February 2012
1 post
2 tags
January 2012
13 posts
4 tags
sad old sun,
you’re getting on my nerves;
give it a few days
before you show your face
around here again
6 tags
January 2012 Reading List
The Glass Room - Simon Mawer
Playback - Raymond Chandler
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Under the Net - Iris Murdoch
Call for The Dead - John le Carré
3 tags
Bones
Ah, this cold morning.
How did I get these bones,
the bones of an old man?
Who dug me up?
8 tags
dark sorrowful clouds
want to race my train
down the mainline
-
let them fill up the sky
before the heart
4 tags
in these sad
evenings
are the the makings of
men
5 tags
ah, this old rocking chair
in a hipster pub
in liverpool
-
let the world turn if it wants to
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Travelling to Work, 2007-2012
past all of liverpool’s
empty churches,
cheap dutch
supermarkets,
-
terraces,
greens,
schools,
playgrounds,
factories and
building sites
-
every day
from one station
to the next
9 tags
Railroad Poetry Project
For anyone who has enjoyed the poems I’ve posted on tumblr I recommend you give the Railroad Poetry Project a try. Some of my original poems appear in issues 2 and 3 of this fine poetry e-magazine. They’re a big supporter of all things beat and Kerouac, and publish work from an international array of writers.
https://twitter.com/railroadpoetry
...
17 tags
17 tags
5 tags
Epiphany
the sobering feeling of being right
about everything
came to him at the breakfast
table
sometime between
folding the weekly paper
and finishing his orange
juice
he stepped into the shower and
under the water thought,
no, I’m definitely right
about this one
the water felt like
loud applause
and he was feeling pretty good
about himself
December 2011
6 posts
12 tags
December 2011 Reading List
Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Point Omega - Don Delillo
The Monologue - Simone de Beauvoir
South of No North - Charles Bukowski
High-Rise - JG Ballard
New Poems Book 2 - Charles Bukowski
The Observations of Aleksandr Svetlov - Colette Bryce
9 tags
8 tags
5 tags
12 tags
No Spacewalk
like an
astronaut
in the asthma balloon
-
yuri gagarin
or buzz aldrin -
the alcoholics
-
with four walls
but no spacewalk
12 tags
November 2011 Reading List
She Came to Stay - Simone de Beauvoir
Nine Horses - Billy Collins
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
The Guest - Albert Camus
Three Years - Anton Chekov
The Anatomy Lesson - Philip Roth
The Prague Orgy - Philip Roth
The Fall - Albert Camus
November 2011
4 posts
10 tags
Proud
I woke up
and filled the house
with the smell
of coffee
like a proud lion
marking his territory
or,
to put it another way
like a dog
pissing in the corner
10 tags
13 tags
October 2011 Reading List
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
Cat’s Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
October 2011
3 posts
9 tags
5 tags
Practicing any art - be it painting, music, dance, literature, or whatever - is not a way to make money or become famous. It’s a way to make your soul grow.
- Kurt Vonnegut
17 tags
September 2011 Reading List
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
The Sunset Limited - Cormac McCarthy
Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
The Caretaker - Harold Pinter
Like Shaking Hands with God - Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut & Lee Stringer
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John le Carré
God Bless You, Mr Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut
Yellow Blue Tibia - Adam Roberts
The Birthday Party - Harold Pinter
A Disgraceful...
September 2011
1 post
8 tags
August 2011
6 posts
10 tags
August 2011 Reading List
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt
Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
Books v. Cigarettes - George Orwell
Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene
The Price - Arthur Miller
12 tags
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With an American Beer
at the little table
in the corner of
the bar,
with an American beer
and the sound of
other people’s
conversations,
I wrote a novel
and thought about
a poem
for my girl
7 tags
Little Poems
spent much of
the morning
writing
addresses which look
like little poems
July 2011
8 posts
12 tags
July 2011 Reading List
Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton
Journey into Fear - Eric Ambler
Berlin Game - Len Deighton
The Woman Destroyed - Simone de Beauvoir
Scattered Poems - Jack Kerouac
White Nights - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Young Adolf - Beryl Bainbridge
8 tags
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Pickpocket
Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959) is a classic of French existential cinema. Taking influence on an almost scene-by scene basis from Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866), the film is a masterclass in restrained, dialogue-light plotting and inventive cinematography.
Michel (the untrained Martin LaSalle) moves through Paris, developing his skils at lifting wallets and stealing...
6 tags
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
“And I should also like something unexpected, something new to happen to me - adventures in fact.”
He had lowered his voice and assumed a roguish expression.
“What sort of adventures?” I ask him in surprise.
“Why, all sorts, Monsieur. Getting on the wrong train. Stopping in an unknown town. Losing your wallet, being arrested by mistake, spending the night in...
4 tags
Existentialism
The existential worldview sees human existence as ultimately meaningless - a situation which caused ‘angst’, or dread - but at the same time emphasises the importance of each individual taking responsibility for his or her own choices concerning decisions or actions.
- www.literature-study-online.com/glossary.html
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12 tags
June 2011 Reading List
The IPCRESS File- Len Deighton
Huis Clos - Jean-Paul Sartre
The Respectable Prostitute - Jean-Paul Sartre
Tristessa - Jack Kerouac
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Age of Discretion - Simone de Beauvoir
Zuckerman Unbound - Philip Roth
June 2011
1 post
7 tags
May 2011
7 posts
8 tags
American Films
In American
films, the guy
always puts his
arm around the shoulders
of the driver’s seat
when his girl’s at
the wheel
6 tags
9 tags
9 tags
May 2011 Reading List
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg
Rich in Russia - John Updike
The Laughing Policeman - Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö
3 tags
10 tags
6 tags
April 2011 Reading List
Short Treatise on the Joys of Morphinism - Hans Fallada
Affinity - Sarah Waters
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
Point Omega - Don Delillo
Kingdom of Fear - Hunter S. Thompson