Tuesday 23 March 2010

Poem for Franklin Rosemont

This is another poem from my forthcoming Rubber Orchestras collection. This time, a poem written in tribute to the late Franklin Rosemont, leader of the Chicago Surrealist Group.


Poem for Franklin Rosemont


beyond words

or destinations

visual and multiplying

intricate and persistent

they found a faraway place

in paris

its potential splendour

hid sequels and contrary sex

in the early hours of 1960


proclivities

of struggle and synthesis

within the most complete utopia

of fire and speed

dream letters

were drowned

in invisible stars

silent suburbs of jazz and primitive hell

were spontaneously glimpsed

in rigid cities

in which these souvenirs

were read

at the chicago public library

shuddering

loosley

in method and name

on the avenue between Greene and Zion


intergalactic radio

sent a message

unifying voice

like a violin

during the anxious months of miracles

and triple time

proto-hip like every second syllable, free floating

like a giggle to the subversive current

of eden’s swift sea

by prime energy of libido

by degrees of fear

darker skin and the fragment of shadow

lucid and unique

as paradox to paradox

as serious as blue silk


These are the definitions of the palace of signs

these are the masks with which

I hitchhiked across the wonderland

and travelled by radio

to resemble that mask

eccentric and boundless

in the image of you.


Belladonna in the South seas

further

past stairs and doorways past

afro-american ruins

bamboo by the dozen among those denizens of marvellous film

dead

yet actually distant

and exhilarating

like dissident blues swung from the zydeco

in the brutal suburbs of Pharaoh Sanders

emerging

from light

into some literary response





Sunday 21 March 2010

Black Brown and Beige : Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora



I have 2 prose poems included in this landmark anthology, which was probably the late great Franklin Rosemont's final testament. Its an incredible collection of surrealist writings from the Caribbean and the entire African Diaspora. Essential reading if ever there was.



Thursday 11 March 2010

Caribbean Erotic Anthology


I have some work included in this new anthology of Erotic Caribbean writing. Many years in the making. My contribution is called 'The RealTime Trajectory of Explicit Love'.

A wide-ranging anthology of poetry, short fiction, and critical essays designed to generate thought about what is still a conflicted area of Caribbean literature and culture, this revealing, in-depth examination explores the many facets of the erotic in contemporary Caribbean literature—from desire; the psychology of abusive relationships; the role of fantasy; and issues of infidelity, lust, rape, self-respect, self-love, and child-birth. This anthology also discusses the Caribbean frameworks of sexuality as a cultural construct, from the role of machismo, homophobia, and Protestant-fundamentalist sexual ideologies as specific forms of denial and hostility to the open expression of sexual desire. The essays then extend the book’s scope beyond literature and consider the impact of the erotic upon other aspects of Caribbean life, ranging from song lyrics to the general issues of female empowerment in Caribbean societies. Featuring the work of well-known writers such as Nalo Hopkins, Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes and the work of many fresh new talents such as Obediah Michael Smith, Christian Campbell, and Tiphanie Yanique, this anthology aims to create a new framework in which the full spectrum of the erotic in Caribbean literature and life can be freely explored.

Buy it from Peepal Tree : http://www.peepaltreepress.com/single_book_display.asp?isbn=9781845230890

Friday 5 March 2010

Work included in two new anthologies




I was fortunate enough to be in included in the new anthology of contemporary British Poetry 'Identity Parade' (Bloodaxe) as well as in 'Red' the new anthology from Peepal Tree, both published this month.