Category: NOMADIC SURREALIST PUNK
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Chris Gutkind Surreal-Absurd
This week’s surreal-absurd at Mercurius is Chris Gutkind. Wild rides through layers of the surreal. There’s even Rilke! Here is one of the poems from the universe. Read more of Chris Gutkind’s poems over here at Mercurius
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The Magic Unicorn
The unicorn is magic. I dreamed of unicorns in Istanbul. It is very ancient. The personal fork was invented by the Byzantines. Then our teeth changed. We developed the overbite. We bite off more than we can chew. This is a prose poem about the golden horn of Turkey. Also Byzantines. But really unicorns. Here…
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A Very Thin Crack
A surreal-absurd prose poem from my manuscript Dream Dust. Written while visiting southern Utah. This is called “The Narrows.”
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Julian Stannard Surreal-Absurd Poems
Peculiarity has its own poetic; the everyday is full of the absurd. Ultimately, the act of ‘making strange’ is, I believe, a subversive one, challenging commonsensical conservative-reactionary values. Poets whose work I’m fond of include Giorgio Caproni, Paul Durcan and Selima Hill and I particularly like the work of Leonora Carrington. – Julian Stannard This…
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STROKING SPADES
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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Joyelle McSweeney Surreal-Absurd Sampler
The tools we need for a reversal of fortunes are right in front of us, easily to hand. We must simply take up the weapons that harm us and REVERSE them.
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Surreal-Absurd at The Betsey Trotwood
My first public reading since 2017. Live at The Betsey Trotwood in London on 15th July. Happy as Larry to read with some stellar poets (Vik Shirley, Jane Yeh, Mark Waldron). Tickets are limited. Available over here at Eventbrite for the price of a fancy muffin (maybe): Ahead of the reading, here is a preview…
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From Puppy
it was only here for a short time. The book Puppy. Hope the dog puppy is here longer. Puppy love is short. This is not puppy love. Here is a reading of the opening to Puppy. The book sinks into oblivion, like everything, on June 30th 2023 when the press closes its shop. If you…
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Here comes Jerry
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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Moon Pie
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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Friday Prose Poem
Today’s prose poem is “Vanity, Wisconsin” by Maxine Chernoff. Published in 1979. How far we have traveled with our snapshots.
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Wednesday Wisdom Nuggets
Here are some sultry and less sultry wisdom nuggets for Wednesday. Courtesy of the poet James Richardson. In the year 2001. Oh the beginning of centuries.
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Jeremy Over
I’m not sure why I persist in associating absurdity with happiness when the concept is rooted in death and when a human induced sixth mass extinction has recently upped the absurdity stakes significantly. But here we are. ‘Now for lunch’ as Ron Padgett writes at the end of his poem ‘The Death Deal’.”
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Triple Humdinger from Beir Bua Press
Online reading and launch of Puppy (Marcus Slease), Grotesquerie for the Apocalypse (Vik Shirley), and Rhubarb (Tom Jenks) this coming Friday Nov 26th 2021. A Surreal-absurd feast! Grab you free tickets here
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BOOK LAUNCH OF PUPPY
Puppy is being launched and celebrated with two other terrific books and writers next Friday 26th November 8PM UK time. A Surreal-absurd evening with Marcus Slease, Tom Jenks, and Vik Shirley. Come join us!!! Free tickets for the online event here
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NEW BOOK COMING SOON!
There was loneliness and isolation in a foreign country. We all wanted to go for a walk. Out there in nature where we all belong. Having a puppy is not easy. There is lots to learn about training a puppy. We are in a big net full of jewels and each jewel reflects the other…
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The Dreamlife of Shawarmas
Here is a reading of four prose poems recently published in The Lincoln Review. From the streets of Barcelona (Gracia) and Castelldefels.
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The Lincoln Review
Happy to have some new work in issue 2 of The Lincoln Review. A literary magazine produced by students at the University of Lincoln. Some prose poems from my manuscript in progress (currently entitled Hermit Kingdom). You can read the poems here.
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Death’s Door
Hairy time at hospital for seven days. Emergency operation. Death’s door creaked open, then shut again. I am still here. Loving what I loved ever more! Here is a prose poem about the universe. From my book The Green Monk (Boiler House Press, 2018).
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Army
Art and life are coming together. Puppy training is leaking into my micro stories. Here is one from today. It’s called Hand Signals:
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Three from Silesian Soul
Finally finding my feet again after a long year teaching high school. Working on a book of micro fictions (tentatively called Hermit Kingdom). Here are three from the “Silesian Soul” section. Sailors, moon rabbits, a bardo pond.
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Adam J Maynard
“Gallons of Gertrude Stein, smatterings of Edith Sitwell and Stevie Smith. Mouthfuls of Michaux, currents of Kafka and Carrington, Donald Barthelme dropping around for tea.” Some terrific new poems by Adam J Maynard. Check em out in the surreal-absurd weekly sampler at Mercurius.
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Tom Jenks
“The world, of course, is absurd, even more so because it thinks it’s making perfect sense.” – Tom Jenks This week’s absurd-surreal sampler is from Tom Jenks. Humboldt squid, Subbuteo, ducks, druids, and the tragically overlooked 19th century Russian novelist. There are many delights for the fancies. Check out the poems over at this week’s…
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BEAN SPASMS
Bean Spasms, a collaborative book between Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett, continues to tickle my fancies. I am writing the puppy section of my work in progress, and ran across “Dog.” Here is a recording.
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Liberating Literature
After an exhausting year of high school teaching, summer has arrived and I am finally writing. Tim Atkin’s new big Buddhist book of everything, NOTHING CONCLUSIVE HAS YET TAKEN PLACE IN THE WORLD THE ULTIMATE WORD OF THE WORLD AND ABOUT THE WORLD HAS NOT YET BEEN SPOKEN THE WORLD IS OPEN AND FREE EVERYTHING…
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Jennifer L Knox
“I like to surprise my reader and myself as I write. To do that, I have to set up a familiar situation on the page in which expectations are clear, then subvert those expectations. To zag instead of zig. Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s weird and creepy and feels like a ghost is typing through…
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Isolation Collaboration
My friend in London, Chris Gutkind, created an art project to cope with isolation and lockdown. Photos on a cheapo phone camera. Paying attention to small details around his house. Day to day hopes, despairs, and wonders. Hopefully it will displayed in a gallery sometime this year. It is available to view now at PERMEABLE…
Never Mind the Beasts 