This week’s surreal-absurd sampler is Matthew Haigh. Poems that use the cut up technique and “centre around cult television shows with a warm, gay-icon slant (The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote respectively). Utilising the internet movie database (IMDB).”
Category Archives: ABSURDIST LITERATURE
Chrissy Williams
Here is another installment of the surreal-absurd feature at Mercurius Magazine. The poet Chrissy Williams. From her just released book Low (Bloodaxe).
Vik Shirley
Enjoying curating the surreal-absurd feature in Mercurius magazine. So much interesting work out there. Here is a selection of poems from Vik Shirley. From her chapbook Corpses and her collection, The Continued Closure of the Blue Door. The surreal is alive and well! Check em out over here
Zachary Schomburg
I am editing a surreal-absurdist feature for Mercurius magazine. Every other Monday, I will feature an absurdist/surrealist writer to tickle your fancies. First up, we have Zachary Schomburg. A selection of prose poems from his book Fjords vol.2, forthcoming from Black Ocean in May 2021. Read the selection over here.
Gravity Bubbles
In the heat of the first wave of Lockdown, I participated in an collaboration with the poets Calliope Michail and Chris Gutkind. We decided to call it Gravity Bubbles to emphasize both the gravity of the situation (we were all feeling the heaviness of lockdown in the UK and Spain), and the power of art to lift us, distract, redirect us, recreate us.
Post Punk
Terrific review of Never Mind the Beasts in Idler magazine by Robert Greer. “Stylewise it would appeal to fans of both abrupt American Lydia Davis and Soviet absurdist Daniil Kharms . . . A Portrait of the Artist for the Tyskie and Kimchi generation.”
Han Shan
Han Shan/Cold Mountain is a figure from the Chinese Tang Dynasty. His poetry is in the Taoist and Chan Buddhist tradition. No one knows who he was, when he lived and died, or whether he actually existed. He was a hermit and wrote his poems on rocks. Han Shan, jazz, Buddhism, and surrealism, were influencesContinue reading “Han Shan”
Two former students
Forgetful Numbers by Vasko Popa
A fairy tale for numbers by the poet Vasko Popa. Terrific nighttime reading.
BLACK HOLE
A story about cosmic evolution, romance, beards & shaggy carpets. From my book The Green Monk. “Where is your black hole? Only survival of the fittest. Black holes.”
