New Release: George Douglas Anderson THE FACTORY OF ECCENTRIC POETICS (Holy & Intoxicated Publications, 2021) 20 pages

In this new chapbook, Anderson veers away from his usual narratives & portraits. The poetry here is more abstract. It includes many found and cut & paste poems, sometimes influenced by his students. The front cover is beautifully illustrated by the Swedish writer and artist Henry Denander. 

 

Find Jason Gerrish’s recent interview about the chap here: 

 

https://georgedanderson.blogspot.com/2022/01/jason-garish-interviews-george-douglas.html

 

A couple of blurbs about the chapbook:

 

 The Factory of Eccentric Poetics

George Douglas Anderson

 

Poets, are mostly cowardly, that is, once a poet hits on a form/style to comfortably put their words across, they dig a hole and jump into it: (myself included) it feels safe and secure.

 

George Douglas Anderson digs tunnels and you never know where the tunnels will be taking you, until you are there: as a Small Press Publisher, when I request and receive a manuscript from George, I know one thing for certain, it will be quality: ‘The Factory of Eccentric Poetics’ is exactly that: from the hazy, ghostly cover art work from the ever brilliant Henry Denander, depicting a trumpet playing jazz musician, drowning in a flush and array of uplifting colours, to the final poem, ‘The Thing Itself’, the reader is easily, smoothly locked into the rhythm of the book, as the poems lunge and plunge like the soulful breath of Chet Baker or glide silk-like, like a haunting Miles Davis solo: the time signatures roam freely, without hesitation: passion and compassion drives this book: ‘The Parched Grass’ ‘Danger Falling Man’ ‘His Brain is a Fish’ ‘The Cult of the Amateur’ ‘Skinned’ to name a few, are simply, strangely enchanting and captivating.

 

Dig ‘The Factory of Eccentric Poetics’: dig the works of George Douglas Anderson:

 

John D Robinson

Poet and Publisher.

 

 

The Factory Of Eccentric Poeticsis the latest chapbook by author George Douglas Anderson. In this collection of eighteen new and abstract poems, Anderson explores a new poetic voice, veering from the authorial and objective narrative style he established in earlier chaps and in his full-length book of poems: The Rough End Of The Pineapple.In his own words, Anderson says,“The chapbook is an attempt to affirm but also to subvert post-modern ways of thinking…”.

 

The poem A Bee Collecting Honey is a sequence of engaging images, which defy a linear interpretation. It is the first poem in the collection that had me consider: Can a poem be a collage? 

 

Anderson says, of A Bee Collecting Honey,“The chronology of the poem’s narrative is deliberately thrown into disarray and instead is revealed in fragments. It uses compressed images and associations to reveal a woman’s tormented life which has been tragically cut short.”

 

Several poems in this collection read like a collage; and if a poem can be described as a crazy quilt, it is Anderson’s poem Skinned, which he says of the title, “…refers to a recent trend to cut out the full back tattoo panels of heavily tattooed corpses and to preserve them as Art.”

 

The images in this piece engage me so successfully, I become hell bent on interpreting them collectively, but Skinned defies a linear interpretation. I feel the poem calls for an escape from the material world, for a spiritual release. Anderson says of the poem“…I perhaps imagined the words, like the deceased’s tattooed skin expressing a montage of feelings and experiences.”

 

The risks Anderson takes cutting from usual narrative style, make The Factory Of Eccentric Poetics a rewarding read. They are a postmodern patchwork that reveal a diversity of spirit and a troubled world of tortured souls.

 

Jason Garish

Limited edition: 25 signed and numbered. Only 5 left to dispatch.

 Buy the book here direct through PayPal: georgedanderson8@gmail.com for $5 AUD  plus postage.

Postage: Australia wide: $2.20

                USA / Europe: $14.60 (I'll throw in another chap)

Featuring Henry Denander

Call The Police

When we moved in to this flat our upstairs

neighbor still had his three teenage kids living

with him, since then the children have moved out

and it’s very quiet.

They had a lot of parties and were sometimes

really loud. The father was on tour in the summer

and every weekend there was a party upstairs.

But we never complained, they were dancing and

singing and for us there was no real problem.

They were always really kind and well behaved –

just young and happy. The father asked me once

if there was a problem when he was away and I

never grumbled, only told him that please if he

could hide that trumpet when he leaves next time.

One evening I went up there to protest but it was

not a party it was the son Calle playing his

electric guitar with the amplifier extremely loud

and his room was right above our bedroom.

One morning I met Calle and his sister in the lift

and we talked about everything but never

mentioned the party they had last weekend.

Suddenly Calle said:

– I can hear you snoring from below, you must be

snoring really loud.

- Yes, perhaps I do, I said.

I realized I have been too kind to them, I should

have been more militant. They have no respect

for me. Next time I will call the police.

Before they do.

Via Formia

At the train station in Naples we

notice that the next train to

Rome travels via Formia and

that’s where we want to get off.

This was better than we thought,

two hours and we

will be there.

On the way on the train we

are paying for our tickets and

we discover that the train will go

directly to Rome.

But, we say, it said “Via Formia” on the

big sign.

Yes, the train will pass Formia but

it will not stop there.

We had to go all the way to Rome and

then back again.

This is charming when you are on holiday but

this would never happen here in Sweden,

of course.

But here in Sweden there is no

place called Formia,

only places like Eskilstuna and Nässjö,

where trains seldom stop anyway.

Man of many talents

He is one of my best friends and he used to be my boss at the record

company where I worked for many years. He is a remarkable man

with an enormous experience from the music industry, a well-known

authority and a very respected man in the music business all over the

world.

Among his many talents is being able to fall asleep almost

everywhere, especially after dinner but even at meetings that drag on

too long. He is an expert also in this field; the way he wears his

glasses and his upright posture conceal that he is sleeping. At many

late night dinners he has managed to take a nap without anyone

noticing.

His main accomplishment was at a concert with the band Motörhead,

an early metal band playing with an intensely loud volume. When the

lead singer Lemmy looked down at the front row he noticed my friend

the director of the record company taking a nap in the middle of the

song.

That time it was obvious that he was sleeping. But I think even

Lemmy must have been impressed.

Chet Baker at Fasching

Chet Baker came to Stockholm to play the Fasching Jazz Club.

He called and I went to see him at his hotel. We had spent some

time together in London the year before and he was one of my

jazz heroes.

At the Salvation Army hotel I was shown to his room but Chet

hardly wanted to open the door, he just took the recordings I

brought him and we chatted briefly. He had a friend in there, a

Swedish jazz musician and the hotel room was filled with sweet

and heavy smoke. I left and we said we would talk more at the

jazz club that night.

In between sets at Fasching I tried to get in contact with Chet

but his friend was really nervous and the same sweet smoke

came out of Chet’s dressing room. I said hi to Chet & his band

but soon the Swedish friend closed the door.

I was the financial director of Chet’s record company in

Sweden; I was a bean counter but not a police officer. Chet

knew this, we had been drunk together in London, but his friend

from Sweden maybe thought I was with the drug enforcement

agency.

I left them and went back to my friends at the bar and got drunk

on beer and Jaegermeister.

Chet’s playing that night at Fasching was absolutely beautiful,

the tone of his trumpet and voice was so very soft and he

sounded better than ever.

Or maybe it was just because we were

high, Chet and I?

Revenge (in the morning)

I wake up and notice that our son has (as every

night) moved to our bed in the early hours of the

morning. My wife is still sleeping and snoring

softly and William is sleeping with his head five

centimeters from my wife’s face and he is also

snoring slowly.

How come my snoring is always such a problem?

Marie says that they can’t sleep because of my

snoring and William says the same.

If I had been really cruel and looking for revenge

I would have wakened them up now accusing

them both of snoring.

But I am not like that.

Not this time.

Bio: HENRY DENANDER was born in 1952 and shares his time between Stockholm, Sweden and Hydra, Greece. He is an artist and a poet and his latest book “The Accidental Navigator” was published by Lummox Press. He has two forthcoming publications from Pig Ear Press. He has a website with poetry and art at www.henrydenander.com.

Poems for All - Richard Hansen

Click on the above photo for a closer look.

I was not aware of this long standing stamp-sized poetry project until the poet Henry Denander sent me four of his amazing Poems for All work today photographed two photos above.

The creator of the project, the book shop owner, Richard Hansen is a convincing & dedicated publisher of independent work. Listen carefully to what Hansen has to say here: http://sacfreepress.com/pfa/submit/

Update 16 February 2016

Find a picture of Wolf Carstens' contribution 'five poems, no smile' here to the project:

Book Recommendation: Henry Denander The Loulaki Bar & other poems from Hydra. Miskwabik Press, Calumet, Michigan, 2009 (68 pages).

I have read most of Denander’s poetry and this is probably my favourite collection because it combines his poetry with his beautiful watercolour sketches. The Swedish writer and painter lives in Stockholm but has spent the last dozen or so summers on the Greek Island of Hydra.

The title poem ‘The Loulaki Bar’ recalls an incident in 1988 when Leonard Cohen was in the small Hydra bar sitting with his girlfriend at the next table.

The poetry is largely anecdotal and centred on Denander’s every day experiences on the island: obtaining a post office box with the help of a friend, his wife’s fascination with insecticides, his reflections on Greek priests & on a sleeping man while waiting to catch a ferry in Hydra, how his neighbour Barba Yannis helps him with his garden, how his family is befriending the neighbouring cats, his dealings with the local tradesmen, his thoughts on retirement and the like. The writing is simple, minimalistic, self-deprecatory & creates a vibrant sense of what it is like for Denander to live with his family & friends within the Hydra community.

In the Foreword, the great American poet Gerald Locklin presciently writes, “I now consider any product of his creativity in any form to qualify as an instant collector’s item. In terms of The Loulaki Bar this is certain as the collection appears to be now out of print.

Resources:

Comments on Henry Denander’s site: http://www.henrydenander.com/The_Loulaki_Bar

Poet Hound includes the poems ‘Cipporo’, ‘The Flood’ and ‘Basic Philosophy’ from the collection here: http://poethound.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/henry-denanders-loulaki-bar.html

The poem ‘Medicine’ appeared in Dyehard Press here: http://dyehard-press.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/loulaki-bar-and-other-poems-from-hydra.html

BOOK REVIEW: RD Armstrong (Editor) LAST CALL: The Bukowski Legacy Continues. The Lummox Press, San Pedro, 2011 (145 pages).

This is an interesting and diverse collection of poetry, short stories and essays related to Charles Bukowski’s continued influence on writers almost twenty years after his death in 1994. The book is a follow up to editor Armstrong’s LAST CALL: The Legacy of Charles Bukowski (Lummox, 2004).

As RD Armstrong clearly states in his introduction, the purpose of the collection is “to showcase writers whose work shows the influence, not necessarily in style or form, but in the feelings that their pieces (especially true of poetry) provoke in the reader (or in the editor)”.  He is interested, in particular, in the dark, “visceral quality” of Bukowski’s writing- how he is able to capture “the magic of ordinary moments” but also how he cuts “through the bullshit of life’s pretense like a laser through case-hardened steel”.

Bukowski’s enormous body of work refuses to go away and continues to sell tens of thousands of books each year. Armstrong metaphorically sees the strength of Bukowski’s work as rolling on “like an errant hubcap, released and hurtling towards the horizon, inspiring us to follow.”

Armstrong mentions in his forward ‘About this Book’ that he has been a tough task-master and has held fast to his definition of what he sees as Bukowski-esque- “namely writers of the solid, clean, and unpretentious line and not necessarily having to do with the Buk.”

POETRY

This is the largest and best section of the book and consists of 47 tightly written poems by some of the best writers from the underground- Henry Denander, Charles Ries, John Dorsey, John Yamrus, Frank Reardon, Ben Smith, A.D. Winans, Doug Draime, William Taylor Jr., Gerald Locklin, Neeli Cherkovski and RD Armstrong & others. As you would expect in a collection of this sort, the poetry is raw, streetwise and highly accessible.

Many of the poems make an incidental reference to Bukowski. Others are tributes to Buk or are memoir poems like Cherkovski’s ‘Shostakovich Came to Visit’ and Gerald Nicosia’s ‘Fourth of July with the Buk in San Pedro.’ Other poems, such as Michael Lefanto ‘Forty Short’, F.N. Wrights ‘Bukowski & Me’ and Joy Buckley’s ‘Not Bukowski’ try to emulate Bukowski’s drunken & sexual exploits. Others focus on adapting various aspects of Bukowski’s no bullshit, free verse style. Rick Smith’s ‘We’ll All Go Together’ is an excellent example of an original writer borrowing from Bukowski but stamping his own extraordinary voice onto his work. 

Bukowski’s poetry often exudes great warmth and humour and this aspect of his writing is often underplayed by his readers- but not by the Swedish poet Henry Denander in his poem ‘At the Racetrack’. Denander is a serious collector of Bukowski memorabilia. In the poem, unlike Bukowski, he is not interested in the horsetrack but buys some whiskey glasses on eBay because they are from a track that Buk used to attend frequently. At the end of the poem, Denander knocks back a glass or two of whiskey and cheekily quips as he starts to get pissed that he is “beginning to understand/ the art of horseracing/ after all.”

AT THE RACETRACK

On eBay I bought four whiskey glasses from

Santa Anita Park; this was Charles Bukowski’s

favorite race track and he spent a lot of time there.

I’ve never betted on the horses myself but there was

a race track close to our summer house in Sweden

and I went there when I was a kid.

I never really liked to watch the horses run but

I came to see my uncle Allan who was a

regular at the track. I liked him a lot and he

always gave me money for ice cream,

so even without betting I came out ahead.

And now, 45 years later, here I am

with my large Santa Anita whiskey tumbler

with the engraved horses and jockeys,

a couple of ice cubes and a large splash

of Glenlivet whiskey.

Maybe I’m slowly

beginning to understand

the art of horseracing

after all.

(reprinted with the permission of the publisher)

Personal favourites also include William Taylor Jr’s political ‘Poem’, John Yamrus’ self mocking ‘Bukowski’s Property’ and John Dorsey’s ‘Doctor Bukowski’s Monster’ – perhaps the best poem in the collection.

Dorsey’s poem has a cut & paste feel to it. He combines Buk’s lower case free verse style, popular culture references and multiple allusions to Bukowski & his work to create a monster of a poem.

DOCTOR BUKOWSKI’S MONSTER

for abigail

in the sunlight of madness

bukowski’s monster

has been turned into

the shadow of a young james dean

the meaning gets lost

caught up in the moment

where stanzas get tattooed

into the golden forearms

of nelson algren’s over medicated grandchildren

searching for cool

with a broken flashlight

beamed toward karma

there is a junky born

every minute

read the label

shoot dice

ask questions later

ask the dust for its last dime

spit words at the sun

an eternal hot walker

wait for the photo finish

become a split second god

in another man’s miracle

(reprinted with the permission of the publisher)

FICTION

Due to the paucity of quality submissions, this section is disappointingly short and only includes five short stories whose total length is about twenty-five pages. The content is full-on underground and explores such issues as assisted suicide, heroin use, work place harassment, teenage drinking and wife bashing. The language is gritty and often guttural in a go-fuck-yourself way.

Jason Harding’s ‘America the Beautiful’ is easily the strongest and most compelling of the lot. It is the tragic story of a woman symbolically called America who can no longer take the pressures of day to day living and asks her ex-boyfriend Maceo to kill her. What follows is a zany, unpredictable joy-ride for the reader.

ESSAYS

This is a solid section of the book and includes a short buk memoir, a book review of Bukowski’s last poetry collection The Last Night of Earth Poems, a short reader’s tribute plus three essays.

In D.A. Pratt’s ‘Who Gets to Read Bukowski’ he suggests that new readers be strongly encouraged to read poetry Buk wrote during his life-time rather than the posthumous ECCO collections usually available in book stores. In his extended essay “Bukowski and the Romantic Influence: Writing as a Means of Transgression’ the French critic Alexandre Thiltges argues that Bukowski is a radical poet in the Wordsworth and Whitman tradition. This is an erudite study brimming with ideas.

More valuable to me was Abel Debritto’s ‘Atomic Scribblings from a Maniac Age: The Artwork of Charles Bukowski’ which concisely but comprehensibly provides an overview of the publication of Buk’s trademark drawings and doodles.

In 1965, for example, Bukowski began work on an unusual project he titled ‘Atomic Scribblings from a Maniac Age’ which was to be his “first book where his artwork would be predominantly showcased, with a few interspersed poems.” Bukowski sent Wayne Philpot, the editor of the little magazine Border dozens of drawings over several months. Promotional flyers, order forms were issued in late 1965, but the project had to aborted in 1966 when Philpot disappeared and pissed-off with Bukowski’s quality drawings- most of which have never been recovered. This is a remarkable, largely unknown story!

SUMMING UP

This is an enjoyable, tightly edited collection of diverse work well worth the read. There are many writers out there trying to out buk Bukowski but this is a sensible and spirited collection deeply grounded in the hard, clean line.

LINKS

You can look inside Last Call through Amazon. This link includes a contents page, most of Armstrong’s introduction and four poems:

http://www.amazon.com/LAST-CALL-Bukowski-Legacy-Continues/dp/1929878869#reader_1929878869

Find a more extensive 50 page sampler of the book on ISSUU here:

http://issuu.com/poetraindog/docs/lastcallsampler

I recently received this Lummox Update- Fall 2013 from The Outlaw Poetry Network: http://outlawpoetry.com/2013/10/19/lummox-update-%E2%80%93-fall-2013/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OutlawPoetryAndFreeJazzNetwork+%28Outlaw+Poetry+Network%29

 
Find here an excellent 2011 extended interview with RD Armstrong on HorrorSleezeTrash about his work as editor and writer: http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/interviews/13-questions-with-rd-armstrong/

Purchase Lummox books here direct: http://www.lummoxpress.com/lc/