Description
Book SynopsisThe naturalist Gilbert White is at the heart of this collection. Like him, Jeremy Over explores an ecology with meticulous acuity. His poems are 'found in the field': the beauty and oddity of the language of others is brought into sharp focus. Robert Herrick's 'sweet disorder in the dress' is subjected to a series of disrobings; a guidebook, instruction manual and catalogue become occasions to celebrate the pleasures of language. Setting out from White's "Natural History of Selborne", Over embarks on a sequence of poems that, in White's words, lend 'an helping hand towards the enlargement of the boundaries' of natural history. A deep seam of Englishness - Stanley Spencer, Samuel Palmer, Henry Purcell - runs parallel to an American dimension, and further off in time and space are traces of Tristan Tzara, Rumi and Wang Wei. The reasonable language with which we try to contain the unreasonableness of things here trips, spins and flies into new figurations.
Trade Review"'Jeremy Over is the one to watch' - Lavinia Greenlaw, New Statesman & Society"
Table of ContentsEpithalamium ...and they lived happily until they died. Moustachioed Museum for Myself A Theory of Grasp A New Kind of Kiss Love is not a talent Badly Charred Delight in order Killer in the Rain A Common Pitfall Poetry should be made by all (i) The Lambent Itch of Innuendo Whip Tim Kelly Last Gasp, At the The Waterfall Illusion The Negatives Tree/Bush Blue American Experimental Music * Tring The enlargement of the boundaries Not but now and then The exhibition of the fishes Mingles with the forest I only know that Cursu undoso My female moose corresponds of roads. Hard references * Your Awful Voice Pastoral And some Poem beginning with a suggestion by Bengt Af Klintberg Being big The Call of the Drum and the Slap of Glory Kabir says A Man in the Wings The Yellow Orioles are equals now Birthday Haibun Several Senryu The North Cumbrian Coast Noses and Feet Leaving me Poetry should be made by all (ii) Pendolino
