'Violets' by C.J. Allen

New pamphlet by C.J. Allen now available from Derbyshire's very own Templar Poetry. Buy the collection here.

Leafe Press poet CJ Allen has a new collection - "Violets" - out soon with publisher Templar Poetry. He is also featured on the "Poet a Month" slot for November on the Derbyshire Libraries blog, which you can read here.

The Beeston International Poetry Festival was a big success in the sense that the - admittedly small - venues filled up nicely, and in one case sold out. We heard poetry read in French, Greek and Spanish, and saw poets from half-a-dozen countries. The organiser was John Lucas; though John was ably assisted by David Belbin, Sue Dymoke and Sam Ward, John is the man who's able to conjure a poetry festival out of nothing and make it work. It's amazing what you can do without the internet; John doesn't use a computer, and wouldn't know how to send an email.

Last Tuesday saw a Leafe Press event; Leafe poets CJ Allen and Ernesto Priego read along with Faber poet and scholar Paul Binding. CJ (Clive) Allen has developed into a reader with a certain gravitas that doesn't at all distract from the humour of his poems, but does foreground their more serious concerns. Clive read from his Leafe selected poems, as well as work from the excellent collection 'Lemonade'. Ernesto Priego read poems from his three collections mainly in the English they were written in, though he did read one poem in Spanish. Ernesto also talked about the influence of Octavio Paz on contemporary Mexican poets. The fact that we sold a number of copies of Ernesto's book, and had some positive comments about the reading attested to its success. Paul Binding, multi-lingual scholar, expert on - among other things - Scandinavian literature, and Faber-published poet, gave an excellent reading; sadly, none of Paul's books were for sale - his Shoestring collection having sold out. Though he has an awe-inspiring CV, Paul proved to be very approachable and friendly. I'm currently reading his memoir of post-war Germany, St. Martin's Ride, which I'd recommend to anyone who wants to understand contemporary Europe, and Germany in particular.

End of Report. Next, I'll report on the Roy Fisher / Matthew Welton reading, but I can say that it ended the festival on a high.

Roy Fisher in Nottingham 28.10

I've been reading Roy Fisher's new collection, and very much enjoying it. Fisher is a master, and, at
eighty, writes like someone who has nothing to prove. There is some moving poetry in this collection; there's also the trademark wit, and the spare, undorned language Fisher is famous for. You get a feeling that he enjoys practising his craft.

So, I was excited to learn that Fisher is reading at my local poetry cafe; the Flying Goose, in Beeston, on 28th October. The reading is part of a two-week Beeston International Poetry Festival, organised single-handedly by the redoubtable John Lucas. I'll post more details on the festival shortly, but one of the events is a launch of Ernesto Priego's new Leafe Press book, combined with a reading by Leafe poet C.J. Allen.

Good new poem from C.J.Allen published online by Red Ceilings. Click on the cover image above to see it.

ANOTHER TAKE ON J.H. PRYNNE

Suddenly the firewall has come down (!) & at last I can peruse Litterbug in my lunch-hour. Doing so, I found myself being drawn in to the thread of debate/discussion about J H Prynne. In particular I was intrigued by the excerpt from ‘Field Notes’. Now, you know me, Alan, I’m not against the complex; in fact I’m a regular enthusiast. But I have to say the Prynnean disquisition on the word ‘Behold’ takes the proverbial biscuit (if not the piss). It strikes me all Prynne is actually saying here is that Wordsworth is using the word ‘Behold’ when he can’t, in fact, behold the ‘solitary Highland Lass’, because she isn’t physically there anymore. Wow! Wot a revelation. For my five cents Wordsworth probably wrote ‘Behold’ because it was a contemporary exhortation to mentally picture something. (In other words he’s saying ‘Look!’) And there’s also a bit of alliteration at play in ‘Behold her’.

And this business about how being a writer ‘is to be authorised to compose by backwards displacement into the site where what is to be now composed had then its germinal origin.’ Doesn’t this simply mean writers write about things they can remember? I think it does, you know.

In a later post you pose the question (rhetorically, I appreciate): to what does ‘Fissile drag under gang profile’ refer? I’d hazard – nothing at all. It’s deploys absolutely standard Prynne tropes: appropriated technical language set so as to emphasise its musicality (‘the ‘ile’ of ‘fissile’ to rhyme with the ‘ile’ of ‘profile’ – enclosing the short hard ‘a’s of ‘drag & ‘gang’). It puts me in mind a bit of what Pound’s always up to in the Cantos – that is, cutting & pasting from a set of standard components. In the Cantos these are palaces, terraces, columns, clouds, green seas, rocks, the sea under the rocks, the rocks under the sea, more columns, more clouds etc etc. Sometimes this produces exceedingly haunting & beautiful things; but mostly it doesn’t.

It’s all very confusing, isn’t it? Especially for those of us with jobs who only get the chance to think about such things in our lunch-hours.

Like you, I’m rather taken (in?) by the early Prynne. My head gets sort of turned by the modernist dash & swagger of it. The later stuff gives me a headache.

C. J. Allen

Since my job has become a little more demanding (moan, moan...) it occurs to me that it might be easier to write a sort of anti-blog of things I haven't done. Here are a few:

• Update Litter. Forthcoming: poems by Pete Huchel (tr. Catherine Hales), a review of Peter Gizzi by CJ Allen, and some poems by the latter.
• Join Facebook. In fact, I did join, at the invitation of Carrie Etter and Tony Frazer. It looks great: a cornucopia of things to do, and people to talk to. But I could imagine spending a lot of precious hours on it, and right now... so I've suspended my membership for now.
• Meet up with Clive Allen, Adrian Buckner and Martin Stannard for one of our regular get-togethers, which occured on Saturday afternoon in town. Sorry guys. Next time, I hope...
• Answer emails, including one from Kris Hemmensley, back in Oz now, and with Leafe Press pamphlets on his bookshop shelves. Sorry Kris, will get back to you.

Autumn Leafe @ Broadway

Seats are waiting to be filled...

C J Allen reads from
'A Strange Arrangement: New and Selected Poems'.

Martin Stannard reads from
his Leafe Press pamphlet 'Coral' and other work.

Admission and refreshments free, all welcome

Gallery (Room 1)
Broadway Cinema
14 - 18 Broad Street
Nottingham
NG1 3AL

7.30,pm, Thurs 4 October

for NATIONAL POETRY DAY

Hosted by yours truly.

Last Saturday I met up with Clive Allen, Adrian Buckner and Martin Stannard (newly returned from a year in China). We sat in a cafe on Nottingham University's campus, by the lakeside and caught up with the news, then discussed some of our own and others' poetry. Very civilized. For a long time - years - I wrote and read poetry in more or less complete isolation. It doesn't help that I work in IT, and most of my buddies at work are more interested in cars and computers than poetry. Being part of a community (on-line and in the real world) is essential to me now, and in fact, provides the rationale for my writing and publishing.

Sad to note the passing of Bill Griffiths. Griffiths' work was among the first I came across when I first encountered the non-mainstream. His hand-cranked pamphlets in various shapes and bindings from his Amra Imprint were wonderful: 'Starfish Jail', written to raise funds for a prisoner in Wandsworth, or 'Mr Tapscott', a poem about race relations in Liverpool, written to support the campaign to free Ray Gilbert, one of the Toxteth Two whose conviction in 1981 was seriously flawed, but who remains in prison. For me, work like this opened up a whole new approach to poetry, and the use of poetry.

There's a good article about Dylan Thomas at Peter Riley's site, April Eye.

There's an interview with C.J. Allen on-line at Arvon Friends.

Good reading by Clive (aka CJ Allen) at the Flying Goose on Tuesday night. As usual, an excellent atmosphere and a full house. With a venue that small it'd be difficult not to have a full house of course. I sold several copies of Clive's Selected. I haven't sent any review copies out yet. Like most small press publishers, I find Life gets in the way of Art: as well as publishing and writing poetry I have to earn a living, ferry my children to their various activities, cook, clean, get the car serviced, talk to my wife occasionally (usually when we're both whacked at the end of the day) and have a social life. But the review copies will go out - probably after we have our Easter break (a week in Spain).

Theatre visits I'm looking forward to: King Lear, with Ian McKellen at Stratford. The Cherry Orchard with Joanna Lumley at Sheffield.

The next reading at the Flying Goose is next Tuesday, 20th March, 7.30pm, featuring Christopher Southgate and C.J. Allen (published by Leafe Press, of course).

Anyone who's organised a poetry reading will know that feeling: the chairs are lined up, the books are stacked, the poets are nervously glancing through their papers, and the unspoken question is in the air... will anyone turn up? Thankfully, on this occasion they did. It was the launch of CJ Allen's 'New and Selected Poems'. I stopped myself from counting the audience, but there was a good-sized crowd, and a good proportion of them bought the book. And there was a sense of occasion which is important for a launch, especially when it's such a significant landmark in a poet's career. The free wine helped. Clive's reading was measured and thoughtful - but with his usual dose of humour - and I enjoyed it immensely, despite being preoccupied as the organiser. So the book is now officially launched: any editors reading this - you'll be getting your review copies soon.

Note on the venue:

The Nottingham Mechanics is a great new discovery for me as a poetry venue. A nice new building slap-bang in the middle of Nottingham, a bar, very friendly and helpful staff and a fine old institution to boot (established in 1837 to educate industrial workers).

A Postcard to Martin Stannard

I’m writing regarding my head. Do you think anything can be done about it? You can tell me. I can take it. Birdsong occurs frequently in my poetry (here it is again). I mean, I know it’s preferable to stars, but not how preferable. And what about horses? Because I know horses stand for common sense. Where do you stand on the whole ‘building a bridge between you and the reader’ issue? When should I bring in the horses?

C.J. Allen

'A Strange Arrangement: New and Selected Poems' by C.J. Allen. Launched tonight at the Nottingham Mechanics, North Sherwood Street, Nottingham. 7.30pm. Admission free. Be there or be be square!

I'm working hard on the first Leafe Press P-O-D book, C.J. Allen's 'New and Selected'. The book is published, I've got the first batch from Lightning Source and the launch is arranged for 30th January. It's been difficult in some ways, but mainly because I don't have the right software, and therefore the digital files I submitted kept getting rejected until I got some help from an expert - he knows who he is - thanks! I also had problems because LS don't make it easy for publishers new to the game, and their ordering system and general website design is confusing (at least for me). But the end result is a beauty and I've learned my lessons for the next one.

Pamphlet publishing now seems hopelessly uneconomic and time-consuming. But I will bring occasional ones out - pamphlets are a genre in their own right and in my own writing I like to work toward pamphlet-sized chunks of poetry. One drawback of P-O-D is that it encourages poets to bring out books that are too long, with a lot of padding and loss of focus.