Carcanet Press Logo
Quote of the Day
If it were not for Carcanet, my library would be unbearably impoverished.
Louis de Bernieres
Order by 16th December to receive books in time for Christmas. Please bear in mind that all orders may be subject to postal delays that are beyond our control.

Grrrrr

John Gallas

Cover Picture of Grrrrr
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Reviews
  • What Looby and Delaney know is light
    is just a one of God's Own moods and that
    is easily learned. Come let us pay our each
    convivial ransom somewhere welcome-warm
    and talk about the sun. I saw a storm
    riding on its moon-washed clouds reach
    the steeple-clock: but there was time. I sat
    and watched the hail miss past me, and the night.
     

    from `Turbulent Tipp: Goodfridaynight'

               
    Grrrrr is the sound of our lives winding themselves up; the sound of our mechanisms continuing the search for Something Wonderful, wherever it may be. It is a weird and comic volume with, at its heart, a huge poem called `Redness' (a kind of antipodean Faust), and two Turkish tales of lust, treachery, violence, treachery, murder, treachery and a stolen minaret.

    The remaining twelve poems feature Sir Richard Burton discovering what is not new, camels; Tipperary at Easter; Samarkand; a tourist enjoying significance in the wrong place; the necessity of being mad; T.E.Lawrence; insomnia; the dead Fellini; a shoe shop arson; and the diary of a winter in Diyarbakir, a true and personal account.

    These poems are narratives that redefine narrative: from Tanganyika to Tillo, from Ravenna to Rotorua, by bicycle and by camel, the journey continues, to somewhere surely better, if only we could recognise it.
    John Gallas is a poet from Aotearoa/NZ, born in Wellington in 1950 and presently living near Markfield, Leicestershire, in the UK. HE has published 31 books of poetry, mainly with Carcanet Press. Others include SLG Press Oxford, Dempsey & Windle, Indigo Dreams, Cerasus Publishing, Cold Hub NZ, Five Leaves Editions (Nottingham), ... read more
    Praise for John Gallas 'Gallas's restless imagination and exuberant vocabulary bounce us through a variety of locations, moods, landscapes and seasons, from the bush-clad South Island of New Zealand to some distinctly unpredictable spots in the English Midlands.'

    Fleur Adcock
    'So many places! John Gallas vagabonds his way through the wide, wide world, and is just about the most audacious poet I know. These are the poems Wordsworth would have written if he'd grown up in New Zealand, been a bit more mischievous, and got around England on a bicycle.'

    Bill Manhire
    'John Gallas is not merely a lyric master, but a master of meaning... The Extasie is a collection that I feel I will be coming back to frequently, not just to recapture the enjoyment I had when first reading it, but also to fully bathe in the complex understanding of love in all its forms, rendered so skilfully in poems that reward a second reading with subtle epiphanies.'

    Ed Bedford, Coffee Time Reviews

    'This is a book for contemplative reading to enjoy all its richness and subtleties. Quietly thought provoking and intelligent, these are poems that celebrate the messiness of life.'

    - Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon
     'An enticing and timely collection of translations.'
    - The Guardian


Share this...
The Carcanet Blog We've Moved! read more Books of the Year read more One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more
Find your local bookshop logo
Arts Council Logo
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
This website ©2000-2024 Carcanet Press Ltd