White Coins E-Book

James Byrne

• Herausgeber: Arc Publications
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 38

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Expanding on themes present in Blood/Sugar, James Byrne refuses one defining aesthetic or mode of writing in his work, instead choosing to fluctuate between the lyric, experimental, confessional and the political. These are poems that explore aspects of childhood, social activism and satire. There are correspondences with existing texts; Philomela finds herself in Nazi-occupied Paris during the Second World War and the villanelle re-tracks Rimbaud through London. Elsewhere Byrne seeks to defy Robert Graves' notion that there is "no poetry in money", preferring to rally against issues of austerity and hierarchical power in society. White Coins rewards the reader with a nomadic poetry for the 21st century; one that mingles personal, social and historical spaces whilst celebrating, at all times, linguistic versatility and innovation. Also available as an eBook from Amazon.

Leseprobe

WHITE COINS

Published by Arc Publications

Nanholme Mill, Shaw Wood Road,

Todmorden OL14 6DA, UK

www.arcpublications.co.uk

Copyright © James Byrne, 2015

Copyright in the present edition © Arc Publications, 2015

Design by Tony Ward

978 1908376 47 3 (pbk)

978 1908376 49 7 (ebk)

978 1908376 48 0 (hbk)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to the editors of the following magazines and websites in which some of these poems, or versions of these poems, first appeared: 3am, Agenda, archiveofthenow.org, Axon, Black Herald, Eyewear, International Times, The International Literary Quarterly, Litmus, Paris Lit. Up Magazine, Poetry Wales, Stand, The Nation and The North.

‘Primitive Culture’ consists of excerpts from a collaborative poem with Sandeep Parmar entitled ‘Myth of the Savage Tribes, Myth of Civilised Nations’ published in Island Magazine (Australia) and also in a jointly authored pamphlet with the same title (Oystercatcher Press, 2014). ‘Soapbox’ was originally published as ‘Soapbox 4’ in Soapboxes, a pamphlet by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press (2014). A version of ‘On the Ordinary’ was first published in The Wolf (30), as an editorial piece.

The author also wishes to thank the Arts Council England for giving him a grant to complete this book and John Wedgwood Clarke for his editorial suggestions on the manuscript.

Cover image:

‘The Last Sound’ by Ibrahim El-Salahi, by kind permission of the artist.

From the private collection of Abdul Magid Breish.

© Ibrahim El-Salahi. All rights reserved, DACS 2015

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part of this book may take place without the written permission of Arc Publications.

Editor for the UK and Ireland

John W. Clarke

OTHER PUBLICATIONS BY THE AUTHOR:

Passages of Time (Flipped Eye, 2002)

Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (co-editor, Bloodaxe, 2009)

Blood / Sugar (Arc Publications, 2009)

The Wolf: A Decade 2002-2012 (editor, Wolf Editions, 2012)

Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets (co-editor, Arc Publications, 2012)

Soapboxes (Knives, Forks and Spoons, 2014)

Myth of the Savage Tribes, Myth of Civilised Nations (in collaboration with Sandeep Parmar,

Oystercatcher, 2014)

Everything that is Broken Up Dances (forthcoming with Tupelo Press, USA)

White Coins

JAMES BYRNE

2015

for Sandeep Parmar

CONTENTS

I

Historia

Economies of the Living

Tender Mothers

Brothers and Sisters

Simulation

Benevolence

The Eagle

The Hummingbird

The Horse

The Orangutan

Mortality

Immortality

Heaven

River Nocturnes

Philomela in Paris

Divorce Pending

Primitive Culture

The Boy

Breakfast

The Nook (exterior)

Self Portrait

Drink

Summons

Home

II

Diagnosis Inc.

Phrase & Fable

To put a churl upon the house of a gentleman

Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh

I’ll soon settle his hash for him

To measure another’s foot by your own last

The thin red line

Happy is the country that has no history

The Pure Nation

Pauperland

Soapbox

On the Ordinary

Consultancy

from Middlesex Hospital

The Footage

Foodstuffs

All Mouth

Rimbaud Villanelles

14 Rue Nicolet

Scarborough

8 Royal College Street

Inside the House of Lu San

Your Toad

Playlist

Monsieur Le Maire De Niafunké

Mariama

Kala Djula

Yombe

Cheikh Anta

Notes

Biographical Note

I

HISTORIA

moving on or going back to where you came from

AMY CLAMPITT

it is not the substance of a man’s fault

it is the shape of it

is what lives with him, is what shows

CHARLES OLSON

a room crammed        with sharp toys

a field zesty with fire

history as historia

cool as a shot to the mouth

*

in pinched shoes

cataleptic

merely to show up

the birdlime viscidity of the garden

the scalpel-like finger

of a shrivelled leaf—

not accusatory

shadowed only

by itself

not pointing

towards a balance-act

but balancing

*

I was six and made of violins

stumped

by metronomic light

I wanted to energise him away

like glucose

globed

into whiteness—

a voice spoken slantwise

but faraway—

sleeping it off

I travelled in the dark

so as not to be seen

*

dusk-nervousness

in what is        unclaimed

I wait and fail

paying off warders

at your door—

the thrillbox

of birthdays

whalecalls from waterclotted

condensation

the gazebladed kitchen

the uplander silences of television

blackish fingernails

from window-mould

eyes goggled

towards a lit hearth

fringe fraying

or cupping at the curtain frame

fearful of fire

on the domestic zodiac

*

how the air divides

like cutting a loaf—

as much childed

as fevered

left alone

in the dry season

to feed from the day’s nutrients—

naphtha mirage

over the wheatfield

at sunset

foxfur grinning on a spidersweb

dialysis of rain

inside a garden well

equal to breath

*