Peter Riley's Chapters of Age (Open House Editions, Leafe Press, 2013)

A lovely skinny pamphlet with the subtitle, 'Stone landscapes of Inishmore and Burren, May 2010'. Here are some favourite passages:


Chapters of age: increasingly anxiety,
Histories beyond credence,
Massive stone forts in mist.

*

And sing still and louder sing,
Psalmic impulsions rolling over the moor
Seeking an imperfect cadence.

*

Where is the musician or architect
Who built me this weary smile?

*

Saw everything from there, the rich
And the poor, the cloud descending,
The cattle driven over the cliff.

*

For there are answers to fear, 
Common or garden,
That singing up the coast.



You can get the pamphlet for £3.50 by buying it directly from Leafe Press.
 

'one thought galore' from Daniel O'Donnell-Smith's cOdes (Leafe, 2012)

Leafe Press has a new pamphlet series, beginning with the first collection of young poet Daniel O'Donnell-Smith, cOdes, which effectively combines heightened, vernacular and computer languages. This poem has less of the latter, so you'll have to pick up the pamphlet yourself to get a better idea of the extent of O'Donnell-Smith's project, so to speak.












one thought galore


that first spark
at sleeping
where
great thinkers
are vitamin supplements
for things that a slow boy learnt

the sum born from giants
is
trickle down

a pool hall of ideas

                                             [multiple user content]

and there i was reading this:

the mind automaton.


Daniel O'Donnell-Smith
cOdes (Leafe, 2012)


If you buy cOdes directly from the publisher, it's £4.50 with free shipping.

Here's Daniel O'Donnell-Smith's account of himself: "Daniel O'Donnell-Smith lives in Leicester but will soon be moving to London to begin a PhD and make electronic mistakes with his dark pop collective @MoscowYouthCult. He loves synths, trashy horror/sci-fi, VHS wonk & cat lick. His first poetry collection is currently available from Leafe Press, entitled 'cOdes'."

Geraldine Monk's Lobe Scarps & Finials (Leafe Press, 2011)

I've just finished reading the latest collection from Geraldine Monk, Lobe Scarps & Finials, and warmly recommend it. While some of the poems worked more for me than others, on the whole I relished its playfulness and good humour, its chattiness and range of register, and concur with David Wheatley's thoughtful review in The Guardian. Here are just a few choice passages:

Rock runs to slurry.

Earthquakes cakewalk the

globe and back.

dunder. earth. death. dearth. abide.

*

O.K. lamb--

meek it out...

from "March"

...everything was elsewhere and

being England it was cloudy.

*

Colder. Wetter.

Perseids a proper shower

hurtling a best-in-years

outta-sight and

being England it was cloudy.

from "August"

Vegetables must be

peeled eyes removed

hearts recovered. Fruit flesh

parted with gravity.

from "November"

In a late summer night courtyard illuminated

shafts of wet creaked a simmering up-deep.

*

How greener is the other side of the

body incorruptible?

*

Moderation didn't make the

universe burst into pentameters.

Extremes teem. Petals and

thorns. Throne of frowns.

from "Poppyheads"

I'd quote more if I could replicate the spacing. You can buy the book directly from the publisher here.