The latest VSK Chapbook is LEAVES by SJ Fowler. It is available for online consumption and PDF download here. It begins:
were it not for the spines would it rather not be fish backwards is it remarkable how much pain the bodies can endures? the spiny po cket puffer grenade the oligarch, raping his maid spread, like the kit they call a test that happens afterwards a fall
LEAVES was written for and first performed at Evergreen, X Marks the Bökship, London on March 30th 2012, part of an evening of readings, performances and soup around the theme of leaves, curated by VerySmallKitchen for the London visit of Márton Koppány.
There is a sense that poetry, or poets as a community (whatever that may mean), is unusually guilty of not appreciating those from previous generations who have the bad grace to remain alive beyond the first stay of their influence. Obscure in life is often followed by cult status in death, as though the poet’s inability to question interpretations of their work somehow qualifies such interpretations to take place. I would suggest this is hardly any more true of poetry than it is of almost everything in life – once gone, soon forgotten, until expiry somehow enshrines memory and allows an individual to focus comfortably on what is now static. Perhaps this is a beautiful thing – the maintenance of a resolute sense of change, with or without our permission. Poets however, do leave something which does not allow for such vagaries, and that is their poems, as concrete a record of their life as there is, which will often live long beyond them. But before that comes to pass, there is the opportunity some might view as a responsibility, for those who belong to a new generation of poetry, who are still being shaped, by their forebears as much as anything else, to reach out and connect with those who have come before, if not to learn from their practise and their experience, then just to sit back and watch how it is supposed to be done.
On Wednesday April 18th at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury, London, a privileged few were on hand to witness a rare occurrence that contradicted the often maudlin passing of the older generation. Four great poets who came to prominence in the 1960’s and have all maintained a relentless, brilliant and imperative writing practise in the fifty years or so since, read together, in reunion, with great humour, dignity, intelligence and generosity. Their mastery of poetry and their affability of manner provided the many in attendance, poets and readers of poetry what alike, an example of what might be the fruit of a lifetime spent as a poet – honest to conviction, ever humble in the service of is new, and what is exciting, about writing and reading poetry.
Without cynicism or fatigue, all four poets displayed an authority and a contentedness that represented the ubiquitous and almost taken for granted width of their influence. Not a single member of the quartet began writing to show those in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s what was possible in poetry, what could be achieved, what could re-understood, re-heard, reborn, and yet all the more for their sense of it being just about the poetry itself, they have continued to impact those lucky enough to witness, read and follow their work.
As Anselm Hollo read William Carlos Williams, poems written just ten years before his birth, as Gunnar Harding recounted his time in the Swedish mounted cavalry, as Tom Raworth casually, and gently, evidenced again why he is the greatest living British poet, and as Andrei Codescu lamented the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in kind with the end of secrets in the modern age, one could not help but get a sense of the inability to perceive just what they had collectively achieved, across hundreds of collections, thousands of readings and more than a dozen nations.
If it was true, as was said and probably is the case, that these four men will never again share a stage, then all the more do we benefit from taking a moment in their collective presence to consider what it is all for – the practise of being a poet, reading poetry, attending readings, living with a pen in our hands. It is just about the poem, and being honest to that poem, amidst the same responsibility as everybody else, to be a decent person, one who will help those coming after them with a selflessness and a generosity that belies any notion of the poet as some pretentious conduit for some pseudo-muse in a lofty tower of god given talent. It is precisely this harmful notion that these four men have done so much to destroy, to prove that poetry comes from a lived life, from wide reading, from being a person as well, if not before, being a poet. And should any poets from my generation achieve half of what these four have in their lifetime, they will indeed be counted among the very few.
Experimental poet and performer. Steven is arguably the most prolific and influential writer within contemporary avant garde poetics. He is a PhD student at the contemporary centre for poetic research at Birkbeck college, poetry editor of 3am Magazine and curator of the Maintenant performance series. Renowned in performance circles for the unparalleled vituosity and intensity of his readings, Steven is working with Ben Morris of experimental music act Chora, presenting a new work taking Jewish kabalah as its starting point for an exploration of linguistic violence and trace.
David Berridge, http://verysmallkitchen.com/another remarkable individual on the London poetry and art scene (for his activities as a organiser and art activist are as excellent as his own work and performances) was kind enough to invite me to cointribute to a night celebrating the work of Marton Koppany at the x marks the bokship http://bokship.org/in Bethnal green. The theme of the evening was Leaves, and I was joined by Nick-e Melville, Claire Potter, Lisa Jeschke amongst others. I wrote 18 poems specifically for the event
Exactly the kind of work that needs to be done is being done by Tom Chivers. Neither declarative nor factional, his work with Penned in the Margins has always struck me as thoroughly well considered and admirable. This anthology is an embodiment of that, a publication that genuinely adds to the litany of anthologies and offers the reader a remarkable width, depth and range of work. I was happy to have a poem included, and to read at the launch.
The poem i read was about Giorgio Petrosyan, probably my favourite kickboxer ever, if i had to choose one.
The work of Marek Kazmierski and Offpress is the kind of work Id like to be doing with Maintenant, its genuinely valuable and completely relentless. He was kind enough to invite me to chat about translation, and to allow me to invite others to do the same as well, when an event was staged at the Calvert 22 gallery in Shoreditch for the end of an exhibition on translated Polish poetry, which is what Offpress does. It is remarkable how much more fun it is to read someone else's work, and I am slowly becoming more acclimatised to reading in a gallery space rather than a boardroom / pub. The night rather belonged to Tim Atkins in my opinion though.
A few weeks ago the Maintenant reading series I curate debuted at the Southbank centre. Certainly in terms of venue and repute, it was a milestone for the series. If I'm honest I have never viewed my activities in organising poetry events through the lens of ambition, despite their frequency, I am always tinged with some reluctance around their doing, and as such I tend to just view each one as a separate entity. I have asked myself the question often enough of why I do organise events at all, and I think this sense of doubt is healthy. I am all but completely sure I do so for the right reasons now, to bring people together for enjoyable exchanges, to cultivate an atmosphere that I personally benefit from... None the less, I do believe once an event series stops running, it stops existing and if I were aiming to build a legacy or anything else, I would be a fool. This evening was an unusually intense one, with visa problems and last minute changes aplenty. None the less, it was considered a success and certainly it represented and width I always seek to advocate. Here is my intro to the night's proceedings.
Thanks to everyone who made our event last Saturday evening at the Rich mix, it was an excellent evening. Over 15 poets performed some remarkable sound poetry and sonic art, while over 70 poets provided original visual poetry for the free artfair. It was our best attended event ever and completes an especially busy month for Maintenant as we close in on the 100th edition of the interview series and an event at the Southbank centre among other things.
Taking place in just over one week's time, the remarkable Equus press, based in Prague, is commencing a UK tour that will take in two London dates, as well as two more in Manchester, with a night at the Rich mix arts centre, near Brick lane, on April Friday 13th, beginning at 7pm http://www.richmix.org.uk/. Authors Louis Armand and Thor Garcia will be launching their new novels, and this is a rare opportunity to see truly innovative and interesting contemporary English language European fiction read in London. See the poster attached and the website of the press - www.equuspress.com
Ana Bozicevic very kindly gave the series a shout out on the US PEN blog.
Finally, if Amerikan, sorry—American poetry has left you thirsting for broader borders, 3:am Magazine’s SJ Fowler runs an astounding series of interviews with European poets called Maintenant that also offers selections of their work. This is our go-to source for Euro po; do not miss it.
Wednesday 16 May, 7.30pm, Village Underground, London
The London Sinfonietta and Jerwood Charitable Foundation are delighted to present an event showcasing three works currently in development on the Blue Touch Paper programme.
Steve Potter and Kélina Gotman's music-theatre piece stages the urgency and ambivalence of dreaming other possible worlds. Philip Venables and Steven J Fowler explore boxing, a form of violence sanctioned by society, through the use of music and poetry. Meanwhile, Elspeth Brooke, Seonaid Goody and Anna G Jones use the arts of puppetry, live music and electronics to re-imagine the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter.
This exclusive preview event is not open to the public, however a limited number of tickets will be available to the London Sinfonietta Pioneers. Join today for your opportunity to attend. See making new music happen below for more details.
An irrepressible poet and thinker, the work of Eugene Ostashevsky has been a dynamic presence in the New York poetry scene for some years. Born in Leningrad and emigrating while still a child, like so many who have left their homeland, alongside the ebullience and humour of his own poetry, Ostashevsky has been a tireless translator and advocate of Russian poetry, most specifically the OBERIU group, whose radical experimentation was led by the near mythological Daniil Kharms. Teaching at New York University, the energy and vibrancy, and intellectually buoyancy, of Ostashevsky places him as an invaluable link to both the Russian past, and future, in poetics. He reads in London for the first time on March 8th 2012 at Pushkin house, and celebrating that event we are pleased to welcome him as the 87th respondent of the Maintenant series.
Accompanying the interview is an excerpt from the The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi, a work-in-progress about the relationship between a pirate and a parrot.
As mentioned Eugene is reading for in London this upcoming Thursday, at Pushkin house. He will be speaking specifically about the OBERIU group and it should be a unique event, not to be missed. (Thanks to Alistair Noon)
Carmel Doohan, writing in Exeunt, gave our packed event Austerities a magnificent five stars:
“Sam Riviere is trying to find a way of being authentic about this inauthenticity. At Toynbee Studios, he recites a poem that reads like a shipping forecast of literary criticism. Comprised of a tutor’s one line comment on each poem – good, okay, we’ve heard this idea before, nice rhythm - it reveals the work lurking behind the myth of inspiration. Poetry is shown as calculated word-smithery; like everything else, poems are made to create a certain response.”
★★★★★ Exeunt Magazine
Listen back to Sam Riviere reading from 81 Austerities and in discussion with SJ Fowler.
I’m very pleased to say Saturday’s Camarade: Edition II event was another remarkable evening of poetry and a fine continuation of the series. A three figure audience witnessed some wonderful performances and equally significant poetry, and it was an evening which showed the depth of talent, inventiveness and wit in the contemporary British scene.
