Moriarty, Peter Philpott, Bradley Tabor & Spencer Termott", a curious piece of work I think you may find.

Labels: Great Works, In the Dirt, Peter Philpott, update

1. The Meeting

For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
'Tell them I came, and no one answer'd,
'That I kept my word,' he said.
I suspected it might come to that: leaving me curiously light-hearted, after a quiet and nostalgic afternoon in Cafe Oto. I can do as I wish as it were. So, when not looking after Ianthe, recovering from looking after Ianthe, assisting in looking after Ianthe, and other things on occasion too, a small step into the 21st Century (not the Century of the Internet, but more likely of the Mobile or the Handheld Device (sounds like a dildo, but there we are, that's progress for you), plus some further plans

2. Poetry Readings in London Now Mobile

I've just created a mobile-friendly version of the Readings in London webpage, with the next month's readings, with details stripped down, but all links and crucial stuff like time, place, cost, names still there. It should be readable on any phone able to access the internet. Try it at www.modernpoetry.org.uk/mobilepoetry.html. I've altered the title of the page to Poetry Readings in London: nothing else entitled that, so we'll claim it.

I would really like as much feedback as possible from anyone who uses the page on a mobile or PDA. I'd also be interested in anyone accessing the more web-oriented Poetry Readings in London webpage, which I think ought to be quite usable on many tablet devices, maybe larger PDAs. Both versions have a link for phone numbers, tho' obviously that ain't going to work on anything without a SIM.

I've thought of trying to turn the page into a self-contained App - that seems beyond me at present I'm afraid, and might well need more complicated updating than the present webpages. We'll see. I need to buy the Golden Wonder Book of Easy Web Applications and carefully read it.

But please do respond if you use the pages on anything smaller than a laptop, especially a phone. I fantasise it could even be useful to check locations etc, and to have access to What's On whenever & wherever.

3. And Beyond?

After I've replaced my  work on Great Works, with a complete text of In the Dirt, using a different host for the pages than previous - get some lists. I'll ask, initially those who have expressed interest in the MPorgUKCollective , to send in a list of bestest books etc in last so many years, and publish 'em.  Await news!

Then, late summer redo & update links. I shall request suggestions & corrections.

Labels: Cafe Oto, contemporary British poetry, Great Works, links, Modernpoetry.org.uk, Modernpoetry.org.uk Collective, Peter Philpott, plans, update

This remarkable and highly enjoyable epistolary sequence between Peter Hughes (mainly from Norfolk) and Simon Marsh (mainly from Italy) has now reached its end point, number 106, with an exchange of monostichs. Pick up the new poems here, or start at the beginning there.

Labels: Peter Hughes, Pistol Tree Poems, Simon Marsh, update

The Links page on Great Works, and also the Quick Links index page, and the equivalent Links to British Avant-Garde Poetry Sites and Quick Links pages on www.modernpoetry.org.uk have been newly revised and updated.

On the Links page: approx 189 online magazines and e-publishers, 202 writers' homepages and blogs, 36 audio and video sites, 75 print publishers and magazines, 28 readings &c, 71 resources: foci of information, 8 bookshops and booksellers, 27 personal sites.

From 3:AM Magazine to zimZalla, via foffoffof: Asemic Writings Letters and Marks and your gaze does not meet my gaze, all is here!

(And there's been a recent Pistol Tree Poems addition too.)

Labels: contemporary British poetry, Great Works, links, Modernpoetry.org.uk, Pistol Tree Poems, poetry blogs, poetry websites, update

For Great Works - I am doing a lot of refitting and updating at a technical level. The vessel is in dry dock, as it were. Having installed a search ability, I realise that some of the pages are unreadable by the search engine, as I put in when I first started no-robots statements, for no really good reason I can think of now. These early pages that still remain are also in a rather bad HTML that doesn't always display as I thought it would. So I'm redoing all of these in good XHTML, with consistent use of CSS and full accessibility (as much as the demands of matching poets' layouts allows this!). There is also a major blunder I made on the bulk of my existing XHTML pages that needs urgent correction, out of embarrassment rather than necessity I think, but it could impair access. For all this I am planning to use Dreamweaver, which I need therefore to get to grips with. This should basically partially industrialise actually making some of these corrections, but will require care also as it can give rise to pretty crap code too. So this will all take a while ...

Then to redo The Links (which should be a simpler, more batch process though via Dreamweaver). Modernpoetry.org.uk can at this point be restructured and redesigned.

Finally, to work on the next issue. My anxiety over the "all-male" issue seems to have been unwarranted - not a problem. I'm not sure therefore about the mooted all-female issue I promised to make amends, if amends aren't necessary - but I would love more contributions from female poets.

Amos Weisz's writing will figure in the next issue in any case, and I am also drawing up a volume which Great Works will publish (yes, on paper, print-on-demand) of a selection of his poems and prose. His mother is negotiating publication of his translations, including his Celan translations (which have Celan's son's approval), through a New York small press recommended by Suhrkamp Verlag.

I was expressing interest in various collaborative projects at the end of last year - I think I will have very little time for quite a while on these. I also have increased family responsibilities, which will be ongoing.

I will though write something on my considered response to, yes, the academicisation of poetry and The Journal. Also on micro-publishing - ie stuff turned out in tragically small editions, a trend I also don't feel happy with.

Diverse Deeds will almost certainly rest, possibly permanently. The formula, of an welcoming and inclusive event, combining innovative poetry with a little innovative music to encourage a sense of performance, in a relaxing and flexible venue, trying to build up an audience of both those already plugged into the innovative poetry networks and as many as possible who just thought it looked interesting (and by golly it is!), is a good one, which will prove a sure fire winner at some time. Cafe Oto, having given me crap scheduling, is no longer interested. My doubts about restarting elsewhere relate to, firstly my own sense of relief at not carrying on (and regret too!), and secondly the feeling that it really needs some bunch of cool young dudes/dudettes to get it going, certainly not a redundant granddad from Bishops Stortford.

Labels: Amos Weisz, Cafe Oto, Diverse Deeds, Great Works, Modernpoetry.org.uk, Peter Philpott, plans, update

Pistol Tree Poems 78-81 by Peter Hughes and Simon Marsh are online today, celebrating the great jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's Eightieth Birthday with nos. 80 and 81.

Labels: Kenny Wheeler, Peter Hughes, Pistol Tree Poems, serials, Simon Marsh, update

Finally produced, after innumerable aeons seem to have passed, is the latest Great Works. The new material is from:

Niall Quinn     three texts
Mark Goodwin & Nikki Clayton     Of Died
Andrew Taylor     four poems
Daniel Andersson     two poems
Nick Wayte     two poems
Mark Cobley     seven poems
Simon Howard     two sequences
Aidan Semmens     three poems
Michael Egan     five poems
A A Walker     two Terminations
Richard Parker     QS
Antony John     three poems
Adam Fieled     from Apparition Poems
Mark Cunningham     five poems
James Mc Laughlin     seven poems
Ross Leese     two poems
Christopher Barnes     six poems
Les Wicks     five poems
Alex Houen     two poems
Nicolas Spicer     five poems
Graham Burchell     five poems
Chris Brownsword     two poems
Stuart Kenyon     Silent Return
Iain Britton     five poems
Thomas Mulhall     nine poems
Cliff Yates     five poems
Nathan Thompson     four lipogram sonnets from A Haunting
Jon Clay     five poems from Here
Alasdair Paterson     from On the Governing of Empires
Tony Cullen     two poems
Steven Ruel     nine texts
William Garvin     four poems
James Price     six poems & three drawings
Simon J Charlton     The Distance of Dreams
James Davies     four poems
Gareth Durasow     four poems
Paul A Green     Astral FM & three short texts
Mike Ruddick     BOUNDARIES
Johan de Wit     ten Statements
Mark Hall     Into the Pits (In the Dirt of the Postlyric: A Collaborative Cycle : Part 5)
Connie Beauchamp     THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE GAME (In the Dirt of the Postlyric: A Collaborative Cycle : Part 6)
(+ latest update of Pistol Tree Poems)

"The perceptive reader will soon notice that all the poets with new writing in this issue appear to be male. This is largely, but not wholly, an accidental circumstance" is how my text on the homepage begins. I shall shortly write at a more length here about the issues I feel circulate around my unease (and also my ease) over all this.

Or you can personally upbraid me remorselessly tomorrow at Diverse Deeds, introducing Francesca Lisette, Sophie Robinson & Roshi reading & performing at Cafe Oto, 18-22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL. Doors open at 7.30; start at 8.00; end by 10.00; entry £6 (£4 concessions).

Labels: Cafe Oto, Diverse Deeds, Great Works, rationale, Roshi, update

With alarming alacrity they turn 'em out. Two more of Peter Hughes' and Simon Marsh's Pistol Tree Poems now online.

Labels: Peter Hughes, Simon Marsh, update

(1) The Links page of Great Works has been checked and expanded: approx 155 online magazines and e-publishers; 147 writers' homepages and blogs; 23 audio and video sites; 61 print publishers and magazines; 20 readings &c resources: 61 foci of information; 6 bookshops and booksellers; 20 personal sites. Feast yourselves!

(2) Fresh Pistol Tree Poems, which is now halfway through. After this the poems will get longer again!

Labels: contemporary British poetry, update

I've just uploaded the newly revised Links pages - all checked, functioning and uptodate (bar a couple that kept timing out, which may be ominous ...)

The equivalent pages on www.modernpoetry,org.uk have been updated also, and a couple of new references added to the Websites Useful for Understanding Avant-Garde British Poetry pages. I'll look at all the pages on that site shortly.

Now to await the imminent arrival of the next Len from Richard Makin, do the publicity for the next Sundays at the Oto, and get to grips with Facebook (ugh!)

Labels: plans, update

I've just heard from Monika Rinck that her publishers are happy for the original texts to be displayed as well as Amos Weisz's translations, so these are now uploaded. I think this makes one's reading of the translations far more involved and precise. In this case, both Monika's poems and Amos Weisz's translations grow from their contact.

Labels: Amos Weisz, Monika Rinck, update

Latest bits from Richard Makin's St Leonards, with a heavy Sadeian influence, and a little interchange between Peter Hughes and Simon Marsh amongst the Pistol Tree Poems.

Labels: serials, update

Apologies for delays in posting information - but here is a breakdown of major alterations since the last posting:

(1) New texts on the site:

Maurice Scully, two poems
Gregory Vincent St Thomasino, Elegy for Christopher Smart
Tom Jenks, six poems
Changming Yuan, two poems
Patricia Farrell, four poems
Steven Waling, four poems
Philip Hammial, six poems
Nick Wayte, two poems
Ron Singer, two poems
Chris Gutkind, Thinking
Tom Sheehan, three poems
Andy Jordan, The Mermiad
Tammy Ho, seven poems
Aishwarya Iyer, Reflections
Geoff Stevens, four poems
Janet Sutherland, two poems
Shahar Gold, two stories
Charles Freeland, three stories
T A James, two stories
Allison Boast, Crazed Dawn
Christopher Barnes, five poem
Alison Smith, two poems
Mark Goodwin, six poems
J Brooke, six stories
Niall Quinn, three Phlebas poems
Anthony Liccione, three poems
Simon Wright, A Fragmented Verticality
Thomas Harrisson, Review of Adriano Bulla, Ybo’ and Other Lies

(2) Fresh instalments of the Peter Hughes' and Simon Marsh's Pistol Tree Poems and of Richard Makin's St Leonards.

(3) Additions and revisions to the New Readers Start Here pages.

(4) The Links revised over the new year period (and also the versions on New Readers Start Here).

(5) Material from The Playground - when I was performing with Jon Slater & Dave Houssart in the late 1980s - is now appearing. There is a web version of a pamphlet we were going to publish, with my texts, and their images, plus mp3s of three of the texts being performed. A couple of mp3s have also been added to the A Year and a Day in the Dark Forest, where poems from this sequence were performed by us. More will follow, as more material is digitised.

(6) I am pleased to be hosting as part of this material Ken Edwards' essay Introduction: The two poetries, published in a slightly different form in Angelaki 5.1: Poets on the Verge, ed Anthony Mellors and Robert Smith (2000). This important essay has not previously been freely available on the Internet.

So - apologies for the delays in posting this information. But await further developments!

Labels: contemporary British poetry, update

The latest section of Richard Makin's St Leonards, and two more poems from Peter Hughes & Simon Marsh's epistolary sequence, Pistol Tree Poems.

The material acting as an introduction to British avant-garde poetry has grown (of course), but is almost ready to upload. I will get responses from those who might be able to correct errors etc first, but it will be linked to the site within a month. I'll publish, though, the URL once the beta version is available on this blog (it will not be on a greatworks URL).

Labels: contemporary British poetry, update, website proposal

Great Works
The latest episodes of Peter Hughes & Simon Marsh's Pistol Tree Poems are up. I've also altered the homepage: apart from a neater layout to the main text (this could end up looking professional one day!), I have added a list of "20 Crucial British Innovative Poetry Sites", to make it easier for those not already in any loops or coteries etc etc to pick up on what is happening. This is a part of my shift to a site that presents a lot of explanation about such writing. The next move will be to include material about the genealogy and history of this writing.

The Blog
This list (including Great Works, so 21) now on the blog both as posting and as part of the constant template. I have also added to the blog a listing of the 20 blogs I am aware of that deal with this writing.

About the 20 Crucial British Poetry Sites
This is my considered choice of 20 sites that would help anyone picture what is going on in contemporary innovative British poetry. These are the main publishers, what seem to me the main ezines, places with links and lots of material also, and a couple of the most useful blogs. I've put the cambridgepoetry.org site in in the hope people revive it somewhat - it was looking so good; and I've also, as it were, bet on Openned as a major centre of activity.

Labels: contemporary British poetry, poetry blogs, poetry websites, update, website proposal

The Argotist Online – magazine & blog
The Archive of the Now – academic site & resource
Bad Press – publisher & epublisher
Barque – publisher
BEPC: British Poetry Revival – academic site & resource
cambridgepoetry.org – focus for information
Douglas Clark: British and Irish Poetry Sites – links
etruscan books – publisher
Great Works – ezine & links
Intercapillary Space – collective blog
Jacket – international (Australian-based) ezine, but heavy focus on UK avant–garde and its history
Litter – ezine
onedit – ezine
Openned – readings, epublisher &focus for information
poetrymagazines.org.uk – online archive
Reality Street Editionss – publisher
Shadow Train – ezine
Shearsman – ezine, epublisher & publisher
Stride Magazine – ezine & publisher
Terrible Work – reviews
West House Books – publisher & bookseller

Labels: contemporary British poetry, update, website proposal

Updating of information on Giles Goodland, Paul Holman, Richard Makin & James Wilkes

Labels: update