|
Already
a staple in multiple literary publications, John G. Hall's poetry
is a stunning contemplation of both the mundane and the extraordinary.
With
his debut collection, Hall makes an undeniably strong impression,
experimenting with images of religion, elements, horror, and everyday
life in his reflections on the world and the people within.
"John
Hall's poetry has the gritty edge of a contemporary visionary
in active development. He is not afraid to let the poem happen
to him as experience & he is not imprisoned by form but open
to its changing demands. Whether writing of broken heartedness
or dealing with experiences of a more directly political nature,
his poems are always directed towards the future. So that outrage
is never far from rage, nor
affirmation from bitter actuality. This is an important book by
one of England's most important younger poets." Jack
Hirschman - author of "Front Line-Selected Poems"
Poet & activist.
"
John G. Hall fuses several key ways of being a poet in the early
21st century: the lyric, and the experimental. His work has a
spiky immediacy, and an articulate ache, that reminds me of Lawrence
and sometimes the American Beats: he lets the moment speak its
fire and its cold. In this sense, he boldly side-steps the Mainstream/Post-modern
divide, and simply acts as if poets still had a public voice,
and deserved the public's ear. This collection suggests Hall is
an emerging voice in the UK, one perhaps unexpected, but promising
much." Todd
Swift, editor of 100 Poets against the War (Salt, Cambridge,
2003).
"Hall
constantly asserts the imagists instinct - that pared-down thought,
the sure gaze. With each line a brush stroke, and framed by what
he makes seem acres of white, these poems strive towards the condition
of poetic quanta. At their best, they urge themselves into distinctive
intensity." Mario
Petrucci - poet/ freelance writer, educator, researcher &
essayist.
"'John
G Hall's poetry is both visceral and delicate. It is haunted by
an angry spirituality that never loses its sense of humour or
hope. From condoms to Iraq, from Jesus to Alzheimer's, these poems
are as brutally honest as they are beautiful." Aoife
Mannix - author of 'The Trick of Foreign Words'
"I
admire the diversity of subject matter in John Hall's poems, and
am particularly moved by several of his brief but poignant observations
of childhood and old age. 'A Childish Snap', 'Auntie Hugging',
'Being Old' and 'Dust to Dust' stood out on first reading and
didn't disappoint when I returned to them. Elsewhere there's a
good mix of serious themes and self-deprecating playfulness, and
a poet who can admit Humphrey Bogart and Charles Mingus into his
company must be doing something right." John
Mole - author of ''For the Moment" (Peterloo.) Poet &
Lecturer.
Paperback
ISBN 1-904492-80-0 £7.00 eBook ISBN 1-904492-81-9
£1.00
|