Thanks, Jim. I think the connections and inter-textual patterns around
'Directions' have evolved over time, as I've written new work and/or
revised earlier work and finally selected and sequenced it for the book.
'Directions' began as a probe into notions of cosmology and expanded
consciousness, focussed by a phrase in an review of Kubrick's 2001, which I
hadn't even seen at that stage, although I knew the Arthur Clarke story,
'The Sentinel" which was the basis for the film script. I was also heavily
immersed in Andre Breton, particularly the Second Manifesto of 1930 where he
posits a kind of aleph/omega point where all perceptions fuse, 'a certain
point of the mind ... in which the real and imagined, past and future cease
to be perceived as contradictions.' So the poem becomes a voyage -
sometimes bizarre and absurdist - towards this vanishing point in the void -
where the mystery remains unresolved.
There's a similar voyage pattern in 'Timeship' whereas Gestaltbunker, which
I think is more timely than ever - at least that's what people tell me -
relates more explicitly to political and ecological issues, as do 'Oxidised
Desert' and 'Destruction of Large Cities'.
That's a rather fuzzy answer, I'm afraid. Oddly enough, I made Facebook
contact today, after many years, with Gyorgy Porkolab, who was involved in
the original 'Directions' and 'Gestaltbunker' recordings in the UBC student
radio studios. It was all done without multi-tracking in real time - and in
analogue, of course. I think we were inspired to use feedback by the Who...
Thanks again for your interest in my work
Paul
On 2/4/12 11:38, "Jim Andrews" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Paul,
>
> Fantastic. Congratulations.
>
> I have listened to your audio poem Directions to the Dead End many many
> times. So I'm curious what the relation of that poem/object is to the
> chapter of poems in your book with that title.
>
> ja
> http://vispo.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Green" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 2:56 AM
> Subject: Welcome to the Gestaltbunker
>
>
> Brother Paul is happy to announce his latest publication The Gestaltbunker -
> Selected Poems 1965-2010:
>
> http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2012/green.html
>
> The Gestaltbunker encapsulates the range of Paul A Green's output. His
> briefings on nuclear apocalypse, global melt-down and the excesses of media
> landscaping are transmitted through surreal inscapes and an intensifying
> torsion of language. He moves from mid-life probes into the basement of a
> psyche to domestic praise-songs and celebrations. The riddles of time and
> consciousness continue to pre-occupy him, whether encountered through
> magick, music or the mysteries of the city.
>
> ³Thrillingly dystopian...² John Goodby
>
> ³From his cloister, Brother Paul emerges, jazzed & weaponized. As raw as a
> Delta Blues in a sharecropper's shack, yet as sinister as Flash Gordon
> playing Faustus on the Mongo fault-line abyss.² Lawrence Russell
>
> "His interests have coaxed him deep into the occult, surrealism and pop
> culture; his investigations meld and come into outstanding idiom...² J.
> Michael Yates.
>
> Available directly from Shearsman, as above, or via Amazon in UK and North
> America.
>
> A video is in production and there will be launch readings in London and
> elsewhere later in the year. Meanwhile, the Bunker is open for inspection.
>
> Some of you may have had this information via other channels. If so,
> apologies for flyposting your screens
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