I read some of my new sonnets to kick off the evening: my 'Brexit' sequence 'Break Out' (100 word sonnets) and my current work-in-progress 'Hap: Understudies of Thomas Wyatt's Petrarch'. (More on my sonnet writing here, and my previous 'Petrarch' sequence here.) One begins:
My tongue is
rigid, moist in attentive silence, unlike
those of slack
Brexiteers who promised the riches of the land
to a
sequacious populace without delivery or deliverance.
(‘Hap 3). Read three of the 'Wyatts' here.And the link
Here it is
These sonnets Hap:Understudies of Thomas Wyatt’s Petrarch are now published;
see here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2018/10/robert-sheppard-hap-understudies-of.html
and is available from Knives Forks and Spoons here:
https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/hap-understudies-of-thomas-wyatt-s-petrarch-by-robert-sheppard-26-pages
https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/new-titles
Taking only the sonnets Wyatt ‘translated’ from Petrarch, but adding a few of my own, I’ve merged the historical Wyatt with his hysterical contemporary analogue, a reluctant civil servant of a corrupt administration.
They also appear in Book One of ‘The English Strain’ project, The English Strain, is available from Shearsman Books here:
https://www.shearsman.com/store/Sheppard-Robert-c28271934?offset=6
(Book
Two, Bad Idea is available from Knives Forks and Spoons, HERE: https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/bad-idea-by-robert-sheppard-102-pages )
The complete short videos are as follows:
Robert Sheppard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob3q0OrMZcU
Robert Hampson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0c7NF2JdoA
Joanne Ashcroft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdcf96lSzK0
Brendan Quinn and Bill Bulloch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaoXF9KoxUQ
Andrew Taylor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z6WFNmd5YA
Zoe Skoulding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWd_fURKdK4
James Byrne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YwFGHeR3xM
Rhys Trimble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvSeq5J2Puk
Tom Jenks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l48J4Tlbk4
Steven Waling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjYvnPtUCI8
Antony Rowland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZFmjtujhOw
Natasha Borton with Rhys Trimble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRR1Pfmb5a4
Scott Thurston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuT_0e4Jrc
Patricia Farrell (filthy!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pCqehHCwyk
Unfortunately, Allen Fisher and Boyland/Blowers didn't record. Video messages from Ian McMillan, Charles Bernstein and Chris McCabe were also played.
Here's a link to Charles' message about 'aesthetic justice' recorded in Liverpool after the Storm and Golden Sky reading. https://media.sas.upenn.edu/app/public/watch.php?file_id=210403
Additionally, during the month of March (NOW ON), in the gallery space at the Arts Centre, there will be an exhibition of Sheppard and Patricia Farrell’s Ship of Fools press. Visit the hub post to take you to all the posts concerning the Ship of Fools exhibition here.