BLISS TANGLE by SARAH LAW

<There are angels in Bliss Tangle. And sex. And drugs. And tea. And Mr.
Spock. And clear, resonate language. Up until now, the poetry of the
spiritual has been failing us with its unnecessarily baroque constructions.
Yet this work will save us as it concentrates on the conjunctions of life's
everyday. 'And wine and smoke and religion and sight' it declares. Amen.>
Juliana Spahr

In this first collection, Sarah Law explores many aspects of contemplative
and mystical experience. Mysticism to this writer does not obliterate
everyday life, but is rather always present, constantly backlighting the
world we live in - sometimes playfully, sometimes uneasily. In order to
capture this elusive state her writing makes unusual linguistic
connections, with moments of stillness within a flow of narrative or
emotional movement. Drawing on the creative tension between traditonal
mysticism and modern poetics, via Stevie Smith and Thomas Merton, this
poetry transcends the personal to reach towards articulation of a place
beyond metaphor.

Sarah Law was born in Norwich in 1967 and studied at Pembroke College,
Cambridge, gaining a first in English. After two years working as a pianist
at a ballet school, library assistant and bookseller, she moved to London
to write a PhD on the influence of mysticism on modernist women writers.
She now lives in Norwich and divides her time between writing, teaching in
adult education and bookselling. She is an Associate of an Anglican
religious community.

<The mystical tradition of literature owes as much to deliberation as to
devotion, to social transgression as to spiritual transcendence, to
conundrum as to consummate vision. It is in the light of such knowledge
that we may begin to describe Sarah Law's 'negotiation' with the tradition.
And herein, too, may lie an explanation for the curious - and curiously
effective - blend of anxiety and mischief so characteristic of this poet's
voice.>
Stephen James, Editor, The Tabla Book of New Verse

Published with assistance from the Ralph Lewis Award at the University of
Sussex


*

VEILS by DAVID MUTSCHLECNER


All of us have a myth-life - what we go through can be seen as either
prosaic or charged with deeper potential. David Mutschlecner is concerned
with the latter, drawing out his own myth-life by looking into what
interests him most: modern art, philosophical theology and, most
importantly, the wonderfully clear perceptions of childhood. Against the
overwhelming commercialism of our culture, and against the notion that we
are our own worst enemy, the Dantean struggle for true vision becomes
vital. It is this struggle that Veils is ultimately about.

The poet lives in New Mexico, where he makes his living as a grocery clerk
whilst studying philosophy and theology.

<David Mutschlecner skates skilfully over the thin delicate ice that covers
the myths of our lives on all but a few memorable occasions, producing
provisional prescripts for the exigencies our souls face on terra firma.
His is a spare style, carefully articulated, sensitively combining lived
experience with images born of thinking and reading. These are intelligent,
often beautiful, texts.>
Brian Louis Pearce

Published with assistance from the Ralph Lewis Award at the University of
Sussex


Each titles costs £6.95, and is available, post free from
STRIDE, 11 SYLVAN ROAD, EXETER EX 4 6EW
[cheques to 'stride' please]




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