ANGEL EXHAUST TWENTY-ONE
EACH AEON FREE AFTER THE FIRST ONE: THE WELSH UNDERGROUND
Despite the denials of official organs, Wales participated in the great
blossoming of poetic culture of those decades between the end of the primary
Cold War and the dawn of the New Right, and this unofficial English literary
magazine is offering a large-scale celebration of the achievements of Welsh
poets whose optimism captured them. The fall of monoliths spills daylight
onto the missing half of the picture. The most interesting anglophone Welsh
literature of the past century has been in the innovative vein.
A mixture of poetry, essays, memoirs, and interviews recreates a literary
era in depth.
Poets featured are: John James, David Barnett, Paul Evans, Iain Sinclair,
Zoë Skoulding, Ralph Hawkins, Peter Finch, David Greenslade, John Goodby,
Nic Laight, Nick Macias, Niall Quinn, Philip Jenkins, Graham Hartill,
Lynette Roberts, Chris Ozzard, Rhys Trimble, John Powell Ward. We touch on
the history of innovative writing in Welsh and even turn up two avant garde
texts in Welsh. An analytical essay (drawing on work only available in
Welsh) uncovers the use of Welsh patterns of consonantal echoing in the
English experimental tradition. An ample poetry anthology includes mainly
unpublished poetry but also recovers texts from as far back as the
seventies, defying forgetfulness.
Living witnesses told us strange tales. Recovery of original texts from
archives and deposits has brought a disintegration of the intellectual
legacy. Salvaged from among the debris of Christian, nationalist, and
communalist ideologies, we shake clear a brilliant line of liberated and
imaginative writing. Set up in order to fill a gap, the project has
uncovered a whole gulf, a submerged realm of sophisticated intellectual
exploration. Awed, we recover the traces of the classic Welsh magazine *2nd
Aeon* between 1966 and 1975. That is truly why each aeon is free after the
first one.
*£7. 170 pp. publication date 4 June 2010. available from: 21 Querneby Road,
Nottingham, NG3 5JA. cheques payable to 'Andrew Duncan' please. *
*edited by Goodby and Duncan. *
*This is a follow-up to the celebrated 'Colonies of Belief', the special
issue on the Irish avant-garde, edited by Scully and Goodby. *
* *
* *
so much of this movement
is really human
the gentlemen of the
orchestra beckon us on
a blood stain
appears on my left eye
we follow a sinewy pavan
slowly and
lacking arms we will allow ourselves
to fall over the edge
of the known world
* *
*(Philip Jenkins, '*La Patinoire')
--
(David) "Dave no more" Joseph Bircumshaw
"Every old house was scaffolding once/And workmen whistling"
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
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