New Poems in The Harlequin
I'm grateful to have a couple of new poems in the latest issue of The Harlequin.
There's loads of good stuff in the magazine, both this latest issue and previous ones. So have a good read of it...
Grasshoppers
Once, I was with a girlfriend driving south down the west coast of America. We were heading towards a town where we had decided to stop for some lunch. As we approached the town, we could see these strange brown shapes on the road and the pavements. We slowed and I saw one or two of these shapes move. We stopped and I could see the town was swarmed with huge grasshoppers. As big as rats these things were. We went into a little diner, trying not to step on any of the grasshoppers that were crawling along the pavement with us, into the diner when we opened the door. Our server told us the hatch happened like this every few years. Not regular, though. It could be seven years between a hatch, then two, then ten, and so on. Our soup was the same thick brown colour as them. When we got back into the car to leave, we had to open and close the doors fast to prevent one of these things jumping in. I can't remember the name of the town, but the last few days I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, or looking at this picture.
Language and Landscape
Here's a piece I wrote for Caught by the River about the idea of nature and landscape in poetry. It's really about why I think these ideas are important and prescient as well, living with a government in thrall to individuals and corporations driven by turning the land into an unattainable commodity.
http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2014/10/29427-will-burns-faber-new-poet/
Larry Jon Wilson
This post on James Endeacott's blog made me feel nostalgic for the week or so that Larry Jon Wilson came over to London. It feels like a different lifetime. A few friends and I hung out with him a lot that week, and I still feel good about the fact that I got to talk to him about Arthur Alexander and guitars and writing songs. But mostly I remember us talking about cricket and baseball and how good the first beer tastes after playing sport. Larry Jon gave the lie to the old addage about never meeting your heroes.
I tell James this every time I see him and I've had a few, but I'm still thankful he brought Larry Jon over, and got a few of us involved in the shows. It will mean a lot to me forever.
http://jamesendeacott.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/larry-jon-wilson-october-7th-1940-june-21st-2010/
Caught by the River Book of the Month
It's an honour to have my pamphlet be made Caught by the River's book of the month for October. I can't speak highly enough of the space Jeff and Robin and Andrew have created for writing, painting, photography, music and everything else that makes life worth living. So check it out - every day.
http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2014/10/faber-new-poets-10-will-burns/
Remember
It's National Poetry Day today, and the four Faber New Poets were asked to write a small piece for Faber's blog, The Thoughtfox about a war poet or poem that has stayed with us in some way, or influenced our writing.
I wrote about Robert Graves and the other pieces are wonderfully written and well worth a read.
http://thethoughtfox.co.uk/remember
Branchage Festival
I'm involved in a couple of events at Branchage festival in Jersey, starting later on this week, and I'm really looking forward to them.
I'll be discussing Karl Marx and his legacy and continued (arguably increasing) relevance, as well as Dylan Thomas and the wider idea of writing and drinking at two specific events, but will also be reading poems at two Caught by the River curated events.
Tickets to all four can be purchased here... hopefully see a few friendly faces there.
Faber New Poets Pamphlet
All four of the Faber New Poets' pamphlets are now available to pre-order from the Caught by the River bookshop, here.
Faber New Poets Tour
A bit of information about the dates and venues for our tour in October can be found here:
http://faberpoetry.co.uk/2014/08/26/faber-new-poets-on-tour-october-2014/#more-409
Needless to say it’s an honour to be part of this scheme and hugely exciting to be sharing a stage with three incredible writers during the tour. Hope a few of you can make it out.
Structo Magazine Interview
For the last couple of years I have helped out reading poetry submissions for the wonderful literary magazine Structo. They were actually the first print publication to take any of my poems and a couple of weeks ago, I did a very brief interview with the editor, a smart and absurdly good man called Euan. Here’s what he said. And what I said back…
http://structomagazine.co.uk/our-very-own-faber-new-poet-will-burns-interview/