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Issue #1
Kintsugi - Kat Savage (Read More)
"We thrive in the cracks of society, We, the Artists. We have never quite fit in to anywhere ‘solid’ really- schools, churches, nine to fives- we are too restless you see, too electric." Kevin Tole reviews David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress in the style of the book.
Plus poetry from Susan Taylor, Barbara Anna Gaiardoni, Stephan Delbos, and Marieta Maglas.
Use the categories tab on the right hand side (bottom of the page on a smart device) to navigate to specific content including our amazing poetry submissions. |
Sarah Mayo in the spotlight discussing being an 'insider-outsider'.
Feature column from Kenwood Blenderhand 'The Age of the Screen', plus more special content released throughout the month of April.
Photograph 'Do Not Hang' by Thom Boulton |
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Spotlight - R.C. Thomas
A cast iron fireplace coughs out a lick of flame, recedes, and the fire burns cosily. On second glance, the fire isn’t flame. Fireflies dance in the firebox, glow worms deck the hearth. I sit across from R.C. Thomas, who recently published Faunistics: a Collection of Wild Haiku and Illustrations. Lounging in a dark green leather armchair in the corner of the living room, he wears nothing but his own clothes. Between us, a pool of water is ripe with the gleam of nemerteans—the bobbing heads of seals. A porcupine pricks my feet. An oilbird perches on my shoulder. The antlers of a spirit moose loom over my head. On R.C. Thomas’ lap, a platypus dozes. I scan the room. Choiseul pigeons sing happily beneath ficus trees. A lemming jumps from a desk. Hanging from the arm of my chair, a slow loris. We begin. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER You’re not long back from your around-the-world trip and you’ve written a book… R.C. THOMAS AS SELF A book of wild haiku and illustrations. I visited so many countries, across all continents, and what stood out to me more than the people was the wildlife. All these underrepresented creatures that I wanted to give a voice to. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER You have two collections of longer poems, The Strangest Thankyou, and Zygote Poems. Why a book of haiku? R.C. THOMAS AS SELF I originally got into haiku about fifteen years ago. I wrote a haiku collection and showed the manuscript to Alan Summers, who knows his stuff. He gave me some tips on how to write better haiku, truer to the artform. I immediately stopped writing in 5-7-5. In brief, I learned the 5-7-5 thing is an urban myth. The Japanese don’t count syllables like we do in the West—they count sound units which have a different measure. When westerners discovered haiku, we replicated it as best as we could understand, resulting in the 5-7-5 formula. Having a total of seventeen syllables isn’t important. As per Alan’s advice, I now aim for twelve syllables. Sometimes I end up with more, sometimes less. You can read more about that here: https://www.nahaiwrimo.com/why-no-5-7-5 R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER And then you had mastered haiku. R.C. THOMAS AS SELF Not quite. I had to learn about kireji—the cutting word. For a haiku to work, it should be made up of two words, separated by the kireji. The two parts should both stand alone and feed into each other, eliciting an ‘a-ha’ moment. For more traditional haiku, there is also the kigo—the seasonal reference. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER And then you had a polished, ready-to-be-published manuscript on your hands. R.C. THOMAS AS SELF Then I went back to my longer poems. Apart from the odd spat here and there, I didn’t pick up haiku properly again until about twelve years later when I had hit a creative wall. I didn’t like anything I was writing. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER Was haiku the remedy? R.C. THOMAS AS SELF Well, I was clearing a drain and a spider came out in my hand with the gunk. I wrote a haiku in my head. I can’t remember it now but it wasn’t very good. However, it inspired me to dig out that old manuscript. Looking through those poems, the majority featured wildlife, so I began rewriting with fauna as the focus. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER Was there a lot of rewriting to do? R.C. THOMAS AS SELF Yes. I rewrote all but the whole collection. I committed myself fully to haiku to see what would come of it. I joined the British Haiku Society and the Haiku Society of America; joined various Facebook groups; connected with other haiku poets (haijin). All of this helped me learn and better my haikai writing. I entered some contests too, and got lucky with this one: silver lining-- what the storm takes from the magpie's fable (Joint First Place, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest 2022; shortlisted for the Touchstone Best Individual Poem Award 2022) R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER In Faunistics, you’ve grouped all the fauna by continent. Each continent has its own chapter, so to speak. R.C. THOMAS AS SELF Given that I really did take an around-the-world trip—I’m still suffering from the jet lag-- it seemed natural to replicate that. So, the book follows my very real journey from continent to continent. Starting in Europe as, of course, I boarded my flight at Heathrow, and ending in Antarctica. Technically, it’s not quite an around-the-world-trip for the reader, as I leave them in Antarctica. But it’s easy enough to get back. Just close the book, start again. It was at this point in our interview that the platypus awoke, sliding from R.C. Thomas’ lap, waddling out of the room, diving into the river in the hallway. R.C. Thomas continued: I tried to pinpoint each creature down to its habitual country. When I saw the opossum playing dead in Mexico, for example, Mexico is where it’s located in the book. This one is a monoku. A one-line haiku. Its meaning depends on where you place the punctuation in your mind’s eye: opossum’s faint visions of wild dogs playing dead (Five Fleas [Itchy Poetry], 21st August 2022) R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER So, three lines does not a haiku make? R.C. THOMAS AS SELF Is that bygone or broken English you’ve spoken there? Anyway, generally haiku are written in three lines, but they can be written in one, two, four lines and other variations. The haiku spirit is what’s important. I wrote a few like this too: passing through the dark cassowary plum seed tree (Die Leere Mitte, Issue 16) R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER If you don’t mind me asking… R.C. THOMAS AS SELF I don’t. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER Well, tell me about the illustrations in the book. R.C. THOMAS AS SELF I like doodling. I created all these bespoke black and white illustrations of the creatures’ environments and paw prints to go with the poems. At the end of each continent, the reader is then met with a full-page colour montage. Within which, each creature of that continent appears for the reader to spot. It’s just a bit of fun. R.C. THOMAS AS INTERVIEWER That does sound like fun. Thanks for taking the time to chat. Our interview ended there as a kangaroo tucked R.C. Thomas into its pouch and bounced off with him out into the garden. You can buy a copy of Faunistics from R.C. Thomas’s website, which includes a free bookmark with a haiku that didn’t make the book: www.rcthomasthings.com It is also available from Amazon UK: https://tinyurl.com/23zpx2d6 and Amazon US: https://tinyurl.com/3m9njzwa and all other Amazon stores. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and X: @rcthomasthings
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