Monday, 24 June 2024

Life History by William Ward Butler

https://ghostcitypress.com/ (although I doesn't list UK shipping on the website if you ask them nicely on Instagram they will send you a copy!)


William Ward Butler’s poem in issue 13 of Fourteen Poems was so brilliant that I had to get hold of this pamphlet – it arrived mid-morning one Saturday and I abandoned what I was doing and had consumed it before lunch.


The first poem, Evening, concludes “… | When the mice look up to an owl descending upon them, | why wouldn’t they think it’s the face of God?” wow – I don’t know where to put myself in response to that question.


I found Leave Me such a complex poem – what does “Leave Me” mean – the line “… Leave me | in the morning, in bed...” might be just a request for a lie in, but it feels more “… Leave me | with something to talk about with | my therapist...” is talking about something more – this is a poem about goodbye?


Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis is powerful and uncomfortable

“… | If there is an almighty voyeur above us, if they could end suffering | at a moment’s notice, what does it mean that an amoral company did it | first? | … “


I also tagged

Family History

Bird Away – for its rage

Reading Cavafy by Candlelight

Stupid Ocean

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