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Category: MARCUS SLEASE POETRY
Nomadic surrealist poetry by Marcus Slease
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A selection of my surreal-absurd prose poems from The Green Monk has just been published in Slovak in the magazine Vertigo. Such beautiful book art. Nice to hold in the hand. The poet Vik Shirley is also in there. Happy as Larry!
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An ongoing nomadic surrealist journey. That’s what I’ll call it. Also funk. Nomadic surrealist funk. Here is a sample from the ongoing project: Tangling Llamas on the Tresses of the Sun.
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Here are “The Leftovers.” From my book The Green Monk. A poem about the wonder bread of Jesus. But really Jerry. His gold chain. His hardness.
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Are you the stinky thinker? It is hard to not become the stinky thinker. There are so many games and we forget to play them. Pull my finger. Pull my finger. Here is a low-key reading of the prose poem “Moon Pie.”
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Here is a low key reading of my prose poem “Sandals” in issue Sprung Formal 18. Perhaps my last publication as Slease.
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Happy as Larry to have prose poems in new issue of Sprung Formal from the Kansas City Art Institute. Beautiful art object too. Maybe my last publication as Slease. Stinky thinker alerts in South Korea. Fiestas in Sitges. I am no longer wearing socks with my sandals.
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Delighted to have two new prose poems over at Anthropocene poetry magazine. After the Mormon mission, searching for new spiritualities. Fleshy and soulful. One of the poems a part elegy for my uncle Billy in Portadown. A painter.
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Another working class story. Somewhere America. Another immigrant story. But really, also, a father story. More than one father story. Identity tags, please. Northern Ireland. Belfast. Shankill. Somewhere Utah. Homeless. There are so many fathers. Too many fathers. Not enough fathers. These pyramids of fathers.
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“The soul delights in the body. When we arrived, we discovered we had never left. When we departed, we discovered we had already arrived. The soul needs a sweaty handjob. Pretty souls in sweaty flavours. Perky souls in sweaty colours.”
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A portfolio of my poetry, from my manuscript Smashing Time, has just landed at Tupelo Quarterly. Mormon missions, pioneer days with armies of bonnets, candid camera as newly arrived immigrants in America. Fallen fathers, sick fathers, war fathers. Learning from the smiles of dead men, sure of their mission, munching on grass. Lotsa journeys in…
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On the day between the dead and the living, returning again to the beginner’s mind of creation. On the day between the dead and the living, the spirit of The Green Monk has returned to me. There are so many countries floating through me. The country of childhood is one of them. That feeling of…
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Back in the day at the Horse Hospital in London versions of my poems from book Rides . . 2011 . . a different time . .
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I used to write on trains. I wrote a whole book of train rides. It is called Rides. You can buy it here. It is maybe my favourite book. Here is a sample. This one is the train ride to Brighton. Forwards and backwards. It is about my mission.
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How is your heart. Does it spark. Here is a prose poem from my book Puppy (Beir Bua Press). Available over here.
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Here is a poem, recently published in New World Writing, about sex dolls, love, and The Cure. It takes place on a Friday.
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Happy to have my work in this folio of prose poems. It is an interesting one- the prose poem. Sometimes I think I will go back to line breaks, but then the prose poem pulls me back in there. The cadence of the new sentence. The space between them. But lately, more and more surreal-absurd…
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Super thrilled, after a long spell of no-gos, to have five prose poems at New World Writing. Sex dolls, rhinestones, squirrels, mojo, and a winter pouch.
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“Are you back in your childhood, says Mandy. Back, says Charlie. There too, says Mandy. I’ve always loved my smurfs, says Mandy. The little blue people. It was hard not to chew them.”
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Here is a little alien poem from my book Play Yr Kardz Right (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2017). The poem is called “Waking Leif.”
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Some of my surreal-absurd poems (from 2010-2014) have been translated into Polish and Danish at Lyrikline, from various collections, most especially Rides (Blart Books) and Smashing Time (miPoesias).
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A recording of my reading and discussion from The Green Monk and Hermit Kingdom (my manuscript in progress), along with the fabulous poet Colin Herd, is now up with Home Stage on Youtube. Some animal prose poems, fables, magic, surrealism, absurdism, and optimism.
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On Wednesday June 9th, I am reading with the fabulous Colin Herd for Home Stage in the U.K. The event will be streamed live via Youtube. I’ll be reading animal prose poems from my book The Green Monk, as well as some new work from my manuscript in progress: Hermit Kingdom. Surrealistic, minimalist, and sometimes…
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I am just getting started with the surreal-absurd feature for Mercurius Mag. In the coming weeks, we have some stellar poems from Vik Shirley and Chrissy Williams. To join the conversation, I have featured a few of my own surreal-absurd tales and prose poems. Click HERE to read the selection of surreal absurd tales from…
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In my youth I ate Jesus body. With Jerry. It was Wonder Bread. Here is the story. A prose poem from The Green Monk (Boiler House Press). It’s called “Leftovers.”
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In 2014, I read with Grzegorz Wroblewski at the Rich Mix in East London. My poems, from this collaborative reading in 2014, have now been edited into a new manuscript entitled HUNGRY GHOSTS. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right frame for a book. Hopefully someday it will be published. A recording of…
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Do you like shiny? There is a nice shiny issue of BOAAT from BOAAT Press. I have a shiny poem in there. check it out: http://www.boaatpress.com/bathtub-25
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I’ve got some horses over at Bear Review. The horses are Leonora Carrington’s horses too. The poem is part of my book The Green Monk (Boiler House Press). Check out the horses here
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Alchemia is a place in the old Jewish area of Krakow. Old world Bohemian. It is also a practice. I wrote “Alchemia” in Alchemia with the aid of the mercurial paintings of Leonora Carrington. “Communion” and “First Star” and “Snow Globe” and “Trinkets” in “Psychic Marmalade” (from my book The Green Monk) were written around…
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A little winter journey through The Green Monk. Written, mostly, while staying in the old Jewish quarter of Kraków (Kazimierz), right before Christmas. The year 2016. Inspired by various surrealisms, especially Leonora Carrington and Salvador Dali. The Green Monk is available from Boiler House Press. They make very fine books!
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Here in Spain, nearing the end of the first week of strict lockdown, no walking or exercising outside. Just brief and quick visits to Lidl every few days to buy groceries. 80% or so of people in masks on the street. A few people fully covered with only their eyes showing. Everyone on edge, especially…
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In 2016, I received a commission from the Austrian Cultural Forum in London to write something in the spirit of the Vienna Secessionists. I was super happy to have one of the poems from the commission in the faith issue of Tin House Magazine. The poem, “Sacred Spring,” was also published in my book The…
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When I moved to Madrid, in the summer of 2016, I learned Spanish expressions. One of them was “a bug in the house.” It was also my first year with the famous Spanish lottery. Lower middle class living per always, the lottery was tempting. & we played, like so many millions (or is billions) of…
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I used to deal with the body and blood of Jesus, on a Sunday, kneeling over it. I was mostly an introverted quiet kid and Jerry was stud muffin. I lifted weights in gym, but only my legs got bigger. Jerry had rock hard cleavage. His hair was perfect. He wore a gold chain when…
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In 2016, I received a commission from the Austrian Cultural Forum in London to write something in the spirit of the Vienna Secessionists. Here is one part of the commission, published in The Green Monk as “Great Expectations.”
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Here is a prose poem from The Green Monk. Written in a poorly ventilated, black mold infested room in London, reminiscing about the glory days of the late 90s, bleached hair, bar dips for bigger bums. It is called “Built to Spill.”
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What is The Green Monk? It is many things. Hopefully, a good journey. Here are some questions, and brief answers, about influences, images, nomadic surrealism. The great project of reconciling dream and reality. Thank you Boiler House Press.
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Time is moving fast and faster. 3 years in Spain after over 8 years in London, plus many other countries besides. The thrill of new places, like the thrill of anything, has a short lifespan, but it is still good, overall, here. Madrid was the first city, before here near Barcelona, and it is a…
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Collage was invented by the surrealists and Max Ernst took it to another level. Now, of course, collage is a common method, but it is still magical. There are so many ways to do it, in language and visual arts etc. Play Yr Kardz Right is almost 3 years old. It came after Rides, which…
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This prose poem/flash fiction, entitled “Feast Day,” from my book The Green Monk (Boiler House Press 2018), is about the anticipation of the feast day. There are many feast days. You can create your own. Leonora Carrington and Salvador Dali liked to mix surrealism and food. It is a good mix. This prose poem is…
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What is that big ball of energy? Is it alive? What is alive? Here is a prose poem from my book The Green Monk. It is all about the sun.
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A Sunday flashback. A wee reading, from my book Rides (2014), with cut ups and collages, straight from the heart and shuffled from the surrealist deck of cards called life.
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Super happy to have my surreal prose poem “Horses” (inspired in part by Leonora Carrington) nominated for the Best of the Net. Thank you Bear Review!!
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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.”
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Terrific review by Tom Jenks of my book The Green Monk. You can read it over at Stride magazine. Lydia Davis, Daniil Kharms. Yes please! The Green Monk is available from Boiler House Press. It has a very nice design. Good to touch. And also read.
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This is a song from my Irish childhood called chuck chuck cheese. It has been slightly altered. I sung it three times with different types of altered voices (high, deep, child’s voice) then combined them into one track and added old Freudian cartoon to go with it. You can listen over here: Chuck chuck cheeze
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Image: Trilogy of the Desert, Salvador Dali, 1946. Dali painted The Trilogy of the Desert shortly after moving to the United States in 1946. The desert was new to me, as an immigrant in America, from Northern Ireland to the Vegas desert. Snakes, also new, since St. Patrick chased them out. And also legs, since…
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A collaborative poetry experiment for the anthology Original Plus Dub (Hesterglock Press, 2019) edited by Paul Hawkins and Richard Skinner. The premise: to work with a collaborator (Richard Brammer), each producing an ‘original’ (text/poem/artwork, etc.) then swap works and ‘remix’ each other’s original piece. Here is one of our colloborations. It is called “Autechre.” The…
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from The Green Monk, Boiler House Press, 2018.
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Are you feeling wild. Beepers were wild, especially on studly belts, in the 1990s, in Southern Utah. Here is a studly poem. From my most recent book, The Green Monk (Boiler House Press). (image: Nancy Baker, ‘Wild Man’)
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from my latest book, The Green Monk (Boiler House Press 2018).
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from The Green Monk (Boiler House Press).
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Ancient elephants and Dalí. From my book The Green Monk.
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Super happy to have my book Play Yr Kardz in terrific list of books from Beach Sloth. Check ’em out over here
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A Polish Christmas poem. From The Green Monk.
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In Madrid there is a street called the street of lamps. It is called the street of lamps because they sell many lamps. It is also a street with cold floor cafe with sawdust and old medieval style damp alleyways with flowerpots on the balconies. I sat there, in the cafe, after wandering the street…
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Jerry sported gold chains, even when he broke the bread, the body of Jesus, and passed the little cups of water, the blood of Jesus. It was a thin one, there were thicker ones. It was the end of 1980s, North Las Vegas. French kissing was in the air. Here is a gold chain, from…
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There are so many. Dancers dance them. Lordly swans. Soft swans. Isn’t it time for the swans. Noise rock, post-punk, industrial and post-rock. Temperamental and beautiful. Here is a poem, from The Green Monk, about swans, written in London, in a bone cold room, during winter, warmed by swans, and the thought of swans, and…
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The Candle in the Pumpkin From my new book The Green Monk.
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Zapiekanka? Yes please!! Here is a flash fiction, written during Christmas 2016 in Krakow Poland, in the historic Jewish quarter of Kazimierz. Frommy book The Green Monk. Available from Boiler House Press.
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The Green Monk is out in the world. Collaborations with the paintings of Dali and Leonora Carrington. The green parrots of Garcia Lorca and Paul Celan. The queer erotics of swans. The mysteries of milk in Madrid. Soul suckings. Bazaars and border fluencies. Nomadic surrealist prose poems written in Krakow, Katowice, Madrid, London and more. And…
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Super happy to have my horse poem in the new issue of Bear Review. It is from my book The Green Monk. This poem, in the new issue of Bear Review, is surrounded by many other magical poems and art, and it is a poem, in part, about the garden of eden. It was written…
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The Green Monk is heavily influenced by Surrealist writers and painters who have lived or passed through Madrid in the first part of the 20th century. It is also influenced by nomadic surrealist wanderings around Europe. It has four movements: Built to Spill Psychic Marmalade The Green Monk Great Expectations Here is an excerpt from the…
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A nice spotlight on Dostoyevsky Wannabe over at The London Magazine by Robert Greer. Greer describes the presses radical approach to publishing, in both design, distribution, and content: “With their books retailing at around £5 each, accessibility seems to me an important part of Dostoyevsky Wannabe, and the most obvious comparison for me is the independent record…
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I am very happy and excited to announce my new book, The Green Monk, is now available for pre-order. The Green Monk is a dreambox or a sweatbox of a sugar skull. A black hole full of hairspray and cigarette butts where the deer are twitching. It is the great urn of space dust where yellow…
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As an immigrant in America I was obsessed with ninjas and invisibility. Also pink hot dogs. I was no good with baseball but liked the slap of the leather. My first pair of American sunglasses were made of gold plastic. Every journal entry ended with I am a warrior of light. Here is the poem.…
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Did you watch Watership Down, the cartoon, as a wee lad or lass? Was it scary? I think it is still scary. The theme song, with its chorus of bright eyes burning like fire, still haunts me. How about Roland Rat? Roland Rat with the floppy doll of my brother before we immigrated to the…
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Fluland published 10 of my nomadic surrealist stories/prose poems from my book The Green Monk (forthcoming from Boiler House Press on 5th November 2018). Some Las Vegas immigrant stories. Gold chains and french kissing. Aliens and fig leaves. German Edelweiss hidden in bibles. And much more! Thank you Fluland!! Check ’em out over here: http://www.fluland.com/2017/05/10/ten-poems-marcus-slease/…
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I have two prose poems in The Stockholm Review of Literature from my book of surrealist prose poems. The book is called The Green Monk. Forthcoming from Boiler House Press on November 5th 2018. One of the poems is based on Dali painting. The other based on a late night in London. They are called…
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https://nevermindthebeasts.bandcamp.com/album/never-mind-the-beasts Folk surrealism. Experimental electronic. Magical realism. Immigrant stories. Outsider art. A journey!! A collaboration between UK musician Stephen Emmerson and Madrid-based writer and performer Marcus Slease. Available over at Bandcamp: https://nevermindthebeasts.bandcamp.com/album/never-mind-the-beasts (album cover by outsider artist Grzegorz Wroblewski)
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A few years ago The National Poetry Library in London invited me to record a poem. I decided to read my poem”The Fly“. After the death of my brother Aaron, I began having a series of dreams about flies. Every night the flies came. One night, I tried to speak to one of them.…
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Super happy to have my poem “Feedback” in Poetry magazine. It is part of my manuscript The Green Monk, forthcoming from Boiler House Press in November 2018. It was composed while ingesting everything written by the great Lydia Davis. I can’t help wondering if some of her approach to writing leaked in there, but also other…
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My partner Ewa and I visit Poland for Christmas every year. My partner Ewa is from Katowice so that is our home base. During our summer visits we explore mountains and villages, but at Christmas it is mostly family. However during Christmas 2016, after 4 months of living in Madrid, our new home base after…
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Some of my poems from Hello Tiny Bird Brain (a chapbook from Knives, Forks, and Spoon Press in the U.K.) are now available in Polish. Translated by Adam Zdrodowski. These poems in Polish originally appeared in the Polish magazine Helikopter and are now published in Helikopter‘s terrific anthology of Polish poetry – Przewodnik Po Zaminowanym Terenie [A…
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A terrific launch last night of The Spirit of the Bathtub with Grzegorz Wroblewski reading from his latest work (in English) Zero Visibility (translated by Piotr Gwiazda). Super nice folks in the audience. Nice chats during and afterwards. We are not alone folks!
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Las Vegas, 1985, maybe August. I am a newly arrived immigrant in the United States of America. First Vallejo in a trailer park and then Las Vegas. Also, from a few years previously, a new religion, Mormonism. I was almost 12. On the border of puberty with a funny accent from Northern Ireland. Do…
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The new international issue of Past Simple out now. Manchester, New York City, Lisbon, London, Seattle, Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Liège, Madrid, Cambridge (MA), Worcester (MA), Pittsburgh, Prague, Eindhoven, North Queensland (Australia), and more . . . Edited by Marcus Slease and Grzegorz Wroblewski. The issue is full of wild, electric, strange & wonderful writing. Check it…
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The moon is sometimes bloated. There is so much. Just stop, slow down, take a look at your brain. It is very bloated. Put your thoughts in a balloon, maybe 99 red balloons, and pop them. Over and over. Here are some balloons. From my book The Green Monk, forthcoming from Boiler House Press on…
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My poem “Feedback” (part of my manuscript The Green Monk forthcoming from Boiler House Press) was published in the November issue of Poetry magazine. Nice! Folks published in the Nov issue of Poetry magazine were asked for readings lists. I’ve added mine. Some Tim Atkins, Jeff Hilson, Colin Herd, bill bissett, Victoria Brown, Isabel Waidner,…
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Nice book launch last night. Lots of folks scattered around the bookshop. Great chats with fab folks afterwards. Thanks for coming! Thank you Desperate Literature and Dostoyevsky Wannabe. Gud Tymz!
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MY NEW BOOK, PLAY YR KARDZ RIGHT, IS NOW AVAILABLE FROM THE RAD DOSTOYEVSKY WANNABE. ALMOST CHEAP AS CHIPS . . . BUY IT HERE: https://dostoyevskywannabe.com/original/play_yr_kardz_right HERE ARE SOME BLURBS “Marcus Slease’s gentle & generous engagements with the ephemera of almost-everyday life, coupled with a variant of bill bissett’s Lunarian English, and a sensuous, curious,…
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Seven of my current loves over at Swimmer’s Club. It is hard to choose seven. They are only seven. But maybe a good seven. There is the Czech nomadic surrealism of Lukas Tomin, the Canadian surrealism of Guy Maddin. Sun Araw, The Seventh Seal, Leonora Carrington, Chika Sagawa. So many greats. What a life! Check…
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AN INTERVIEW WITH POET MARCUS SLEASE IN CELEBRATION OF HIS UPCOMING BOOK FROM DOSTOYEVSKY WANNABE OVER AT ENTROPY https://entropymag.org/mushee-piez-fried-pineappulz-an-interview-with-poet-marcus-slease/
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Sneaky peek slash preview of some poems from Play Yr Kardz Right coming soon from the fabulous indie press Dostoyevsky Wannabe. Over at Swimmer’s Club: https://www.swimmersclub.co.uk/treadingwater/play_yr_kardz_right
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I answered some questions about Why I Write over at Slow Culture. A series that continues what George Orwell started over 80 years ago. A wee promo for my upcoming book Play Yr Kardz Right from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. Very shot minimalist answers about nomadic travel, surrealism, psychedelics etc. Trying to define yourself is like to…
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A wee performance at Desperate Literature Bookshop. Madrid. 14th April 2017.
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I am performing with London based poet Chris Gutkind at Desperate Literature bookshop in Madrid. April 14th. Tonight two poets (one local, one not) in a wham bam double thankya mam. Chris Gutkind mostly started out in Montreal and has lived in London for many years. He worked as a librarian in universities during most…
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THREE OF MY POEMS TODAY ON DAILY GRAMMA. THERE IS A NICE SWAN. http://gramma.press/daily/marcus-slease-three-poems/
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https://soundcloud.com/jjmars/saint-tom Setting: A government housing estate called Coffee Hall in Milton Keynes, UK. Characters: David Bowie, Neil Diamond, the Milton Keynes Bowl, hot air balloon, a mars bar,a rocket ship, an American mall, a playground, a 10 year old boy. Plot: a ten year old boy has just found out he is immigrating to the…
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A LITTLE STORY FROM MADRID. FROM MY ALMOST FINISHED MANUSCRIPT THE GREEN MONK. THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF BAPTISMS. IT BEGINS WITH A CLAY TEAPOT FOR THE NOSE.
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It is a saint day in East Madrid. The narrator learns Go Fish and King Alfred and peasants and burning cakes. The barbarians are at the gate. They learn to live simply. A true story. Is it Buddhism? Maybe! from my manuscript in progress Play Yr Kardz Right. https://player.vimeo.com/video/187478828 THE CAKES from JJMars on Vimeo.…
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Part of the reading from last night at Xing the Line. Poems and stories from ongoing manuscript The Green Monk. Influenced by Mormonism, Lydia Davis, Ivor Cutler, James Tate, and others. https://player.vimeo.com/video/171918072 Xing the Line Farewell Reading Part Two from JJMars on Vimeo.
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The best review of my work ever. Such a generous and insightful review of Rides. Thank you Laura Wetherington. https://laurawetherington.com/2016/06/17/marcus-sleases-rides/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obmm3xjknAc Blart Books. Available also via Amazon.
Never Mind the Beasts 