'World Poetry Anthology' edited by Hassanal Abdullah

 

 

David Gill and I are delighted to be included in this new anthology of poetry from across the globe, compiled and edited by Hassanal Abdullah to mark 25 years of his international poetry journal, Shabdaguchha.

This volume published by Darklight Publishing (New York and Mexico) features, among many others, poems by Pablo Neruda, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, Peter Thabit Jones (poet, writer and editor of The Seventh Quarry Press), Louise Glück and Lidia Chiarelli.  

You can buy the anthology here. 

David's poem is a nod to Edward Thomas. My poem, 'Preseli Blue', concerns a bluestone from Stonehenge and was triggered by the sight of one of these boulders on display in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, way back in 2001.  

Previous post: click here.

2019 Immagine & Poesia E Book, a 100th Birthday Tribute to Lawrence Ferlinghetti

January 2012, New York

The 2019 Immagine & Poesia E Book of international poems (some in French, some in English) and artworks has been launched. It is a 'Special Edition for Lawrence Ferlinghetti's 100th Birthday' and can be downloaded and viewed online.

I am delighted to have a poem included, a piece inspired by my visit to The Guggenheim in New York, and written in some ways as a response to Ferlinghetti's intriguing poem, 'Spring About To Happen'.

The E Book can be found by clicking the links below.

• Free download
• Online on ISSUU

Poets and artists in the volume come from many different countries, including Italy, France, USA, Canada, UK, South Korea, Mongolia, India, Argentina, Israel, Egypt and Iran. Do take a look.

Thank you so much, Lidia Chiarelli and Huguette Bertrand, for producing this colourful and wide-ranging birthday edition.

Immagine e Poesia was founded in Torino in 2007 under the patronage of the late Aeronwy Thomas, daughter of Dylan Thomas. You can read more about the movement here.

Poet Profile: The Seventh Quarry Poetry magazine

Leaving Ellis Island and Liberty Island, New York, 2013

Issue Twenty-Five of The Seventh Quarry has just been published.

It hardly seems possible that this poetry magazine from Swansea has reached its quarter-century of issues already. Editor Peter Thabit Jones has worked with tireless enthusiasm to make the magazine the eclectic and international publication it is today. Thanks are also due to Stanley H. Barkan of Cross-Cultural Communications in New York, who has collaborated with Peter from the outset, and to Vince Clemente, the magazine's Consultant Editor in America.

The current issue contains contributions from America, Wales, Israel and Czechoslovakia, to name but half the places mentioned on the back cover.

I feature in the Poet Profile slot in this issue, along with four of my poems - including one about Ellis Island, hence the picture above from my visit to this unusual destination in 2013.

The issue includes the poem, 'Oasis', by Jean Salkilld. This poem about Syria is particularly poignant at the present time. Jean has just brought out her first full collection with The Seventh Quarry Press - The Familiar Road, which I am reading which much enjoyment.

If you would like to take out a subscription to The Seventh Quarry, details can be found on Peter's website here. 

And finally... back in 2012 Peter published my Poet to Poet chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson: I am posting a picture of the cover.

The Holy Place

Book Review of Ekphrastic Poetry ~ Immagine & Poesia by Lidia Chiarelli

Image: Caroline Gill

'A windmill of sounds and fluorescent colours' *

Immagine & Poesia (subtitled 'The Movement in Progress') is a beautiful book in which the poet, Lidia Chiarelli, has placed her bilingual English-Italian poems alongside the work of artists. Aeronwy Thomas described the result in terms of 'moments of cross fertilization', for something unusual happens when Chiarelli's lyrical lines are read in their assigned context. The words and the artwork have been paired with great care and imagination. It would be fair to say that many - perhaps most - of the artworks are in some way described in the lines of their accompanying poems, as is demonstrated on p.40 when 'the Statue of Liberty raises her torch'; but these poems are more than descriptions of art. They could doubtless stand alone; but in this book, each poem becomes something greater than the sum of its parts when it connects with its image. It is as if a firework and a lighted match have come together unexpectedly to ignite the poetic landscape by releasing a multitude of coloured sparks.  

This exciting volume has been published by Cross-Cultural Communications (editor Stanley H. Barkan) in New York. The selected artworks represent a wide range of media, from pen-and-ink (Boats by Marsha Solomon) to fine-art photography (Traces of Pollock No. 3 by Adel Gorgy). The images have all been beautifully produced on quality paper and it is good to be able to see both the English and Italian language versions and their accompanying image on a single double-spread. Abstract images (Cerulean Shorelines by Carolyn Mary Kleefeld) are interspersed with more concrete pictures (the 'wonder wheel' in Coney Island by Alessandro Actis), creating a not only a pleasing sense of balance but also that important element of surprise.

Chiarelli is fond of epigraphs, and these range from a Dylan Thomas quotation to a description of water by Lao Tzu, penned in the seventh century BC. Dylan Thomas and his daughter, Aeronwy, have been significant influences, in addition to American poets such as Walt Whitman and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Chiarelli's style, however, is very much her own. Her lines are often short and her stanzas burst with light, shade and colour.

* quotation from 'Coney Island' p.46



About Lidia Chiarelli ...

Lidia lives and works in Torino in the north of Italy. She is one of the Charter Members of IMMAGINE & POESIA, an artistic literary movement founded at TEATRO ALFA (TORINO) on November 9, 2007.
See: Saatchi online

Lidia Chiarelli Immagine & Poesia -The Movement in Progress - A Cross-Cultural Communications Edition, NY, 2013 ISBN 978-0-89304-994-2

'The Holy Place' chapbook: Review Corner

The Holy Place by John Dotson and Caroline Gill (£3.50 inc. p&p in UK)

Online Reviews

• Matt Merritt has posted a review (here on his Polyolbion site) of my poetry chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson. The chapbook is published by Peter Thabit Jones (The Seventh Quarry Press, Swansea) in conjunction with Stanley H. Barkan (Cross-Cultural Communications, New York).

• Juliet Wilson's review can be found here on her Crafty Green Poet site. You might also care to read this (feline orientated) page on Juliet's blog. 

• Sally Evans, editor of Poetry Scotland, has just posted a review here on the Poetry Scotland Reviews blog. 

My thanks to Matt, Juliet, Sally. Further comments on the The Holy Place can be found here.

Copies of The Holy Place can be purchased (£3.50, inc. UK p&p) via the email link here.

Publication Pointer: The Holy Place Chapbook

More details of this chapbook can be found here

How would you define a chapbook?

I have been asked this question a few times since my recent 2012 chapbook (above), co-authored with John Dotson, was published.

Most people are au fait with 'poetry pamphlets'; and in many or most cases today, a chapbook and a pamphlet are synonymous. Indeed, some Oxford Dictionaries say as much. What fascinates me, however, is the origin of the word, 'chapbook'. Perhaps chapbooks are more widely known these days on the western side of the Atlantic.

Here are a few facts:

• the word has its origin in the 'chapmen' or itinerant hawkers, who by the 1600s would often peddle small stitched-together pamphlets of poems, ballads, alphabets and short prose. The Old English for such people was céapmann. Our word, 'cheap', is linked to this, and was originally indicative of a good deal. 'Chap' as in 'very good chap' came to mean a potential or actual customer. An 18th century example of the word appears here.
• chapbooks reached the height of their appeal in the last quarter of the 18th century.
• the historical progress of the chapbook is hard to document because few records were kept by those who sold these small works - and many chapbooks were 'of the moment' and not produced with longevity in mind.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge published his 1796 series entitled The Watchman in chapbook format, thereby giving the reputation of the chapbook a facelift.
• The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine (who was born not far from here in Thetford) was published in chapbook form. Thousands of copies of this publication were produced.   

I hope to be reading from The Holy Place at the monthly Poetry Cafe in Arlington's, Ipswich, on Tuesday 6 November 2012. The Poetry Cafe is open to all (small fee to cover costs) and begins at 7pm. Do come and join us ... and bring a poem to share. 

If you would like to find out more about The Holy Place, there is a link here to my website. This commissioned chapbook has been published by Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press in Swansea in conjunction with Stanley H. Barkan of Cross-Cultural Communications, New York.

The commissioned chapbook series runs as follows:

Poet to Poet #1: Bridging the Waters: Swansea to Sag Harbor
by Vince Clemente and Peter Thabit Jones (2008)

Poet to Poet #2: First and Last Things
by J.C. Evans and Annabelle Moseley (2009)

Poet to Poet #3: Nightwatch
by Aeronwy Thomas and Maria Mazziotti Gillan (2010)
 
Poet to Poet #4: Poems East Coast/West Coast
by Stanley H. Barkan and Carolyn Mary Kleefeld (2010)

Poet to Poet #5: The Holy Place
by John Dotson and Caroline Gill (2012)
 
Poet to Poet #6
by Sultan Catto and Jean Salkilld - forthcoming

International Echoes (18): Emma Lazarus, The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty, 'The New Colossus'

I often keep an eye open for Carol Rumen's 'Poem of the Week' as her choices are often fascinating and slightly off the beaten track.

The latest poem to fall under the spotlight, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, is no exception. It is a sonnet that has been with me since January when I visited New York for the first time.

The harbour area around the statue is steeped in history, for it was the first point of contact for those who arrived by sea as immigrants from Europe. The towering Statue of Liberty would have greeted them as they moved on to land at Ellis Island for 'processing'. Those who were well and fit for work moved on swiftly to the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, where they caught their trains to the places that would soon become 'home'.

Ellis Island, in particular, was a fascinating, if at times heart-rending, outpost to visit. The huge institutional walls echo with the sound of multicultural stories. The exhibitions were first rate rate, and we greatly enjoyed an afternoon in the American Family Immigration History Center, tracing one of my Scottish-Australian ancestors who would have passed through New York before I was born, en route for Britain.