I’ve been blogging for 19 years (today). In recent years, on this anniversary, I have looked back at the posts that have enlivened me, have been looked at a lot, and (even) have not been looked at all! I started this mode of reviewing on the tenth anniversary, and all those posts (and the annual posts in the last ten years of blogging) were presented as links, in last year’s 18th year post. I think this year, I’ll simply point to that post as a guide to all the others. Do have a look, but don’t get lost in the labyrinth.
Here: Pages: Eighteen Years of Blogging today! (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
Blogging is meant to be a posting of the instant, but I’ve never thought of Pages as ephemeral, as Twitter or X are, for example. As those posts will indicate I set this blog up in 2005 as an attempt to continue my print magazine Pages as a ‘blogzine’, but gradually it turned into a blog, but with the proviso that I see many of the posts as of permanent import (I can’t say ‘importance’, for only others may judge that). But the various posts on Iain Sinclair, for example, add up to something, critically speaking. Or those that led up to my book The Meaning of Form. Some posts are essays, some a spattering of links to other posts, and (during the writing and temporary blogging of the poems of ‘The English Strain’) I learnt to delete posts or to edit them after posting for a short time only. The writing of those poems (but not of others, note) was very public (because the poems were public, and demanded an immediate audience).
Nineteen is an odd number, in all sorts of ways. Maybe the 20th year will be an occasion of looking back at the WHOLE blog, so I am going to limit myself to this past year to point out posts I would suggest readers re-visit or visit for the first time.
This blog (and some other blogspot blogs) seem not to be favoured by my Norton security. I look at my own blog and it warns me: ‘Dangerous Web Page Blocked!’ I just ignore it, because it doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve not noted interference or strange changes – except via the strange bot hits that catapult random posts into thousands of supposed ‘hits’; I suspect they are Russian, because of the sheer number of hits that derived from there (though Blogger no longer provides that sort of geographical information). I’ve always suspected my mention of Pussy Riot started that off. But that’s a different animal to the Norton warning. Clearly it doesn’t stop people looking at the blog, and people with other security systems are not affected. One friend said he received the warning on his phone but not on his laptop. If anyone can explain this (in simple terms) do let me know!
I intend to pick out the best of last year’s posts,
but first I should say a few things about the last year. Last year’s post
mentions the radiotherapy and hormone treatment I’d been receiving, the one
intense and quick, the second distributive and slow. It’s gone pretty well, and
I’m as active as I used to be. The following posts will confirm readings, music
performances, and some travel. If you meet me you’ll note that I’m often
wearing the little Man of Men design that Prostate UK sports. (I think it is a
design masterpiece: I’ve even got the socks and beanie!) See here for their
work and their warnings and their wonders: Prostate
Cancer UK | Prostate Cancer UK. Men, here’s the Risk
Checker: Check
your risk in 30 seconds | Prostate Cancer UK.
In the last year I published a book, Doubly Stolen Fire, and, of course, I posted about it, Pages: Doubly Stolen Fire (a new book of hybrid texts) is now OUT (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) and about its two launches (so far), Pages: Launch of Doubly Stolen Fire at the Lowry Lounge 2023, Liverpool (set list) (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) and Pages: Performance of the Ern Malley Orchestra and launch of Doubly Stolen Fire (robertsheppard.blogspot.com). One of the texts from the book ‘Circling the City’ was published online, close to the publication of the book, so it served as an advert: Pages: Circle of the City published now on Osmosis/New book coming soon (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) Here's the first review: Pages: Reviews of my book DOUBLY STOLEN FIRE (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
I looked back at my other published books and found most of them
still in print (Pages: Robert Sheppard: seeing
what's in print and what's not!) and in the process found
that my poetics piece, The Anti-Orpheus , is available as a download (Pages: Robert Sheppard The
Anti-Orpheus (pdf available online).
Here's a bit from an unpublished book, my 'verse-novel', Elle published in Shuddhashar 37 in Norway: Pages: My Verse Novel ELLE is excerpted in Shuddhashar 37: Surrealist Poetry edition (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
I like to indicate recent creative publications, and where that has been online it means I can link directly to the poem(s)/prose. Two poems in Stride also get the short video treatment too: Pages: Two new poems published on Stride (robertsheppard.blogspot.com). Four in Shearsman (one video this time): Pages: Four poems from British Standards published in Shearsman 137/138 (robertsheppard.blogspot.com). My long poem ‘The Area’ appeared in The Long Poem Magazine and I posted about it (too long for a short video!): Pages: My poem THE AREA is published in The Long Poem Magazine number 30 (background and links) (robertsheppard.blogspot.com). Two more in Tears in the Fence: Pages: Two new poems published in Tears In the Fence 78 (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) Two poems on Anthropocene (short enough for vids): Pages: Two British Standard sonnets are published in Anthropocene - notes, links and a video (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) My collaboration with Sarah-Clare Conlon appeared in Blackbox Manifold and I predictably blogged: Pages: UNTITLED by Sarah-Clare Conlon and Robert Sheppard is published in Blackbox Manifold 31.
That last poem came about via a reading, and I have
listed readings on the blog: Pages: The Liverpool Camarade at
Open Eye Gallery : May 2023: the videos of my collaboration with Sarah-Clare
Conlon (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) and Pages: Robert Sheppard and two
others at Peter Barlow's Cigarette 24th October 2023 (set list).
(This doesn’t include the launches, listed above!)
I published a poem for Iain Sinclair’s 80th birthday, Pages: I'm in IS80 a book for Iain
Sinclair at Eighty (robertsheppard.blogspot.com), and an
essay on Caroline Bergvall’s work (my only critical piece this year; in the post,
I partly explain why; of course, I’m also editing more these days
than critiquing). Pages: My essay 'Inventive
Re-workings' included in 'Caroline Bergvall's Medievalist Poetics'
(robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
However, I did rise to the challenge of writing a new POETICS of my work, ‘My Own Crisis’, which was published by FUTCH: Pages: My poetics piece 'My Own Crisis' is published by Futch (robertsheppard.blogspot.com), possibly my most important piece this year!
MUSIC. I wrote about performing with the Ern Malley Orchestra (duo): Pages: Performance of the Ern Malley Orchestra and launch of Doubly Stolen Fire (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) and about more fun music (with thoughts about writing about music, too; I’ve plans for a book of poem on music, or round and about music): Pages: More returns of Little Albert - the music I play, the music I listen to, the music I write about (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
‘Cocaine Hippos’ was a Stride project that I documented with a kind of index: Pages: Cocaine Hippos Project (and my part in it): posts and updates (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) My contribution, ‘A Kink in the Anthropocene’, possibly my only ‘animal poem’, may be read here: Cocaine Hippos 11: A Kink in the Anthropocene | Stride magazine.
Three poems from the 1980s were recovered over Christmas 2022, and the (3) posts of them begin here: Pages: Recovered poems from the 1980s - part one (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
This year, and sadly, I remembered the late Gavin
Selerie and his laugh: Pages: Remembering Gavin Selerie
and his laugh (robertsheppard.blogspot.com). And I remembered my UEA friend Colin Scott in a long and 'linky' post:
Locating Robert Sheppard: email: robertsheppard39@gmail.com (don’t use the Edge Hill email); website: www.robertsheppard.weebly.com Follow on Twitter
(or X): Robert Sheppard (@microbius) / Twitter ; latest
blogpost: www.robertsheppard.blogspot.com
