never mind the beasts

DESTROYER AND PRESERVER

NOMADIC SURREALISM, The Autobiography of Don Whiskers

“Destroyer and Preserver” was written in Madrid in 2016, near La Elipa metro stop. It was my first year in Madrid, and Spain in general, and it was a very windy day. The rats were scuttling behind the dumpsters and some older couples were linking arms leaning into the wind. I ducked under an awning and began scribbling. Of course the poet Shelley came to mind. He wrote “Ode to the West Wind.” Maybe you know it?

So yeah transience. Change. It is good to remember. Life. What is it. How does it blow?

The prose poem merged with my novel manuscript The Autobiography of Don Whiskers.

Then it became part of an album called Never Mind the Beasts (available over at Bandcamp). A collaboration with the U.K. musician, artist, and writer Stephen Emmerson.

Take a listen over here to the track over here:

Destroyer and Preserver

 

 

 

 

 

NEVER MIND THE BEASTS: A NEW WEBSITE

NOMADIC SURREALISM

I just reached over half million visits on my blogger website Never Mind the Beasts.  A mile stone maybe. Thank you so much for stopping by!!

The blogger Never Mind the Beasts blog has now gone dark to avoid duplicate content.

Never Mind the Beasts now has its own domain and a new site. This is the new site.

I have moved posts from blogger to this site (2003-2018). Over the years, I have discovered some themes/interests in the blog posts: buddhism, NY School poetry, absurdism, indie publishing, surrealism, and especially travel. The travel writing is really a nomadic travel writing from living in many countries. Autofiction sometimes.

Then, a realisation. Most of books of poetry also deal with travel, but often with an absurdist or surrealist angle. Maybe a soft surrealism. So yes, nomadic surrealism. This is a nice label, as far as labels go, for my work. But only as long as it doesn’t become constraining, as most labels, or mean nothing, unless it is the good kind of nothing, the kind of nothing pregnant with possibilities. I like that kind of nothing. And also the nothing of liberation and freedom (Buddhism).

I am still unsure if I should have all the posts from 2003 until 2018. I am tempted to start fresh with 12 or so posts on this new website. Starting fresh is one of my favourite activities. Returning to a beginner’s mind.

It is nice to start fresh. Another reason for traveling. Starting fresh. Seeing things as if for the first time. This can also become a function of art. Starting fresh. A beginner’s mind.

Here are some rainbow puppies to celebrate this author website and blog:

 

 

 

 

HOLE IN THE MIDDLE

ABSURDIST LITERATURE, MARCUS SLEASE POETRY, the spirit of the bathtub

In 2012 I was living in Katowice, Poland. One of my favorite days was national donut day. It is a big deal in Poland and in Poland the donuts are very good. They are maybe my favourite donuts in the whole world. There really isn’t a hole in a Polish donut. You have to make your own hole. It is, however, a little round. But not as round as the prefab donuts in other countries. It is more imperfect, less round. There is no real round in nature. The Polish donut is closer to real nature. It is very filling.

Happy national Polish donut day!!

 


<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/255181941″>HOLE IN THE MIDDLE</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user7504768″>JJMars</a&gt; on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

THE ELEPHANTS

NOMADIC SURREALISM, the green monk

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 5th November 2018.

Available at The Elephants.

BROWN GIRL IN THE RING

NOMADIC SURREALISM

From my ongoing manuscript Never Mind the Beasts. Ring games. South London. Near Elephant and Castle. 1970s. We popped over to South London from Northern Ireland to escape The Troubles. I was a sensitive wee boy.


SAINT PRIMAL

NOMADIC SURREALISM

Currently finishing up my manuscript Never Mind the Beasts. Never Mind the Beasts is a book of saints with many settings, including: Lisbon, London, Milton Keynes, Hurricane, Portadown, Katowice, Faro, and Texas. It is a great mashup bursting with flavours, including: instructional essays, alien immigrant memoirs, erotic stories, vignettes, political fables, monologues, and travelogues. Never Mind the Beasts is part dreambook. Part travel handbook. Part absurdist realist mystery fables. Here is one of the poems. It is about your spine. How is your spine today?

PUBLIC POOL

MARCUS SLEASE FICTION, NOMADIC SURREALISM, The Autobiography of Don Whiskers

Have some wee London stories over at Public Pool with audio.

“Snug” and “Dinosaurs.”

From my novel in progress The Autobiography of Don Whiskers:

http://www.publicpool.org/dope/text/marcus-slease/

 

XING THE LINE FAREWELL READING

NOMADIC SURREALISM

I read at Xing the Line last night. My last reading before leaving to live in Madrid. On the eve of the big vote. Maybe I will not be gone long. Who knows. I hope I am still an EU citizen after today. Then again I have been meaning to change my passport for an Irish one for a while. But it is a pain. My birth certificate says Silcock. I used to be Silcock. At age six I become Slease. Names and nations. Ugh!

Also Spain is electing a government this week. I am learning how to count in Spanish. Also vegetables. And the pronouns. There is a long way to go.

Fantastic reading last night. At The I’Klectik Art Lab. In Old Paradise Yard. Near Waterloo. Great art space. A great pleasure to read with the fabulous artists/poets Laura Wetherington  (who is visiting all the way from Reno Nevada), and the amazing Stephen Watts. Great community. Great audience. We went to The Pineapple afterwards. Near William Blake’s house. Who has since departed.

Crossing my fingers for good results for UK tonight!