John Gallas Poetry

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

(Spinoff)

Poems for August 2026

These 2 poems are reconstructions from 'Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia', translated by Daniel David Luckenbill PhD and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1926.

One hundred years since his incredible work, let's celebrate Dr Luckenbill anew!

ADADD NIRARI I (14^th C BC)

On a stele

Do not dare scrub out my name and write yours instead.

Do not dare break this stone. Or throw it in the river.

Do not dare bury it. Or burn it.

Or put it somewhere dark where it can’t be seen.

Just don’t try.

If anyone is thinking of coming to do any of the above,

may his name be cursed and all his relatives and everything

with floods, storms, drought, hunger, thunder and lightning,

loss of sperm, war and a bloody good hammering.

                                  *

SHALMANASER I (13^th C BC)

On a stone tablet at the rebuilt Godplace of Eharsagkurrkurra

Pray here, like me, and things will Go Swimmingly.

I wiped out 8 Countries. Which I burned.

And sowed the ashes with salt.

The King of Hanni tried cutting off my water supply.

I killed 14,400 of his men and put a spear in his guts

just as the sun went down in flames.

Then I cut all his friends’ throats like sheep.

The corpses filled a whole valley.

So I rebuilt this place. Thank You.

It now has a big memorial stone all about Me.

The walls have been plastered with oil and cream.

The whole thing has been restored top to toe,

as you see,

with plenty of silver, gold, iron, bronze, lead,

and a selection of fresh herbs.

May Assur enjoy his new house

and listen to my prayers.

                                        *

WHAT'S AFOOT?

The Maker's Top Ten

1. My 'translated version' of Carmen Bernos de Gasztold's 'Prayers from the Ark' (animal-voiced delights ... by a Nun) is to be published by SLG Oxford. Picture search for illustrations now on!

2. Won the 'Rest of the World' Chesham Literary Festival Poetry Prize with a real EnZed number. Honoured & delighted.

3. Completed judging, with Gerda Stevenson, the inaugural St Magnus Orkney Festival Poetry Competition. The pamphlet with 10 fab poems from the competition is now available 'The Air We Breathe' ISBN Number:978-1-0369-9351-1 Charity numberSC0116

4. Just finished work on 'Verhaeren50', a translation of 50 Emile Verhaeren poems: some serious Flanders realism ('The Yard' The Orchard' 'The Espaliers' 'Breadmaking' 'The Cowherd' 'The Pig' etc). Bring considered.

5. Won the Regional (Midlands) Aurora Writing Prize 2025 with a poem called 'warm weasels at Amar el Husn'. Delighted and honoured. (See my facebook page).

6. 'Te Pūrere' (The Exodus), a huge collection of EnZed expatriate poets/poems, edited by Vaughan Rapatahana and me, now published/out from Cold Hub Press NZ. Order from their website www.coldhubpress.co.nz

7. New publication: CARCANET now out: 'Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: The Complete Works' - my (his?) 198 tankas. See above: bookshops, order from www.carcanet.co.uk, or, for great overseas postage rate, Blackwell's Books www.blackwells.co.uk

8. PNReview No.288 now out: with 'Mondo de Muzikfaristoj' ('World of Music Makers') - my translations of short musicky poems from around the world.

9. A wonderful review of 'Billy Nibs' in the introduction to 'Best NZ Poems 2024': 'Absurdly good' - buy, and read on ... find it at https://www.bestnewzealandpoems.org.nz/

10. Work in Progress: '10X10' - 10 sections of 10 poems each, with tantalising (I hope) titles like 'The Retractions of Death' 'Luminosities' 'The Persian Version' 'ffenestri' 'It's Your Sam' 'The Revolutionary War in Cuba' etc. Nearly there.

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 2024)

Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: The Complete Works (Carcanet) - October/.November 2024

Te Pūrere (The Exodus: an anthology of expat Aotearoa/NZ poets/poems. 2025 (Cold Hub NZ)

The Steadfast Throne of Three (SLG 2025)

Prayers out o' the Ark (to be published by SLG, 2026/7).

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

                                                                               *

You are visitor number 204164