Poetry and Songs

ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER
"Scornflakes"

pb • £5.95

Second collection of performance poetry, hardcore minimalist folk-rock anthems, and surreal political satire.

CASHDAN, Liz
Laughing All The Way

£5.99
pb • Five Leaves• 0 907123 46 5

Laughing all the Way brings together Liz Cashdan's poetry on Jewish themes. Among these are the acclaimed Tyre-Cairo letters, a dramatic reconstruction of the life of an 11th century Jewish family.

CHILDISH, Billy
Child's Death Letter

£5.00
pb• Hangman• 1 871894 36 0

Selected and collected lyrics, illustrated throughout with photos of the man.

CHILDISH, Billy
Days With A Hart Like A Dog

£6.50
pb• Hangman• 1 871894 76 X

Poems, illustrated with woodcuts by Bill Hamper. "A stunning collection of proletarian art written by a man who may well turn out to be England's most valuable poet of the late 20th Century". (Forced Exposure)

CHILDISH, Billy
Poems To Break The Harts Of Impossible Princesses

£6.50
pb• Hangman• 1 871894 86 7

Brand-new collection of poems from the man that is as prolific with the pen as he is with the guitar.

CHILDISH, Billy
The Hart Rises

£6.50
pb• Hangman• 1 871894 51 4

Poems and prose-pieces from the late 80's/early 90's.

CHILDISH, Billy (aka Sexton Ming)
The Man Who Created Himself

£4.00
pb• Hangman• 1 871894 20 4

The early writings of the legendary Sexton Ming, Medway Poet extraordinaire.

CLEARY, Brendan
The Irish Card

£6.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 85224 258 2

Deals out poems from the double life of an exiled Irish poet - going off his head in the smart-arse 'Memos To Sensitive Eddie' and other performance pieces; going back inside in 'The Irish Card', a sequence of deeply personal poems on rootlessness, inner exile and estrangement.

CORTEZ, Carlos
Crystal-Gazing The Amber Fluid & Other Wobbly Poems

£3.95
pb• Charles H Kerr• No ISBN

A favourite of Edward Abbey - passionate tributes to Joe Hill and other Wobbly martyrs, lyrics protesting war and racial injustice and humorous assaults on modern technology amongst others.

CRYSTAL, David
Big Money

£2.00
pam• Dog-Eared• No ISBN

First collection of poetry and prose pieces from this rising star of the London poetry scene, who shares more in common with the likes of Jim Ferguson and Tom Leonard than with some of his metropolitan contemporaries.

DE CLEYRE, Voltairine
Written In Red: Selected Poems of...

£4.95
pb• Charles H Kerr• No ISBN

Best known for her impassioned essays, this friend of the likes of Berkman, Kropotkin and Malatesta was also an outstanding poet. This collection contains several of her Haymarket poems, as well as moving tributes to Mary Wollstonecraft, John Peter Altgeld and the Mexican Revolution.

Dog

£2.00
pam (A4)• Dog-Eared• No ISBN

An occasional magazine highlighting some of the best of the new poetry - includes Jim Ferguson, Brendan Cleary and new prose from Duncan McLean amongst others. Recommended.

Excite The Mind

£4.80
pb• AK Press• 1 873 176 538

A sterling anthology. Anyone who's anyone is in here, and most everyone else too. Unpublished and selected poems by Brain Patten, Mike Harding, Liz Lochhead, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Joolz, Benjamin Zephaniah, Henry Normal, John Hegley, Lemn Sissay, Adrian Henri, Attila The Stockbroker and more...

FERGUSON, Jim
Art Of Catching A Bus

£5.95
pb• AK Press• 1 873176 28 7

The latest collection of poems from probably the best of the 'new' generation of West Coast Scottish writers. Very much a new Tom Leonard, though neither will thank me for the comparison (!). The Guardian says this'll grab you by the lapels, so you've been warned.

GAIMAN, Neil & JONES Stephen (eds)
Now We Are Sick: An Anthology Of Nasty Verse

£10.95
pb• Dreamhaven• 0 96309 444 0

A collection of funny, frivolous and frightening verse from 30 of the world's best-known SF, fantasy and horror writers. Some of the notables include Ramsey Campbell, Brian Aldiss, Storm Constantine, James Herbert, Alan Moore, Terry Pratchett, and Jo Fletcher. Illustrations by Andrew Smith, Clive Barker

GINSBERG, Allen
Composed On The Tongue

£8.95
pb• Grey Fox• 0 912516 29 1

The poet's extended reflections on his own poetics and on the practice of poetry by Blake and Whitman, Pound, Reznikoff and William Carlos Williams. Interviews, essays, journal entries and lectures.

GIORNO, John
You Got To Burn To Shine

£8.99
pb• Serpent's Tail• 1 85242 321 8

A collection of intensely rhythmic, sexual and philosophical poetry and deeply personal memoirs involving, among many other people and things, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. With an introduction by William Burroughs.

GLABERMAN, Martin
The Factory Songs Of Mr Toad

£2.50
pam• Bewick• 0 935590 13 7

A superb collection of poetry from the shopfloor, from Wildcat to Lunch Time At The Blower, Revolutionary Consciousness and Screw. Raging, tender, touching and inspiring.

GRAY, Alasdair
Old Negatives

£5.95
pb• Jonathan Cape• 0 224026 56 9

Four verse sequences covering the usual Gray topics of love, faith and language. Work from 1952-83, as ever illustrated with true beauty by the author's fair hand.

HALL, Covington
Dreams And Dynamite: Selected Poems of...

£3.95
pb• Charles H Kerr• 0 88286 111 5

Thirty-one rollicking rebel verses by the great Deep South IWW organiser and hero of the 'Timber Wars'. Some of his best poems, edited with an illuminating introduction by Dave Roediger.

HARPER, Clifford (ed)
Visions Of Poesy

£8.00
pb• Freedom• 0 900384 75 1

Seventy anarchist poets provide 200 poems for this stunning anthology, beautifully illustrated by Clifford Harper. All the big names are here - Allen Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, Ursula Le Guin, Marge Piercy, Paul Goodman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder et al - as well as a host of other worthies. A rare treat.

Industrial Workers of the World
IWW Songs - 1923 Edition

£4.50
pb• Charles H Kerr• No ISBN

Facsimile reprint of a classic edition of the Wobblies' famous Little Red Song Book. Songs from the likes of Joe Hill, T-Bone Slim, Laura P Emerson and Ralph Chaplin - 'songs to fan the flames of discontent'.

JASTREBSKA, Maria & SCICINSKA, Jola
Postcards From Poland: and Other Correspondences

£6.95
pb• Working Press• 1 870736 06 0

In this book the authors tell of their recent trip 'home' to Poland. Maria's moving poetry is illustrated throughout with stunning reproductions of Scicinszka's traditional papercuts. Both are Jewish and lesbian; their work often addresses the tensions between faith, sexuality and national identity in a unique format.

JOHNSON, Linton Kwesi
Tings And Times

£5.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 83224 168 3

The first book from this reggae poet in ten years. As well as new poems, it includes work from his previous collections. A truly great greatest hits package.

JOOLZ
Emotional Terrorism

£5.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 83224 136 5

Second collection of performance poetry and prose - a chronicle of life lived by the less fortunate - from fragmented war veterans to bitter young mothers to delinquent drug addicts.

JOOLZ
The Pride Of Lions

£6.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 85224 294 9

Powerful accounts of life in the modern city. Gripping tales of self-destruction, death and desolation, mental cruelty and domestic violence. All new Joolz.

KAY, Jackie
Other Lovers

£5.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 85224 253 1

The qualities of love in a variety of relationships - the parent, the child, the lover, even the Blues singer Bessie Smith.

KERMACK, Alison
Restricted Vocabulary

£1.50
pam• Clocktower• No ISBN

Superb first collection, written in the vernacular by this Edinburgh writer. This wonderful anthology is enhanced by the writer's own illustrations.

KEROUAC, Jack
Heaven & Other Poems

£5.95
pb• Grey Fox• 0 912516 31 3

His apocalyptic vision plus 'MacDougal Street Blues', other uncollected poems, bio sketch and his wonderful letters.

KEROUAC, Jack
Old Angel Midnight

£8.95
pb• Grey Fox• 0 912516 97 6

These subversive poems are Kerouac's exercise in pure spontaneous composition. This collection, he said "is the only book I've ever written in which I allow myself the right to say anything I want...."

Landesman, Fran
The Thorny Side Of Love

£5.95
pb• Sun Tavern Fields• 0 9517012 1 5

A selection of 59 poems and lyrics by the celebrated American songwriter on that most chronicled yet elusive of subjects. In her first collection since 1981 she reflects on past affairs in lines that are invariably direct, affecting, witty and poignant. Well, that's one interpretation.

LEONARD, Tom
On The Mass Bombing Of Iraq And Kuwait, Commonly Known As "The Gulf War"

£1.95
pam• AK Press • 1 873176 25 2

Written as the 'allies' perpetrated the mass execution of Iraqi men, women and children, On The Mass Bombing... exposes the hypocrisy and deceit of politicians and the military, and the media's complicity, in a concerted attempt at the wholesale destruction of a country, its people and infrastructure.

LYNDON, Sonja & PASKIN, Sylvia (eds)
The Dybbuk Of Delight

£8.99
pb• Five Leaves• 0 907123 57 0

The first such anthology of UK based Jewish women's poetry. The themes covered touch on issues such as assimilation, emigration, Jewish festivals, spirituality, family life, the Holocaust, Jewish artists... and chicken soup.

MEEKE, Jay & REEVE FD
After The Storm: Poems On The Persian Gulf War

£8.95
pb• Maisonneuve• 0 944624 16 2

Jayne Cortez, Allen Ginsberg, and around 70 other of America's finest poets do what true poets have always done - grasp truth. A truly astounding, and essential companion to a world gone mad.

MONK, Geraldine
Interregnum

£7.95
pb• Creation• 1 871592 16 X

In 1612, ten people were hanged as witches in the city of Lancaster, England. They had fallen victim to a language-magic far more potent than their own. Using personal and historical coincidence, the writer integrates her own experience with interconnected sources in the disturbing mating of private memory and public ghosts.

NORMAL, Henry
A Map Of Heaven

£4.80
pb• AK Press• 1 873176 62 7

Late twentieth century urban peasant poetry. The latest collection of Mr. Normal's writings. He thinks it's his best, most rounded work to date. And we agree. So should you.

NORMAL, Henry
A More Intimate Fame

£6.00
pb• Twist In The Tale• 1 871426 60 X

Let's get it straight. Henry Normal is God. Or at least, quite abnormally brilliant. Both tender, compassionate and moving, yet wickedly funny and uncannily accurate. This is the ultimate poetry collection for the urban romantic, with such gems as 'Is Love Science Fiction', and 'How To Bluff Your Way Through Impotence'.

NORMAL, Henry
Nude Modelling For The Afterlife

£5.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 85224 279 5

His greatest hits collection. They are very great, and they are all hits. Poems and performance pieces from the master.

NORMAL, Henry
The Dream Ticket

£4.80
pb• AK Press• 1 873176 31 7

Second edition of this collection of poetic masterpieces. Some of the pieces appeared in Henry's "Postcard from Crumpsall" column for City Life. A couple first appeared in the now defunct Do You Believe In Carpetworld.

NORMAL, Henry
The Fifteenth Of February

£4.80
pb• AK Press• 1 873176 41 4

A unique cocktail of perceptive observation and carefully measured delivery. (2nd edition).

NORMAL, Henry
The Third Person

£4.80
pb• AK Press• 1 873176 36 8

Yet more gems from the man, mostly written between September 1992 and February 1993.

Out From Beneath The Boot

£ 2.95
pb• Neruda • No ISBN

Excellent new anthology of radical poetry from the likes of Bobby Christie, Jim Ferguson, Michael Horovitz, William Gilfeder, Brendan Cleary, Alison Reid etc etc.

PASCOSZ, Christina V.
Some Winded, Wild Beast

£5.95
pb• Black & Red• No ISBN

Large anthology, suffused with the spirit of the situationists - ranges from 'The Shores Of Rage' to 'Love Poems For The Other'.

PAUL, Don
Just Like You: Poems and Bits Before Hell

£3.95
pb• Hart's Spring Works•

Poems, prose pieces, letters and other bits. Full of satire, wit and revolutionary politics.

PAUL, Don
AmeriModern

£4.95
pb• Hart's Spring Works•

Life and how to live it American style. This slice of reality kicks you in the head and pokes you in the guts. And leaves you feeling all the better for it.

PELL, Angie
Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed

£3.95
pb• Fallen Angels• 0 952055708

Performance poetry. Very good performance poetry. With an often unsubtle blend of humour and realism, it explores the age old relationships between men and women. It'll leave you wanting to fall passionately in love, while simultaneously vowing never to do so again because of the inevitable pain it causes.

Pomegranate

£4.95
pb• Stramullion• 0 907343 11 2

The best of this Edinburgh women's writing group, including the greatest hits culled from the last ten years and new work. 15 poets, including Elizabeth Burns and Rebecca Wilson.

Popular Front Of Contemporary Poetry Anthology
The Popular Front Of Contemporary Poetry Anthology

£6.95
pb• Apples & Snakes• 0 9518881 0 2

A truly staggering anthology. All the greats are amongst the 50 contributors, including Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay, Merle Collins, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Adrian Mitchell, Benjamin Zephaniah, Joolz, Henry Normal, Nick Toczek, Attila The Stockbroker, Joyoti Grech, Lemn Sissay etc etc. I guess if you only get one poetry book, then this should be it.

REED, Jeremy
Kicks

£8.95
pb• Creation• 1 871592 15 1

A brand new collection of poetry, prose-pieces, essays, translations and erotic film-scripts from the award-winning writer.

ROSEN, Michael
You Are, Aren't You?

£4.99
pb• Mushroom • 0907123090

A warm and witty look at life, through Jewish eyes, from family and school to international politics. He HAS been to synagogue (once for a wedding and once to read poetry) but has never been caught praying.

SANDERS, Ed
Peace Eye

£7.95
pb• Frontier Press• No ISBN

A classic collection of poems, from the 60s, in their original 1967 edition, freshly exhumed from under the publisher's bed.

SAPPHIRE
American Dreams

£8.99
pb• Serpent's Tail• 1 85242 327 7

The precise, terrifying,and ultimately hopeful insights of Sapphire.

Scotia Bar
Scotia Bar 1st Of May Poetry Prize 1992

£6.99
pb• Taranis• 1 873899 20 3

Best of the wealth of talent that went into the competition. Includes an introduction by Liz Lochhead.

SCOTT-HERON, Gill
So Far, So Good

£6.95
pb• Third World Press• 0 88378 133 6

The song-poems of this undisputed 'Bluesologist'. Includes classics such as 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', 'Whitey's On The Moon', 'Re-Ron' and 'Johannesburg'.

SHIELDS, Bill
Human Shrapnel

£9.95
pb• 2.13.61.• 1-880985-07-1

'Discovered' and published by Rollins. Poetry by a Vietnam vet. Highly praised by the likes of Tom Waits, Hubert Selby, Iggy Pop and Don Bajema amongst others.

SHIELDS, Bill
The Southeast Asian Book Of The Dead

£7.95
pb• 2.13.61.• 1-880985-06-3

Raw brutal poetry from the Vietnam vet, hailed (quite rightly) by everyone from Michael Stipe to Ian Mackaye as a genius. About time. The perfect antidote to Desert Storm.

SPOT THE POET
Shattered

£4.95
pb• AK Press• 1 873176 58 9

A wonderful collection of poetry and prose fragments. We should know. We published it. A male counterpart to the likes of Joolz, prodding the brain with reflections on the other side of life...

TOCZEK, Nick
Meat Boutique

£4.50
pb• PB Books• 0 9517563 0 3

"Toczek is bitter, disturbing and political. his language gets harder and more effective with each publication" The Guardian. This is an anthology from the man, with various poems, rants and song lyrics...

WARDEN, Tricia
Brainlift

£7.95
pb• 2.13.61• 1 880985 18 7

Debut book from this Hoboken based writer/musician. Savagely honest and darkly humorous collection from a strong female perspective.

ZARK, Bob
Over The Interstate Lines Of The Mind

£6.95
pb• Panic Button• 1 88649 602 1

The brand new collection. Shock Cinema called this "Dark, evil visions scraped from the sidewalks of urban cesspools, laced with surprising amounts of humour and heart. Great stuff!" Illustrated by all kinds of famous spods, including Mike Diana.

ZARK, Bob
The Gates Of Boombox Heaven

£6.95
pb• Panic Button• 1 88649 600 5

Latest collection of poems, songs and rants from the ever wonderful Bob Z. It says - mindblowing psychedelic incantations, hallucinations and reality reduced to blistering bits of indignation. Couldn't agree more really.

ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin
City Psalms

£5.95
pb• Bloodaxe• 1 8522242310

His latest collection of poems, songs, raps, rants and dubs. Seriously good.

ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin
Inna Liverpool

£1.95
pam• AK Press• 1 873176 75 9

This selection of poems represents just a small portion of Zephaniah's prodigious output as Poet/Writer in Residence with the Africa Arts Collective - Inna Liverpool - during the year 1988/89.

ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin
Rasta Time In Palestine

£2.95
pam• Shakti• 0 9516551 08

An account of the rasta poet's visit to Palestine and Israel, along with some new poetry. Recommended.