yeah... so where was i?
Okay, another bunch of archive things. First up the first three essays from abase, my very occasional zine, then a bunch of poems from my mad mission of creativity over the last month. Enjoy.
Snakeoil
So what in the fuck are they trying to sell me now? Well nothing, ain't that novel? You can walk outta here and buy cars guns beer women liposuction records apartments bus tickets illegal labour stamps smack towels and fucking anything.
So this? This is just a bunch of thoughts. Read it use it to soak up a spill, take this piss, whatever makes you happy. Hopefully you'll put down your own thoughts - in a song, blog, zine, poem, letter - maybe even argue and/or contribute. And what's in my thoughts this week and most weeks? Poetry - lame or what?
Lame
To my ever decreasing circle of friends this is an old rant, but the hell with that. No-one reads poetry. Well, maybe 10,000 or so will buy John Hegley or something else popular. That's what, one in six thousand of the population? That's a real minority. But what about slam poetry, performance shit? Well in Cardiff readings and slams make about 30 audience. In Manchester you peak around 60, in London it may be a bit more. So it's about one in ten-thousand - even worse. More people get wasted on vodka on Friday.
So why in the hell should we care? I gotta say I dunno why you should care, but for me it's simple. If you read, write or perform (or watch) poetry then you're thinking, and engaging with something. Or at least you fucking oughtta be. There are poets who only make me think 'man this sucks'. Essentially, if you create poetry for an audience you're creating for such a small minority there's no point following any orthordoxies. You hear, you're free, free, free to do whatever you like. That's a rare and liberating thing - go use it.
I'm scared
Yeah, but how much more scary would it be if poetry was a big thing with fixed ways. Just think if it all had to be Keats, Tennyson, Eliot, Ted Hughes, all those dead white guys. Even the live white guys all over the media are pretty drab to imitate. But since the audience they attract is the exact same proportion as you. The field is yours to do with as you like.
In this and later editions of abase I'll come back to this freedom. In the meantime I'll say this - put down the poetry books, don't even bother with 'em. If you wanna enjoy poetry forget about the stuff in books and magazines, don't bother with all that shit they spoon you out in school, or in those '100 Poems To Make Your Empty Life Full Again' anthologies. That's not poetry - it's raw cultural conditioning, it's lifestyle, it's bullshit. More importantly it's dead, irrelevant and a ripoff. It's dead because... well, it's flatlining, you've seen the figures. It's irrelevant because... well for the same cost as a poetry book you can get a cd, or something interesting to read.
Get music
You want lyrical invention you want rap - you want Outkast, Public Enemy, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas etc. You want Missy Elliot, Radiohead, Kinesis, Peter Tosh - fuck it, go look for yourself.
The thing is music can contain a lot of smart, inventive, diverse talents. Whereas poetry's a small, insular nothing scene. Unambitious and often not that smart.
But there are not many of us. We need to get smart, stick together, find new ways of doing poetry, and just keep pushing. Cos sooner or later when we have something worthwhile we'll break through to the mainstream.
PoetryOkay, so apart from being a less popular activity than getting pissed what else does poetry have going to recommend it? Who should I read? And what the fuck is poetry anyway?
I'm not sure what else poetry's got to recommend it, except that it's been a dead form for so long it's much easier to do what in hell you want with it. At least that's my excuse.
I'm not going to tell you who to read - you can find out for yourself. For my part, because of my opinions, I like Adrian Mitchell, Pascale Petit, Tony Harrison, Sacha Karaulov and others. But go figure it for yourself.
As for what poetry is - well like I said earlier, it's been dead so long it can be whatever the fuck you want. The stuff I write is coming out of listening to music (and to a lesser extent from movies) rather than reading poetry. Hell, I even think of my poems as songs.
But wait
I didn't really say what poetry is yet. Traditionally it was pretty strict rhyme and rhythm, short lines, verbal effects, elevated or sparse diction. To me that's all dead. You can have one word, one letter lines, or just write it like prose. You can rhyme or not, I don't. You could rhyme every other word if you want. Rhythm I still try to use, but not in the sense of metrics (I've got a long, boring discussion of this, but not here). Poetry can be a political rant, a list, a joke, swearing, any length, written in whatever way you want. I'd say it's not a form or a way of writing, but a way of seeing - it's whatever's poetry to you. Hope that helps you.
Okay then, consume this
The immediate backdrop to writing this is a soundtrack of Dead Kennedy's Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, and PJ Harvey Rid Of Me - but also fresh in the air are The Boredoms' Chocolate Synthesizer (fucking genius) and Slint's Spiderland. All a bit 'boy' I know, as is my recent reading of Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life.
And the retyping for blog posting happened to a soundtrack of Dinosaur Jr's The Wagon, Quetzalcoatl by J Church, and Trumans Water's Spasm Smash X X X Ox Ox Ox & Ass. Go, spend your pounds, or find a filesharing service with these treasures available.
Snakeoil
So what in the fuck are they trying to sell me now? Well nothing, ain't that novel? You can walk outta here and buy cars guns beer women liposuction records apartments bus tickets illegal labour stamps smack towels and fucking anything.
So this? This is just a bunch of thoughts. Read it use it to soak up a spill, take this piss, whatever makes you happy. Hopefully you'll put down your own thoughts - in a song, blog, zine, poem, letter - maybe even argue and/or contribute. And what's in my thoughts this week and most weeks? Poetry - lame or what?
Lame
To my ever decreasing circle of friends this is an old rant, but the hell with that. No-one reads poetry. Well, maybe 10,000 or so will buy John Hegley or something else popular. That's what, one in six thousand of the population? That's a real minority. But what about slam poetry, performance shit? Well in Cardiff readings and slams make about 30 audience. In Manchester you peak around 60, in London it may be a bit more. So it's about one in ten-thousand - even worse. More people get wasted on vodka on Friday.
So why in the hell should we care? I gotta say I dunno why you should care, but for me it's simple. If you read, write or perform (or watch) poetry then you're thinking, and engaging with something. Or at least you fucking oughtta be. There are poets who only make me think 'man this sucks'. Essentially, if you create poetry for an audience you're creating for such a small minority there's no point following any orthordoxies. You hear, you're free, free, free to do whatever you like. That's a rare and liberating thing - go use it.
I'm scared
Yeah, but how much more scary would it be if poetry was a big thing with fixed ways. Just think if it all had to be Keats, Tennyson, Eliot, Ted Hughes, all those dead white guys. Even the live white guys all over the media are pretty drab to imitate. But since the audience they attract is the exact same proportion as you. The field is yours to do with as you like.
In this and later editions of abase I'll come back to this freedom. In the meantime I'll say this - put down the poetry books, don't even bother with 'em. If you wanna enjoy poetry forget about the stuff in books and magazines, don't bother with all that shit they spoon you out in school, or in those '100 Poems To Make Your Empty Life Full Again' anthologies. That's not poetry - it's raw cultural conditioning, it's lifestyle, it's bullshit. More importantly it's dead, irrelevant and a ripoff. It's dead because... well, it's flatlining, you've seen the figures. It's irrelevant because... well for the same cost as a poetry book you can get a cd, or something interesting to read.
Get music
You want lyrical invention you want rap - you want Outkast, Public Enemy, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas etc. You want Missy Elliot, Radiohead, Kinesis, Peter Tosh - fuck it, go look for yourself.
The thing is music can contain a lot of smart, inventive, diverse talents. Whereas poetry's a small, insular nothing scene. Unambitious and often not that smart.
But there are not many of us. We need to get smart, stick together, find new ways of doing poetry, and just keep pushing. Cos sooner or later when we have something worthwhile we'll break through to the mainstream.
PoetryOkay, so apart from being a less popular activity than getting pissed what else does poetry have going to recommend it? Who should I read? And what the fuck is poetry anyway?
I'm not sure what else poetry's got to recommend it, except that it's been a dead form for so long it's much easier to do what in hell you want with it. At least that's my excuse.
I'm not going to tell you who to read - you can find out for yourself. For my part, because of my opinions, I like Adrian Mitchell, Pascale Petit, Tony Harrison, Sacha Karaulov and others. But go figure it for yourself.
As for what poetry is - well like I said earlier, it's been dead so long it can be whatever the fuck you want. The stuff I write is coming out of listening to music (and to a lesser extent from movies) rather than reading poetry. Hell, I even think of my poems as songs.
But wait
I didn't really say what poetry is yet. Traditionally it was pretty strict rhyme and rhythm, short lines, verbal effects, elevated or sparse diction. To me that's all dead. You can have one word, one letter lines, or just write it like prose. You can rhyme or not, I don't. You could rhyme every other word if you want. Rhythm I still try to use, but not in the sense of metrics (I've got a long, boring discussion of this, but not here). Poetry can be a political rant, a list, a joke, swearing, any length, written in whatever way you want. I'd say it's not a form or a way of writing, but a way of seeing - it's whatever's poetry to you. Hope that helps you.
Okay then, consume this
The immediate backdrop to writing this is a soundtrack of Dead Kennedy's Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, and PJ Harvey Rid Of Me - but also fresh in the air are The Boredoms' Chocolate Synthesizer (fucking genius) and Slint's Spiderland. All a bit 'boy' I know, as is my recent reading of Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life.
And the retyping for blog posting happened to a soundtrack of Dinosaur Jr's The Wagon, Quetzalcoatl by J Church, and Trumans Water's Spasm Smash X X X Ox Ox Ox & Ass. Go, spend your pounds, or find a filesharing service with these treasures available.
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