Blue Velour
K M Dersley
This latest offering from the Clapgate terraces continues with insights of the happenings and events of a world we once inhabited, and often feel that we would like to inhabit once again. Certainly, it was a better place than Tony Blair’s Britain. This is nostalgia, with a stiff dose of reality, a wry humour and a reality check for all those who were lucky enough to be there at the time. If you have ever thought that you wanted to change the world, or perhaps re-wind to an era you preferred then spend a few minutes with this book.
Poems by K. M. Dersley including one from this book can be found on Poet's Pages K. M. Dersley
Blue Velour
Published by Kendra Steiner Editions
San Antonio Texas
European Distribution: Volcanic Tongue, Glasgow
Available from www.raggededge.btinternet.co.uk
 | |
km dersley's book 'paranoid in Paradise' (cover above) is £3.00 post free. Available from www.raggededge.btinternet.co.uk
Other Poems by K. M. Dersley can be found on Poet's Pages K. M. Dersley
FRANCIS
Richard Stewart
This new book by Suffolk writer Richard Stewart is a selection from the writings of Francis Simpson MBE and is timed to coincide with the twenty-first anniversary of the publication of ‘Simpson’s Flora of Suffolk’ a highly acclaimed book, now out of print, but much in demand. Richard, a long time friend of Francis, begins by relating several of the true stories of this larger-than-life character who in ‘The Times’ obituary was described as ‘by turns opinionated, stubborn, cantankerous and loveable’.
There are recollections from those who knew him well, reports from field meetings he led, longer studies of the unspoilt Suffolk countryside of his youth and his comments on conversation and the continuing destruction of his beloved Suffolk habitats. The emotions in the selection range from anger to humour and a separate section shows his ability as an all round naturalist and acute observer. Botanical studies are included plus a few photographs. One selection from his book is included and a final obituary from Martin Sanford at the Suffolk Biological Records Centre.
Obtainable from Richard Stewart (Make Cheques Payable to ‘Richard Stewart) ‘Valenezina’ 112 Westerfield Road Ipswich Suffolk IP4 2XW £5.50 post-free.
Francis
by Richard Stewart
Published by Poetry Monthly Press, August 2007
£5.50
Poems by Richard Stewart can be found on Poets Pages Richard Stewart
POCAHONTAS IN LUDGATE
Mike Bannister
POCAHONTAS IN LUDGATE
A NEW COLLECTION OF POEMS BY MIKE BANNISTER.
ARROWHEAD PRESS £7.50
ISBN 978-1-904852-15-5
AVAILABLE FROM THE HALESWORTHBOOKSHOP
This is a fine and moving collection of poems, a summation of a lifetime of thinking and feeling and perceiving. A collection of findings, a series of accounts of the deep heart's unwavering pulse. Indeed, this first poem, TOWN CLOCK METFIELD sets the tone for the book and is most revealing of the poet's way of seeing and celebrating. We have the paradoxes of a movement born of stasis and of the pendulum recording the soundless voice of time and, like the clock, the poet celebrates and guards the day's round scope and charter. One is struck throughout by this poet's intense desire to record his sense impressions with as much exactitude as possible: he emulates his LITTLE BUDDHA OF THE SNOWS who prepares himself to fathom the exact and particular sound of snow falling. This is a preparation which takes a whole lifetime to master. There are countless instances of the exact and particular use of language throughout this collection and of the poet's extraordinary ability to be still, to listen, to observe and to consider. A wonderful example of this is the poem entitled THE ZEN OF SAIL which begins with the serenity of letting go, where we are invited to Observe the conversation of water and Breathe in the dry sweetness of oiled wood. This touching, penultimate poem ends fittingly in a homecoming: a homecoming to the deepest, most attentive aspects of ourselves. This book is filled with journeys, particularly sea voyages, loved places and homecomings: the ferry draws close to old, familiar places which have grown, through memory and time, strangely new and beautiful. Some of the loveliest and most poignant poems in POCAHONTAS IN LUDGATE bear echoes of that great, age defying poem by Tennyson: Ulysses.There is that similar hard-won recognition of the losses and gains of age and that sense of life's ship drawing into some loved, remembered harbour at sunset. This collection ends with one of the loveliest and most lyrical poems in the book: ARGYLL FAREWELL in which the poet writes of the dark season and one senses that he is writing not just of winter but of age. But just as the sky of the long Highland winter is on some days flooded with unearthly rivers of light, so age can be a time of sudden blessings, a time to gather and sift experiences in order to forge some long sought sense of wholeness. I've no doubt that readers will gain immeasurably from committing many of the poems in POCAHONTAS IN LUDGATE to memory and in sharing in the weaving of the glowing tapestry of Mike Bannister's poetic homecoming.
__________ Reviewed by James Knox Whittet,March 2007 James Knox Whittet was born and brought up on the Hebridean island of Islay, and went on to read English at Cambridge University. His first collection is entitled A Brief History of Devotion (Hawthorn Press 2003) and his collaboration with the Norfolk artist John Richter is entitled Seven Poems for Engraved Fishermen (2004). He won the Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition. he is collaborating with the photographer Sue Anderson on abook about Islay.
Richard Maslen: Blythburgh Poet
The Magnifying Glass
Richard arrived permanently in East Suffolk in 1986, from Nottingham via Hertfordshire. Writing since 1953, working in the South Wales docks in the R.A.F. at night began his particular love of places, people and landscape.
He is represented in many anthologies, is a prizewinning poet and recently saw his poems featured on the South Bank in London during the London Art exhibition "The Art of Love". Among the poems chosen by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, was "Two Sisters" which featured on the walls of the gallery.
His work to date encompasses not only landscape but family life, love, spiritual matters and much more. His new collection "The Magnifying Glass", now available to buy, is quite different and, he hopes, surprising!
The Magnifying Glass £7.00
ISBN 978 0 9545094 5 3
Email: richardmaslen@blythburgh.net
To order send a cheque for £7.00 p+p included to
Richard Maslen, Red House Cottage, Angel Lane, Blythburgh, Suffolk IP19 9
One of the latest poems, which will appear in the collection, appears below.
Demoiselles.
In the sunshine,
My visitor silently rested on my shirt.
I saw the tiny movements
Of its wings,
Of its eyes.
Nothing disturbed it
As I turned the pages,
Sunlight fixing transparently
On drooping wings,
Glistening sheens,
Rainbow colours.
While, in my neighbour's garden,
One of those dragonfly helicopters
Rested, rotor blades drooping
Like its twin on my shirt.
Together, as I watched,
They took off,
Disappearing into the blue,
Missing their equal beauty.