John Gallas Poetry

homepome

Mmm ...:
"I'll live, says he. I'll live if it kills me, says he." - Flann O'Brien

winter sparrow

'the greatest New Zealand poet no one has ever heard of' (Spinoff)

Poem for January 2022

Two tankas for the Winter Sparrow

O little sparrow,

Weary of Time, let’s go to

The Pictures. You can

Sit on my shoulder. The sky

Is too cold now, and too far.

Crumbs of gingerbread,

Wagon Wheels and Custard Cremes

I have for thee. Now

Forget the icy worm, the

Withered drupe, and all your need.

What's Afoot? Top 10

Exciting times ...

1. 'Aotearoa/Angleland' - 30+30 tankas (see this month's poem, above) slim, beautiful pamphlet out now. Buy at www.newwalkmagazine.com : an edited video of the Zoom launch/reading (with Belinda Rimmer, 'Holding On') is available to watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL3pXHGReqE

2. Won the Parkinsons Art Poet of the Year with a wonky sonnet in praise of Emma Goldman's invention of the Anarchist Hop ('If you can't dance, I don't want to join your revolution'). Happy cheque has paid for Christmas 2021 in Wales. Read the poem/award at https://parkinsons.art/poetrycomp

3. Prizewinner in the Manchester Cathedral Poetry Fest: a desert sonnet ('Umm Lahayi').

4. 'The Extasie', 64 love poems, now out, with its wonderful cover (and contents!). Available to buy at all good bookshops, or order from Amazon and/or www.carcanet.co.uk

A SUNDAY TIMES SUMMER READ RECOMMENDATION (see also Financial Times Literary Supplement) and a fab review from 'coffeetime' ('love poetry at its best') - read at https://coffee-time-reviews.com/2021/11/19/why-the-extasie-is-love-poetry-at-its-best/

5. 'Amado Nervo: Poems of Faith & Doubt' (my translations) now out from SLG Press, Oxford. AND the volume of Anglo-Saxon translations is on the way from the same publisher. You can order from orders@slgpress.co.uk

6. Petrus Borel 'Rhapsodies 1838' now also on the way from Carcanet Classics. Proof-reading all done; cover ready. Due out 2022. My translations with bro.

7. 'The Alphabet of Ugly Animals' accepted by Cerasus Publishing. We are sorting the pictures/drawings. This may be a poem + colouring-book.

8. 'Meet the Author' is now on the Carcanet blog : https://carcanetblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/john-gallas-extasie.html

9. 'The Gnawing Flood', a book of 28 anti-colonial poem-prints now out from brave and exciting Cerasus Publishing. Order @ The Gnawing Flood: Amazon.co.uk: Gallas, John: 9798592286063: Books

10. My SaxonShip Project 'anglo-saxon' poems and riddles are all available at www.saxonship.org under 'Saxonship Poet: John Gallas'. Sign up, sponsor a rivet, and be a part of the great enterprise.

Complete Book List - we have reached 26 !

Practical Anarchy (Carcanet)

Flying Carpets Over Filbert Street (Carcanet)

Grrrrr (Carcanet)

Resistance is Futile (Carcanet)

The Ballad of Robin Hood and the Deer (Agraphia Press), pictures by Clifford Harper

The Ballad of Santo Caserio (Agraphia Press), pictures by Clifford Harper

The Song Atlas (Carcanet)

Star City (Carcanet)

The Book with Twelve Tales (Carcanet)

Fucking Poets (3 vols) (Cold Hub Press NZ)

40 Lies (Carcanet) pictures by Sarah Kirby