John Gallas Poetry
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'the greatest New Zealand poet no one has ever heard of' (Spinoff)
poem for December 2019
cold heights
I’m the first thing here since it snowed. Superstitious of perfection, I walk in the dunes and watch the white beach unroll beside me.
I go up Glas Hill chewing a marram-stalk. Clouds push over the sky, where the moon, the sun and the stars still gather.
Way below, two lifeboats leave the harbour burbling side by side. Far out, against the world’s blue wallpaper, I watch them part.
The samphire-flats whisper with ice. In Old Nat’s yellow caravan the sill is stacked with cold-coloured candles. Who knows what he loves. He seems content. Quiet as a deer. And on bitter days a thin wisp of smoke.
The tide is ebbing. In Briggwood, crows are pitching in the windy pines and I think for a moment, as I open the home-gate, if it were not for gravity I would take them the biscuits in my pocket and then go on up to the stars.
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What's Afoot ? Top Ten 1. CELEBRATION NO.1 - MY AND BRO'S TRANSLATION OF PETRUS BOREL'S 'RHAPSODIES' HAS BEEN ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION BY CARCANET, AS A 'CARCANET CLASSIC', DUE OUT JANUARY 2021 2. CELEBRATION NO.2 - MY COLLECTION OF 60 LOVE POEMS, 'THE EXTASIE' HAS BEEN ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION BY CARCANET, DUE OUT MAY 2021 3. CELEBRATION NO.3 - MOMA AT MACHYNLLETH HAVE ORGANISED A SHOW/READING (SCREENED) OF MY '18 PAPER RESURRECTIONS' FOR DECEMBER 11, 2019. ONGOING NEGOTIATIONS WITH HINCKLEY LIBRARY AND NUNEATON MUSEUM FOR THE SAME. 4. CELEBRATION NO.4 - THE OXFORD BROOKES UNI JOHN CLARE PROJECT HAS SECURED FUNDING FOR ITS NEXT STAGE, MORE EVENTS, WRITING, WORSHOPS IN STORE. ORDINARY NEWS NOW ... 5. STAND 17.4, due out this month, will include my '8 Brand New Tankas' 6. A small find ! William Hoile/Hoyle, Fisherman Poet of Gorleston, Yarmouth : poems discovered and transcribed in Lowestoft Record Office ('The Fishermen's Alphabet', 'Weather Rhymes') - all details sent to John Goodridge for his mighty 'Labouring Poets' volume. 7. 'Here They Come ! 200 Loaded Tankas Delivering Goodness Fresh to Your Doorstep' (collection of 200 tankas) completed. Bunches have appeared/to apear in STAND (see No.5, above) and LANDFALL (NZ). 8. 'The Blood Book', a history of my family from 10,000BC, published by Gerolstein Press (NZ) now available : email me at john.gallas@btinternet.com if you'd like a copy/ 9.. To complete the Year of 3 Books, 'Mad John's Walk' still available from Five Leaves (www.fiveleaves.co.uk) and '17 Pacific Poems' from Indigo Dreams (www.indigodreams.co.uk) 10. 'The Sloth', from 'The Alphabet of Ugly Animals', to be included in Vaughan Rapatahana's textbook for schoolkids in En Zed. (Complete with Exercises After !)
Complete Book List - we have reached 20 ! Practical Anarchy (Carcanet) Pacifictions (Cold Hub Press NZ) The Alphabet of Ugly Animals (Magpie Press) Mad John's Walk (Five Leaves : Occasional Pamphlets) January 2017 The Little Sublime Comedy (Carcanet) now out 17 Very Pacific Poems (Indigo Dreams) now out The Extasie (Carcanet) - due out May 2021 Petrus Borel 'Rhapsodies', translated from the French by John & Kurt Gallas (Carcanet Classics) - due out January 2021
Contacts John Gallas Poetry www.johngallaspoetry.co.uk Carcanet www.carcanet.co.uk Carcanet blog www.carcanetblog.blogspot.co.uk John Gallas Facebook Cold Hub Press (NZ) www.coldhubpress.co.nz Five Leaves publishing/bookshop (Mad John's Walk) www.fiveleaves.co.uk Agraphia / Clifford Harper www.agraphia.co.uk YouTube (Paterau Sonnent / The Blobfish Sings Under the Sea) STAND Magazine www.standmagazine.org Indigo Dreams publishing www.indigodreams.co.uk Spinoff (NZ) www.thespinoff.co.nz The John Clare Project www.brookes.ac.uk/the-meeting
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