“in the air, there your root remains, there, in the air”

new poems by Ian Stuart and Rebecca Ferrier

(Photo by HLR)

Hello fellow creatures of the Anthropocene!

How’s your week been? Hope things are going well for you. I’ve been reading a lot of Paul Celan - who I’ve not really read before. My main thought is ‘Paul Celan - where have you been all my life?’ This little poem:

completely undoes me in just a few lines. I can’t even begin to explain why.

This Wednesday on Anthropocene we had a fragrant poem about plums or ‘tiny globes expanding / into golden lamps in a green night’ in the words of Yorkshire poet Ian Stuart. Earlier this morning we had two spacious and thoughtful poems by the Edinburgh based Rebecca Ferrier.

3 book recommendations from Stuart McPherson

Stuart:

Zachary Shomburg – Scary, No Scary

I return to this book time and time again. Schomburg writes with a razor-sharp conciseness, a dark, surreal absurdity that drags nightmares into real life. These poems are like micro-dosing David Lynch and Terry Gilliam films on repeat – “a sheet is hanging / from the chandelier / there are two tiny eye-holes / in the sheet / there is no sheet / there is no chandelier”

Sean Bonney – Our Death

One of my top three poetry books of all time. Charged with political violence and an acerbic critique of capitalist society and all its subjugations. Bonney writes with a rage that burns so fiercely that one cannot help but be hypnotized by its flame – “Terror / I want to hear it / From those who can’t breathe / not the rest of you dead things”

Maria Sledmere – Visions & Feed

This book is kaleidoscopic in its range, presenting the reader with poems that envelope the ecological, the feminine, the body, pop culture and much more. Maria’s use of language is beautifully amorphic, sometimes angular, sometimes fluid, thus creating something unique and totally engaging – “I won’t buy flowers for my apartment / because they’ll die / flowers exist / to teach you about death / how everyday is / a gradual salacious creep”

That’s it from me - enjoy the heatwave,

Charlie

P.S. free submissions close in five days, go for it: https://www.anthropocenepoetry.org/submissions