John Gallas Poetry

'the greatest New Zealand poet no one has ever heard of'

(Spinoff)

Poem for July 2024

View from a Butcher

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, sanctions the mutilation and extermination of the Romani.

(from 'Wasted by White Men', book published by Cerasus Poetry)

On the 15th of February 17 hundred and 5,

in gloomy conditions, a large flock of sheep

ascended the Holy Roman Emperor

and took occupation of its summit

and the bristly, higher reaches,

from which they gazed down

with big, sad eyes.

In the oaks of Omlitz,

the Zigeuner hang

like suits put out to air.

In the middens of Mikulov

ten thousand ears

cup the sounds of shit.

The smithies of Szeged stink

with smoulders of skin

flapped on the haystrew’d floor.

On the river at Troppau

aprons, boots and kerchiefs

bob like birds.

At Brunn, in bullock-carts,

the battered, headless dead

bump off to be dug away.

And out of Eger

the banished hurry in bare feet

on a highroad of nails.

On the 17th of April 17 hundred and 11,

in unusual heat, the sheep removed

to a bedside table whilst the Holy Roman Emperor

exploded in a burst of pox.

Then they trotted, softly bleating,

across the long lawns,

and made themselves scarce.

*

WHAT'S AFOOT?

THE MAKER'S TOP TEN

1. Publication date CARCANET new book OCTOBER 2024: re-designed and re-named - 'Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: The Complete Works' - his (my?) 200 tankas. Proofs etc completed.

2. PNReview No.277 just out: with 'Mondo de Melankolio' - my translations of short poems from Iceland, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia and Jewish/Germany. The 4th in an ongoing series.

3. Busy co-editing, with Vaughan Rapatahana, a volume of Aotearoa/NZ ex-pat poets/poetry to be called 'Te Pūrere'/'The Flight'. We are nearing a final collection, with thanks to the many expat Aotearoa/NZ poets who have responded.

4. Just completed the translation of all available Hans Davidsohn (Jakob van Hoddis) poems. Around 50 in all, tellingly short (mostly). The poet was murdered in Belzec in 1942, aged 55 ('vanHoddis' an anagram of 'Davidsohn').

5. Won the Wells Festival Poetry Prize with 'horsebreezes': a very welcome £1000. And a 2nd prize in the Welsh Cambrian Mountain Poetry competition, along with a Bournemouth Festival 'place in the anthology' 'A Line in the Sand') and a 3rd prize in the Oxford 'Taste' Poetry Competition.

6. (See no.2) - producing, for each forthcoming issue of PNReview, a small set of 5 translations of short poems by writers from all places and periods: called MONDO DE KVAR ANGULOJ ('World of 4 Corners' in Esperanto) : 'Arboj' (Trees) , 'Macino' (Machines), 'Dormo' (Sleep) in PNReview 274-6, Set no.4, 'Melankolio', now out.

7. My translation of Reinhard Sorge's (1892-1916) complete poems has just come out from SLG Press, Oxford. www.slgpress.co.uk for contact/orders/buying.

8. A fab & wonderful review in the Times Literary Supplement of my & bro's 'Petrus Borel: Rhapsodies 1831' translation/book (Carcanet) - 'rivals the original' and 'a reliquary of gems'. Available to read online, or buy September 30th 2022 TLS.

9. Work in Progress: 'Fork Flats', a group of 35 poems that, upon reading, build up into a picture of an 'otherwise' society, a kind of jigsaw-puzzle for the reader: and some translating of Boris Vian poems, fresh, jazzy, informal and cool ...

10. 'The Extasie', 64 love poems, now out, with its wonderful cover - and contents, of course. Available to buy at all good bookshops, or order from Amazon and/or www.carcanet.co.uk

***** it is ...

A SUNDAY TIMES SUMMER READ RECOMMENDATION (see also Financial Times Literary Supplement) and a fab review from 'coffeetime' ('love poetry at its best') - read at https://coffee-time-reviews.com/2021/11/19/why-the-extasie-is-love-poetry-at-its-best/

Complete Book List

Practical Anarchy (Carcanet)

Flying Carpets Over Filbert Street (Carcanet)

Grrrrr (Carcanet)

Resistance is Futile (Carcanet)

The Ballad of Robin Hood and the Deer (Agraphia Press), pictures by Clifford Harper

The Ballad of Santo Caserio (Agraphia Press), pictures by Clifford Harper

The Song Atlas (Carcanet)

Star City (Carcanet)

The Book with Twelve Tales (Carcanet)

Fucking Poets (3 vols) (Cold Hub Press NZ)

40 Lies (Carcanet) pictures by Sarah Kirby

Fresh Air & The Story of Molecule (Carcanet)

52 Euros (Carcanet)

Pacifictions (Cold Hub Press NZ)

Mad John's Walk (Five Leaves : Occasional Pamphlets) January 2017

The Little Sublime Comedy (Carcanet) 2018

17 Very Pacific Poems (Indigo Dreams) 2019

The Blood Book (Gerolstein Press)

The Gnawing Flood (Cerasus Publishing) 2021

The Extasie (Carcanet) 2021

Amado Nervo: Poems of Faith & Doubt (SLG Press, Oxford) 2021

Aotearoa/Angleland: 30+30 tankas (New Walk Editions) 2021

Petrus Borel 'Rhapsodies', translated from the French by John & Kurt Gallas (Carcanet Classics)

The High Roof of Heaven (Anglo-Saxon poems transl. JG) (SLG Press, Oxford) 2022

Where Grace Grows Ever Green (Middle English poems transl.ed JG) SLG Press, Oxford) 2022

17 Paper Resurrections (from graveyards in mid-Wales: picture-poems) (Dempsey & Windle 2022)

Drops in the Sea of Time: Poetry of Woman & God (SLG Press, Oxford 2022)

Fly Not Too High: Holy Sonnets of Gabrielle de Coignard & Vittoria Colonna (SLG 2022)

This Far Place: poems of Gabriela Mistral (SLG 2023)

Touchpapers (SLG 2023) Contemplative Poetry series No.11 (SLG 2023)

The Poems of Reinhard Sorge (SLG due out 2024)

* The Alphabet of Ugly Animals (Cerasus Press) - due out 2024

* Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: The Complete Works (Carcanet) - due out October 2024

Contacts

John Gallas Poetry www.johngallaspoetry.co.uk

Carcanet Press www.carcanet.co.uk

Carcanet blog www.carcanetblog.blogspot.co.uk

John Gallas Facebook

Cold Hub Press (NZ) www.coldhubpress.co.nz

New Walk Editions www.newwalkmagazine.com

Five Leaves publishing/bookshop (Mad John's Walk) www.fiveleaves.co.uk

Agraphia / Clifford Harper www.agraphia.co.uk

YouTube (Paterau Sonnent / The Blobfish Sings Under the Sea)

STAND Magazine www.standmagazine.org

Indigo Dreams publishing www.indigodreams.co.uk

Spinoff (NZ) www.thespinoff.co.nz

The John Clare Project www.brookes.ac.uk/the-meeting

The Sutton Hoo Ship Build (Sponsor that Rivet) www.saxonship.org

SLG Press (Series of Contemplative Poetry) www.slgpress.co.uk

Dempsey & Windle, publishers of '17 Paper Resurrections' www.dempseyandwindle.com

                                            *

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