The Campus on the Hill by W.D. Snodgrass

Up the reputable walks of old established trees
They stalk, children of the nouveaux riches; chimes
Of the tall Clock Tower drench their heads in blessing:
``I don't wanna play at your house;
I don't like you any more.''
My house stands opposite, on the other hill,
Among meadows, with the orchard fences down and falling;
Deer come almost to the door.
You cannot see it, even in the clearest morning.
White birds hang in the air between
Over the garbage landfill and those homes thereto adjacent,
Hovering slowly, turning, settling down
Like the flakes sifting imperceptibly onto the little town
In a waterfall of glass
And yet, this morning, beyond this quiet scene,
The floating birds, the packyards of the poor,
Beyond the shopping plaza, the dead canal, the hillside lying tilted in the air,
Tomorrow has broken out today;
Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama;
Aged in wrong, the empires are declining,
And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence.
What shall I say to the young on such a morning?—
Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?—
No; my little ones lean not toward revolt. They
Are the Whites, the vaguely furiously driven, who resist
Their souls with such passivity
As would make Quakers swear. All day, dear Lord, all day
They wear their godhead lightly.
They look out from their hill and say,
To themselves, ``We have nowhere to go but down,
The great destination is to stay.''
Surely the nations will be reasonable;
They look at the world—don't they?—the world's way?
The clock just now has nothing more to say.


More at The Compendium.

my father moved through dooms of love by e.e. cummings

my father moved through dooms of love
through sames of am through haves of give,
singing each morning out of each night
my father moved through depths of height

this motionless forgetful where
turned at his glance to shining here;
that if(so timid air is firm)
under his eyes would stir and squirm

newly as from unburied which
floats the first who,his april touch
drove sleeping selves to swarm their fates
woke dreamers to their ghostly roots

and should some why completely weep
my father's fingers brought her sleep:
vainly no smallest voice might cry
for he could feel the mountains grow.

Lifting the valleys of the sea
my father moved through griefs of joy;
praising a forehead he called the moon
singing desire into begin

joy was his song and joy so pure
a heart of star by him could steer
and pure so now and now so yes
the wrists of twilight would rejoice

keen as midsummer's keen beyond
conceiving mind of sun will stand,
so strictly(over utmost him
so hugely)stood my father's dream

his flesh was flesh his blood was blood:
no hungry man but wished him food;
no cripple wouldn't creep one mile
uphill to only see him smile.

Scorning the pomp of must and shall
my father moved through dooms of feel;
his anger was as right as rain
his pity was as green as grain

septembering arms of year extend
less humbly wealth to foe and friend
than he to foolish and to wise
offered immeasurable is

proudly and(by octobering flame
beckoned)as earth will downward climb,
so naked for immortal work
his shoulders marched against the dark

his sorrow was as true as bread:
no liar looked him in the head;
if every friend became his foe
he'd laugh and build a world with snow.

My father moved through theys of we,
singing each new leaf out of each tree
(and every child was sure that spring
danced when she heard my father sing)

then let men kill which cannot share,
let blood and flesh be mud and mire,
scheming imagine,passion willed,
freedom a drug that's bought and sold

giving to steal and cruel kind,
a heart to fear,to doubt a mind,
to differ a disease of same,
conform the pinnacle of am

though dull were all we taste as bright,
bitter all utterly things sweet,
maggoty minus and dumb death
all we inherit,all bequeath

and nothing quite so least as truth
—i say though hate were why man breathe—
because my father lived his soul
love is the whole and more than all



More at The Compendium website.

The Shirehorses: Why is it Always Dairylea?

Mark and Lard's parody band The Shirehorses may be a hazy memory now, perhaps due to the fact that most of their songs were based on Britpop tunes that most people have either forgotten or not even heard of. (Remember The Seahorses?)

Still, you'd have to have lived a pretty sheltered life musically-speaking if you've never heard "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" by Travis which forms the basis of this masterpiece.

(This is a recording from Mark and Lard's final show for Radio 1.)

John Hegley

Is John Hegley a genius?

Well, that's up to you, isn't it?

All I'm going to say is that it's almost impossible to be a comedian a musician and a poet and succeed at all three at the same time. John Hegley's been consistently doing it for years, and I can't think of anyone else who has.

Conspiracy Theory Rock

This classic was removed from You Tube by NBC who cited "copyright issues". Never mind, it's available elsewhere (at least until NBC get their hands on it). Apparently this was aired once on US TV, but was never shown again. I wonder why.

Conspiracy Theory Rock | Break.com

Web Lit Roulette #5

A semi-random selection of highlights from the world of online literature...


The Boy With Two Mouths by James Coates from Stanley The Whale.

Not so Young Man by Paulus Kapteyn from Bad Penny.

Journal of the Rossignol Expedition to Yunnan by Inderjeet Mani from Blip Magazine.

Lost Dream by Joan McNerney from Step Away.

Car Trouble by The Doktorfrom Winamop.

Tokyo Girls in Science Fiction by Kyle Hemmings

Pleased to see the appearance of this free ebook by Kyle Hemmings, published by Nap Magazine - top quality flash fiction.

Read it here:

TOKYO GIRLS IN SCIENCE FICTION

Six Word Stories

This is from 2006 but I've only just discovered it so apologies for being 6 years late.

That Hemmingway bloke's got a lot to answer for. Forgive the sweeping generalisation, but usually six-word stories don't work at all (I guess because they're the lazy writer's form of choice), but there are some very big names featured in this article, some of whom have created mini-masterpieces.

Very Short Stories (Wired Magazine).

You're an Animal, Viskovitz!, by Alessandro Boffa - a one word review

Forgive my the inarticulate nature of this post, but here's my one word review of You're an Animal, Viskovitz! by Alessandro Boffa:

'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

I'll admit 17 exclamation marks don't strictly constitute a word, but this most accurately sums up my reaction to this book. I'm a sucker for non-human narrators in serious literature, so this series of anthropomorphic tales hooked me before I'd started reading. (You may have gathered I'm a sucker for wacky titles too.) I use the term 'serious literature' despite the fact that it's described as 'comic' on the cover. For all its laugh-out-loud moments, Boffa's book is thoughtful, philosophical and pretty mind-blowing, hence my '!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'.

More information here.

Web Lit Roulette #4

A semi-random selection of highlights from the world of online literature...


Donal Mahoney - People Who Live Above Stores from Carcinogenic Poetry.

Yellow by Howie Good from (This is)Disingenuous Twaddle.

A love story that takes place on the inside of a whale by J.A. Tyler from This Zine Will Change Your Life.

Spams by Hairee Lee from The Medulla Review.

The Back of Our Kneecaps And Our Shoulder Pits Sweat Into Another Day of Pavement by Mark Baumer from Kill Author.

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall - a one word review

My one word review of Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts is as follows:

"Silly."

I mean that in the nicest possible way. This book is sillier than any of Dan Brown's, and that's saying something. But it's not silly in the Monty Python sense of the word. It works as a thriller. I'm tempted to call it a complete reinvention of the genre.

It begins, disappointingly, with the central character waking up having lost a large chunk of his memory - a trick that's been pulled many times - but Steven Hall gets away with it because the book is very well-written. Aside from the memory loss bit, the novel is refreshingly cliché free, with many interesting (and very silly) ideas.

It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth reading. Where it fails, it fails in interesting ways.

Also, if there were award for "best chapter headings" (and there probably is), this book would be a clear winner.

Here's Steven Hall's page on the Canongate website.

Merry Christmas All You Gods

Last year we featured this great story by Rob Sherman (author of Valve Works) on the website, and we like it, so here it is again for the festive period...




Merry Christmas All You Gods by Rob Sherman.

A merry one to people of all faiths - see you in the new year.

Web Lit Roulette #3

A semi-random selection of highlights from the world of online literature.

This entry focuses on short stories (Kyle Hemmings’ Spiral pushes the boundaries of the form to the extent that it may not be a story at all, but you know what I mean).

The Great Frustration by Seth Fried (from the collection of the same name, published by Soft Skull Press - showcased on the Fifty Two Stories website.)

Map of the City by Valerie Laken (also from Fifty Two Stories)

A Dead Vampire by Madeline Dyer (from Madswirl)

Spiral by Kyle Hemmings (from Infinitys Kitchen)

The Uncertainty Principle by Samantha Schoech (from Big Ugly Review)

Interview with Frank Burton on Eight Cuts

OK, there's an interview with Mr Philistine, Frank Burton, on Dan Holloway's Eight Cuts here. It's good.

Thanks to Dan for doing the interview and for being one of our greatest supporters.

Tune of the Year: Spin That Girl Around by Euros Childs

Without a doubt, this is the best song I've heard in 2011. It burrows its way under your skin and nestles there comfortably like a joy-inducing parasite. It may only be two and a half minutes long, but it stays with you much longer.

It's from the album, "Ends," which is available to buy as a CD or download for free from www.euroschilds.com.

Web Lit Roulette #2

A semi-random selection of highlights from the world of online literature

As you may gather from this list, I tend to be attracted by interesting titles. It's a good way of getting your work noticed. They used to say, "Don't judge a book by its cover," but I think "don't judge a book by its title" is perhaps more appropriate when talking about online literature. It's definitely a good way of getting yourself noticed.


Crossing Shoal Creek by J.T. Ledbetter (from Haggard and Halloo)


The Woman Who Was a House by Sarah Layden (from PANK magazine)

'Facing by Michael Newsham (from Subtle Tea)

Harold’s Purple Crayon by Glen Armstrong (from Red Fez)

The Grand Canyon Brings People Together by Molly Prentiss (from Kill Author)

The Voyage Anthology

Here's a mention for a free ebook released by one of my favourite webistes (as regular readers of this blog may have gathered), Silkworms Ink.

The Voyage, edited by Chandani Lokuge & David Morley.



In their own words, "Welcome to the voyage, an innovative new anthology of writing by staff and postgraduates from both Monash in Australia and Warwick in England. We believe all writing, at its best, is creative writing. To that end we have drawn our distinguished contributors not only from English and Creative Writing but also from other departments in Humanities, from our Faculties of Science and Social Science, and from our Administration. What's more, we invited writers and scholars who have some practical connection with Warwick and Monash from both within and outside the academy."

Cool.

Patchwork on the Blues

Nice.

Web Lit Roulette #1

A new feature for this blog - Web Lit Roulette is a semi-random selection of literary highlights from the net. It’s impossible to sum up everything that’s happening online so I can only report on things I’ve discovered.

This first entry comes from www.poetrymagazines.org.uk, a large and expanding archive of out-of-print poetry magazines from the 20th and 21st Centuries (mainly from the last 15 years). You could spend hours and hours on this site, and it’s difficult to select particular highlights, but here are some things I like:

Pervert by Thomas McColl (from Global Tapestry Journal)

Decree Absolute by Rachel Kerr (from Rain Dog)

The Mushroom Woman by Geraldine Green (from Neon Highway)

Bluebottles by Fashion Penis (from The Ugly Tree)

Sir Osbert Sitwell, The Woman Who Could Not Die (from Poetry London Festival Issue, 1951)

"Alps" by Motorama

Ever wondered what Joy Division would've sounded like if they were from Russia?

Well, here's your answer. I just can't stop listening to this. Genius.