Kim Moore's The Art of Falling (Seren, 2015)

Some favourite passages:


And the soul, if she is to know herself
must look into the soul and find
what kind of beast is hiding.

the opening stanza of "And the Soul"

I come from people who swear without realising they're swearing.

the opening line of "My People"

                                  ...and the lawn sits

in its shadows and dark and its falsehoods

and the ending begins with its terrible face,

its strange way of being, its short way of living....

from "I'm Thinking of My Father"

and if there was a moment

when I thought the body was a cage,

I knew it then....

*

Here is the loneliness of November

and its failure at an ending....

from "After Work"

Wouldn't any of us, if pushed, sit on the riverbank

and comb snakes from our hair, or think that in our grief

we could become a sea bird, our outstretched bodies

like a cross nailed to the wind?

from "Translation"

                                                     You ask

about birds, but all I can talk of is stones.

end of "How I Abandoned My Body to His Keeping"

                                                     Show me

how to recognise the glint in the eye of the dog,

the rabid dog. Remind me, O body, of the way

he moved when he drank, that dangerous silence.

Let me feel how I let my eyes drop, birds falling

from a sky, how my heart was a field, and there

was a dog, loose in the field, it was worrying

the sheep, they were running and then 

they were still. O body, let me remember

what it was to have a field in my chest....

from "Body, Remember"

...when I knew fear was just a thing

to be bargained with, inside my feathered heart

was another feathered thing, born white but slowly

turning black, the way the crow in all the stories

was turned black for speaking truth.

end of "When I Was a Thing with Feathers"

In winter, in the fog,

sheep lie on the road for warmth

until the car is close enough

to breathe on them

and then they straighten their legs

and clatter away like coat hangers.

from "The Dead Tree"

                                 ...his eyes two leaves

of slowly changing colour.

end of "Chet Baker"

I can put on the heavy garments of the soul.

I can tether myself to the earth if I choose.

from "Give Me a Childhood"

You can purchase The Art of Falling directly from the publisher here. If you join Seren's (free) book club, you can get 20% off all titles.

On not winning the Ted Hughes Award

My partner Trev and I were not long inside the Savile Club before its poshness had overpowered us--or we had someone with whom to share our views. For the first time in years I saw my former MA student Tom Weir, whose poem had placed in the top ten in the National Poetry Competition (yay, Tom!). Before long I'd met up with Peter Daniels, Rachel McCarthy, fellow shortlister Patience Agbabi, Tammy Yoseloff and many more I met that night for the first time. I became an avid poet-sighter, pointing out to my partner  John Agard, Carol Ann Duffy and Alice Oswald, among others.

Fortunately we didn't have to wait long into the night before the Ted Hughes was announced. Kei Miller and Julia Copus gave lavish descriptions of each work on the shortlist, then Carol Ann Duffy pronounced Andrew Motion the winner. I looked at Trev and shrugged my shoulders and spent much of the rest of the night receiving commiserations as well as, more happily, talking about the Forward Prizes, as I met Forward Arts Foundation employee extraordinaire Maisie Lawrence, with whom I'd had a fair bit of contact about meeting arrangements and book deliveries. 

Was I, am I disappointed? Of course, but only a little. I've greatly enjoyed being shortlisted and the new readers it seems to have brought to Imagined Sons; there have also been some new invitations for readings and workshops. It's time to get on with my reading for the Forward Prizes--and to my next collection, on which I'll say more before long. 

Thanks to everyone who sent kind messages over the past weeks about the book and the award. I don't think I've ever felt such strong support for my work, which is so heartening as I look to the future. Many, many thanks.

Imagined Sons and the Ted Hughes Award on BBC Radio 3's The Verb

I was enjoying a quiet evening in last night when poet Laura McKee, via Facebook, brought my attention to the programme on BBC Radio 3's The Verb. Among Ian McMillan's guests was Grayson Perry, talking about his role as a judge of the Ted Hughes Award and about the role of emotion in the shortlisted works. I tuned in just before the conversation shifted in that direction, and to my amazement, Ian McMillan read the first poem from Imagined Sons, "Imagined Sons: Fairy Tale," as an example of a poem whose restraint conveys the emotion that much the more powerfully. 

What a week it's been! 

Imagined Sons shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry

 Three days after the announcement, it may seem old news now, but I'm still giddy that Imagined Sons has been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, sponsored by The Poetry Society. The honor is magnified by the presence of the other poets on the shortlist: Patience Agbabi, Imtiaz Dharker, Andrew Motion and Alice Oswald. Indeed, appearing on such a list makes me feel I've already won.

The awards ceremony will be on 2 April at the Savile Club in London.

An audio recording of "A Birthmother's Catechism" available online

My publisher Seren Books asked me to do a recording of the poem they wanted to use as poem of the month for the December newsletter, "A Birthmother's Catechism." You can listen to the recording at SoundCloud here.

More great reviews of Imagined Sons in Cape Times and Poetry Wales

A short review of Imagined Sons appeared in the South African newspaper, Cape Times, on 24 October, concluding that the poetry "haunt[s] the reader as that lost son haunts the mother." I'm most grateful to author Moira Richards for bringing my work to a new audience. 

In the new issue of Poetry Wales, Katy Evans-Bush comments, "It's one of the most universal untold stories, the giving up of a baby, and it comes at us here with the power of myth, as the narrator sees her missing son in every young man she encounters. The language is plain, unspectacular, and the most disturbing in its near-affectlessness." The review continues in this appreciative, thoughtful vein. I'm heartened by both reviews.
 

A sterling review of Imagined Sons in The Warwick Review

Here are my favourite passages from Sophie Cook's rich review:

"...she does not shy away from acknowledging, even embracing, a sense of unimaginably impressive self-awareness. Etter's remarkable achievement in Imagined Sons is that she is able to exhibit such a balance; she is pragmatic without seeming unattached, and both emotive and emotional without appearing too overtly sentimental." 

"Etter uses more vibrant though obscure imagery to explore the relationship between people, as reflected in aspects of their environment. [...] Etter's unusual choices for these book-long tropes are perhaps what gives them their potency. [...] There is an unrelenting brutality to Imagined Sons which gives the volume cohesiveness and distinction."

Another positive review of Imagined Sons appears in Poetry London

Sarah Hesketh has written a nuanced review of Imagined Sons for the Autumn 2014 issue of Poetry London. Here is the final paragraph: "Etter creates a sustained narrative across the whole volume, layering the poems elegantly. The fact that these are prose poems probably made this sense of wholeness easier to achieve, but there are still moments of lovely, isolated imagery that make you want to pause. The answers in the catechisms give Etter an opportunity to be more fragmented and abstract in her descriptions and the final line in the book quotes Celan, a poet well known for taking the horrors of reality and presenting them in dense metaphor: 'It is time, Celan said, the stone made an effort to flower' ('A Birthmother's Catechism'); Etter has found fertility in a scenario of intense loss."

"Imagined Sons 9: Greek Salad" in The Forward Book of Poetry 2015

On my return from Illinois last week, I found The Forward Book of Poetry 2015 and my poem, "Imagined Sons 9: Greek Salad," among the Highly Commended Poems. It seems to me that there's more range in this edition of the Forward anthology, with the likes of Andrea Brady, Lee Harwood, Marianne Morris and Denise Riley alongside such usual suspects as David Harsent, Andrew Motion and Hugo Williams. I may have to take it with me on the train to Norwich today....

The Guardian's Poem of the Week, from Imagined Sons, with a splendid review

I'm delighted that one of my birthmother's catechisms is The Guardian's "Poem of the Week," selected by Carol Rumens, yet perhaps more moved by Rumens' overall account of the book, wonderfully appreciative and astute. Describing the Imagined Sons prose poems, she writes, "Funny at times, fast-moving and psychologically astute, these tiny monologues are held together by a narrative voice as seemingly self-possessed as it is candid." Of the catechisms, she says, "Etter reinterprets the form as both a psychological and a melodic device. The intense, same-question repetition pushes the speaker into a corner, where poetic self-defence may be disarmed, the creative play of the prose poems distilled to a barer essence." Concluding with her analysis of the catechism that asks, "Who do you think you are?," Rumens comments on the last line, "It's a cadence of renunciation, singular and resonant, in a text otherwise charged with restless energy and novelistic powers of invention."
  
Heartening and gratifying....

 

An online review of Imagined Sons

One of the perks of the internet is that one needn't wait as long after one's book is published for reviews to appear. Here's a lovely review of Imagined Sons by Emma Lee.

Imagined Sons launched at the West Barn, Bradford on Avon, 28 March 2014

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a wonderful night!

The launch viewed from outside the glass at the West Barn

My reading from Imagined Sons after an outstanding introduction by Claire Crowther

Blurry, but still great! Gerard Woodward, me and Tim Liardet, three of Bath Spa's faculty poets

Josephine Corcoran and Tania Hershman pose with their copies of Imagined Sons

Thanks to Reiss McGuinness for taking the photos.

And Other Poems

Three poems from Imagined Sons are featured today on the And Other Poems blog composed by Josephine Corcoran. Come and read!

Kim Moore on Imagined Sons

Poet Kim Moore interweaves news about her week with thoughtful commentary on Imagined Sons in her blog entry today. She also reprints "Imagined Sons: The Bus," which originally appeared in Long Poem Magazine.

Today's London launch of Imagined Sons

A London launch upsets the nerves in so many ways. What other poetry events are going on the same night? Who will I lose to those other events? What if there's a tube strike--as there was on the night of the launch of my first collection? WHAT IF NO ONE COMES? I start counting on my fingers those who've said they're attending, then check my email and see one has the lurgy and another has car trouble. 

I've tried to pre-empt as many concerns as possible. It's in central London, walkable from the Holborn, Chancery Lane and Farringdon tube stations. Tick. They serve food, including a few good vegetarian options. Tick. The room is large enough to hold a good crowd, but hopefully not so large that it'll dwarf us if there aren't that many people. Tick. I reminded friends online the day before. Tick. Did I post something on my blog? I'm doing that now. Tick.

Why is a launch important? So many years, so many tears have gone into this book, that I want to do my best by it. I want to sell sufficient copies that my publisher doesn't lose money on my account. I want people to like the best thing I've ever made. 

So, if you don't know already, it all kicks off at 6 p.m. tonight in the upstairs function room of The Yorkshire Grey pub, 2 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8PN. Click on the name, and the link will take you to their website with fuller information about directions &c. I'll read at 7 p.m., then the revels will continue. Fingers crossed.

Did You Get the T-Shirt? Touring a Book

I decided I'd like to see my reading dates lined up as though they were on the back of a band's tour t-shirt, and here's what I have thus far:

THE IMAGINED SONS TOUR

27/2   Seattle

18/3   London

22/3   Plymouth

28/3   Bradford on Avon

6/4   Cheltenham

11/4   Bristol

26/4   Providence, RI

30/4   Claremont, NH

1/5   Cambridge, MA

25/5   Portsmouth

5/6     Cardiff

8/6     Oxford

20/6   Reading

26/6   Swansea
4/7 Ledbury

16/7    Nottingham
8/9 Norwich

17/9   Sheepwash
3/10 Swindon (Poetry Festival)
4/10 Exeter

13/11  Swindon (BlueGate Poets)
26/11 Chichester

I'm not interested in promoting myself as an author so much as promoting the book on which I worked so hard--I want to get the book into people's hands.

Book blurbs

Lately I've been thinking a lot about blurbs as I've collected a couple for my next book of poems and advised a friend on obtaining some for his. In seeking blurbs, I've encountered unexpected (while hoped for) generosity and earnestness. For my pamphlet/chapbook Subterfuge for the Unrequitable (Potes & Poets, 1998), I approached via email two poets I'd never met or had previous contact with, Cole Swensen and Ron Silliman. I'd admired Swensen's work for years and was delighted when she provided a lovely blurb. With Silliman, I only had the virtue, by way of introduction, of bringing out the pamphlet with a publisher who had also produced some of his own works (and he's had quite a few publishers over the years), and yet he too kindly gave me a blurb for my pamphlet. 

The blurbs did more than provide the pamphlet with something to put on the back cover and perhaps persuade a few people to buy it. They heartened me greatly. Indeed, to this day rereading their remarks encourages me. 

I had a similar experience with my first full collection, The Tethers (Seren, 2009), approaching Robert Crawford, whom I'd only met briefly at a conference, and Rosanna Warren, whom I'd never met but whose work had influenced my aesthetic since I was introduced as an undergrad to her work.

I understand some poets are bombarded by so many requests for blurbs that they have had to set down rules: they don't do blurbs for students or they only do blurbs for students; they only do them for people they know personally; etc. I feel grateful to all those poets who make time to comment conscientiously on a younger or less established poet's work and thus help it find a readership. My thanks go out to them all.

Imagined Sons (Seren Books, 2014)

I'm delighted to announce that Seren Books, which did such an impressive job with my first collection, The Tethers, will be publishing my third book of poetry, Imagined Sons. This is my first strongly thematic work, exploring a birthmother's consciousness through two kinds of poems: Imagined Sons, prose poems where the birthmother encounters the son in different guises once he's come of age (baker, hotel clerk, surfer, black olive, etc.) and catechisms, where the same recurring question provokes different answers over time.

I first completed a draft of the manuscript in 2006 and produced a pamphlet manuscript from it for Oystercatcher Press in 2009, The Son, which was named the Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice for that quarter. Poems in the book have appeared or are forthcoming in Barrow Street, The Iowa Review, Long Poem Magazine, New Walk, New Welsh Review, PN Review, The Republic of Letters and The Times Literary Supplement.

Reviews of The Son have been wonderfully heartening, with Peter Riley describing it as "quite startling--a serious work about loss through a terrific play of imaginative resource." David Morley wrote in Poetry Review: "Carrie Etter's sparkling, serious beating-out of prose poetry and catechism continues in a finely judged sequence, grieving and honouring and surprising on every page. 'It is time' (Etter quotes Celan) 'the stone made an effort to flower'. And so this fine book, its respect, sadness and subject." 

Over the next few days, I'll be giving the manuscript its probably hundredth read and searching for potential images for the book's cover. A great way to spend what's forecast as a rainy weekend!

 

 

 

Newspaper Taxis: Poetry After the Beatles (Seren, 2013)

Here's Seren Books' second anthology of poetry focused on a musician or band (the first one was The Captain's Tower: Seventy Poets Celebrate Bob Dylan at Seventy). Edited by Phil Bowen, Damian Furniss and David Woolley, the anthology includes poems by Peter Carpenter, Tim Dooley, Jane Draycott, Frank Dullaghan, Elaine Feinstein, Kenny Knight, Rupert Loydell, Kim Moore, Peter Robinson, Amy Wack, Nerys Williams and Tamar Yoseloff, not to forget the omnipresent Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy. I'm pleased to be in there, too, with a short prose poem musing on the strangeness of a girl in the middle of the Illinois prairie singing "Penny Lane" with all her lung power. Go figure.

You can buy a copy directly from the publisher at 20% off, for £7.99. All royalties go to the Claire House hospice charity in Liverpool.

"Aurascope" from Nerys Williams' Sound Archive (Seren, 2011)

Aurascope

You came with Mr Rhetoric

and the light found a pattern

for his squat figure guarding the door.

We sped, or rather I, through countries

I never really knew

while a fire fell in the grate.

The phantom caller sketched my hand

watching the butterfly ring

beat metal spirals on my finger.

My favourite perfume was a room of laughter,

in the sound between my aurascope

clouds emptied of your face.

Nerys Williams

Sound Archive (Seren, 2011)

You can purchase Sound Archive for 20% off directly from the publisher.