Original Plus chapbooks

This is what Eric Baus says of George Beddow's The Bitter Lemons of Nerval -

"George Beddow's poems retune the imagination through sharp changes of scale and ever-mutating allusions. Here, a hybridized song awakens somewhere between the strings of a prepared piano and the lyre's ancient sigh. A simultaneously playful and ominous tone infuses these compelling, often animistic landscapes. His words shimmer and vibrate anew, attracting faraway echoes."  

ISBN 978-0-9931186-7-8                 £3.60    

mirrormoon: Helen Buckingham 

‘Not many Western haiku poets are inclined to immerse in moon-viewing like Buson . . . . Helen Buckingham followed the same path . . . . Reader, be ready to embrace the spirit of autumn – and catch glimpses of the moon, even if they are not immediately visible to you!’ Anthony Kudryavitsky

‘Helen Buckingham sequels her ‘Water on the moon’ with her new publication ‘Mirrormoon’. . . . This time around she’s in mixed moods; now playful, now serious, now witty…She sways to all the influences of every moon phase and reaches up capturing for this collection every possible moon; strawberry moon, wolf moon, day moon, she even crafts a moon into a painting, not forgetting the ever indelible blue moon. . . .’ Gillena Cox

"Helen isn't a poet who's afraid to look for haiku and senryu in the stuff of modern living. Whilst every one of the poems in Mirrormoon includes a reference to our oldest of friends, the moon, there's also the mention of Pringles and Mars Bars and allusions to goth teens, cash points and cellulite!"  Liam Wilkinson

"The rhythms of these haiku both in themselves and as a group enact a powerful ancient, deep and nourishing sense of time. / This is a major haiku work offering a profound vision with great poetic skill." Charles Thompson  

  ISBN 978-0-9562433-8-6      £3.00     (price for UK only)   

Chris Deakins: In a Parallel World

‘This collection has a new maturity, but not one of comfort or senescence. Undercut with black humour and wry observation the poems explore conceptions of morality, loyalty, desire, resignation and liberty. I read them and say to myself: ‘Yes that’s what it is, that’s what it feels like’. To me they have a quality that is at once familiar and beguiling. Neither placating or neurotic they simply tell you how it is.’ Tim Kaye

ISBN 978-0-9570197-0-6      £3.00  (price for UK only) 

An A to Z Art of Urban Survival, Following Diogenes of Sinope

by 

Martin Ferguson

"An A to Z Art of Urban Survival, Following Diogenes of Sinope is exactly that: a selection of wide-ranging and adventurous poems where contemporary society juxtaposes and re-energises elements of older traditions, ‘former glories, ageing stories’… Myths of the moon and sun, chronograph artists running, instant imagist texts and a ballad of Grunge King Cobain are just a few of the colourful characters and narratives within this striking and thought-provoking pamphlet. Who were we – and what are we now? As identity, time, society, nature and relationships take the spotlight, there are ‘hypnotic details to be discovered’ on every page. " Sarah James

"In 'An A to Z of Urban Survival Following Diogenes of Sinope', Martin Ferguson charts the eerie sights and sounds of unfamiliar landscapes  and the ways in which our more ordinary urban scenarios can quickly take a turn for the worse and become unsettling. A dead-eyed shop assistant holding up a see-through piece of lingerie or an abandoned building where an anxious photographer hopes to find 'details that captivate' and 'fascinating vignettes' can become, as disquieting as the violent characters of African myth or the sight of a majestic condor lured into the valley.  / This uncertainty, in which '[e]very horse [is] dark, straight-mouthed, or Trojan' (we just can't know in advance), is but a sign of the general malaise we have managed to impart to our very Earth---who, in the pamphlet's last piece, complains to a fellow planet that 'I am unwell, / I have The Sapiens'. It is to Ferguson's credit that he manages to diagnose and show up this discomfort with grace, humour and poise. " Laura Chalar

ISBN 978-0-9955802-7-5

£3.60                   for a signed copy contact   martinferguson@hotmail.fr   

Due to be released 18th February 2019

Lamella by R. M. Francis

These poems apply Freud's Uncanny, Kristeva's Abjection and Lacan's Lamella Myth to the mundane, dealing with the borderlands of being. In the liminal landscapes of post-industrial Britain, the underbellies of everyday life, in the unlooked and overlooked, R. M. Francis guides us through the lost feral, primal and off-kilter parts of selfhood. You wear the mask. You face the mirror.

'Beauty in what others might label as sordor. Right up my street. Blown away by it, into a better place, and who could ask for anything more from words?' Niall Griffiths

'So  much contemporary poetry is divorced from the bodily instincts and functions. What [Francis] is doing is an anchoring without loosing the intellectual. It has the wild desirous energy of Whitman, the free flow of lyrical instinct from Ginsberg, the nihilism and disillusionment of Larkin,  the attention to craft and its purposeful deviation of Auden and touches of the de-familiarisation of Redgrove. And an element that owns all of this and more and says 'this is mine'. It is dense and very resonant.' Bob Beagrie 

'Resonant and highly charged – like a veritable stream of elementary particles smashing into each other.' Michael Jarvie

'Holding a magnifying lens uncomfortably close to many everyday human issues.' Charley Barnes

'Francis is a writer with real grit.' Isabelle Kenyon  

ISBN 978-0-9955802-8-2              £ 3.60       

Sheila Hamilton: One Match

"On 16 January 1969 in the centre of Prague, in a busy thoroughfare by the National Museum, a 20-year-old university student named Jan Palach poured petrol on himself and lit a match. He died of his horrific burns three days later. . . . It was a fierce gesture of protest against the Soviet occupation of his country . . . .In a sequence of deeply felt poems Sheila Hamilton explores the incident and its ramifications. Her language cuts sharply and cleanly to the bone." Ketaki Kushari-Dyson "There has been thorough research behind Sheila Hamilton's representation of Jan Palach's story in this remarkable sequence of poems. The cool, matter-of-fact tone of her work succeeds in infusing the story with its true horror. . . . There is so much that is unknown, imprecise about Jan Palach's short life, but Sheila Hamilton here brings it very much into the foreground of now: Jan Palach lives in these poems. Unforgettably." Gill McEvoy

ISBN 978-0-9562433-7-9       £3.00   

(price for UK only)         

The Reedy Boy : Andy Hickmott

Widower Glen Fenny neglects his chores one Spring morning and, on a whim, finds himself on the bank of a reedy lake, where he sees

among the stalks of the rushes and reeds

over on the opposite shore,

a boy, or a man worn down to a boy,

sitting solemnly counting his toes,

as naked as the lake from his withered heel

to his weathered nose.

The Reedy Boy is a traditional fable with a modern moral, told in 24 free verse chapters.

ISBN 978-0-9931186-2-3                               £3.60                  (price for UK only) 

Christopher Jackson's The Monkey Fragment

‘I don't think I've ever read anything quite like The Monkey Fragment. Here is the wry philosophising of Douglas Adams, the grotesque draftsmanship of Mervyn Peake--rolled into a form all its own. This belongs on your shelf, and clattering away at your mind's typewriter about ludicrousness, infinity, and love.’  Robert Peake

ISBN 978-0-9931186-6-1                                           £3.60 

The Blinding Light Circling Elpida, in one act : Dina Kafiris

"Of a kind of writing that combines the silence of the age old landscape with the chatter of fiery tongues ceaselessly talking 4000 years ago until now without stopping even for a drink of Raki… these poetic notes record and transmit what the ears think they have been hearing all the time although this is not necessarily true."  Nanos Valaoritis

ISBN 978-0-9570197-7-5        

£3.00 (price for UK only) 

The chapbook is no longer available but Dina has a brand new collection out from Kingston University Press.  Hyprocrisy has a Face and other writings is available here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hypocrisy-Has-Face-Other-Writings/dp/1909362778 

Punching Cork Stoppers : Neil Leadbeater

‘Many of the poems in Neil Leadbeater’s latest collection, Punching Cork Stoppers capture the heat and light and sensuality of Lisbon. Other landscapes embrace both the human and natural world, which are sometimes contrasted and at other times merge into a whole that feels deeply inhabited: but they are always compassionate. These short poems catch the essence of a scene or situation, like calligraphic sketches, the details bringing alive whatever scene is painted for us. Sometimes they are shaded in with snippets of conversation, or words with folded meanings, or even famous characters such as Tennyson and Byron, who sidle or stride into the present. Neil Leadbeater’s assured and rhythmic poems are always a pleasure to read. For me these poems are like parcels – I enjoy peeling back each line and layer, and what lies at the heart of them is a gift that often surprises and delights at the end.’ Morelle Smith

 ‘From its intriguing title onwards, Punching Cork Stoppers is a mesmerising read. Neil Leadbeater conjures up an essence of Portugal – we can almost feel the heat as we follow the narrator and his unnamed companion through Lisbon, beyond cork plantations to old streets where the sound of fado wells up from the night quarters. The writing is elegant, ‘word perfect’ to quote the opening poem of the collection.’ Jane Seabourne

'The poems in this chapbook by Neil Leadbeater represent a love letter to Lisbon, to Portugal, and to its cork groves in particular. In the capital the poet hears fado music, a form of song characterised by mournful tunes and lyrics, in the old streets: “This notion of fate - / the passion of the heart which wins hands down / over logic held in the head …”

He devotes three poems to different Lisbon funiculars, and another to the city‘s spectacular ‘Aqueduto das Aguas Livres’, “those high-pointed Gothic arches / striding over the edge; / that brass-led fanfare of uniform pillars.”

There are nods to Tennyson, Byron and Southey as he traces their footsteps, and a number of mentions of a companion in these poems, which give them an added resonance: “Your high heels keep up their rhythm / on the parquet floor / word perfect.” (‘Buying Shoes in Lisbon’).

Leadbeater marvels at natural wonders, too, such as the ‘Sacrifice of the Cork Oak’ (“To have your cells pared off …”), ‘The Essence of Lemons’, and ‘Oranges Coming of Age’: “A fire-burst of summer segments / squeezed out and citrus-cool”.

He and his companion lived among the cork groves for a summer:

      The only sound we heard all day

     was the tight-lipped talk of the district logger

     and the ragged tear of plank panels

     prised like tape from the trees

                                                         (‘Cork Oaks’)

 Leadbeater is acutely aware of the land’s thirst. In Oporto he recalls “how long the time has been / since the last rain was heard”; he sees “low-lying farms pitched like loaves / in the burn and shine of hills” (‘A Sea of Wheat near Moura’); and the final, short poem sighs at “the hard-edged glare” (‘Natural Light’). In more than one poem there is a longing for showers....' Greg Freeman: Write Out Loud

'Edinburgh-based Neil Leadbeater is a well-established poet and review writer of notable international standing. Long-term Quantum Leap subscribers may immediately recall his earlier association with our magazine, while, for the assurance of his renewed support, we welcome his return. The tongue-in-cheek title of this fascinating evocative Iberian whimsy rather modestly is drawn from Neil’s earlier experience of life in Portugal. And this collection is thus remarkable for his vivid portrayals in verse of the general locale within those wine-producing regions:

In the Casa da Música

Jordi Masó plays Joaquin Turino

every note

a late-bottled vintage

of dark butch reds

from the quintas

of the Douro.

IN THE CASA DA MÚSICA, PORTO

It was, of course, from those vast areas of neighbouring wooded groves that the cork required for the making and supply of wine bottle stoppers was duly obtained:

Imagine if you will, he said,

what it must be like

to nestle in the glass neck

of a young-vatted Tempranillo

and inhale the fruit of the vine!

CORK OAKS

Neil’s following poem, SACRIFICE OF THE CORK OAK, takes on a similar personified representation, as he describes the stripping of a richly bark-clad cork oak. Sensuously described summer heat conditions are pleasingly compensated with mouth-watering references to the lovely sun-kissed fruit abundantly produced, and so readily at hand, within those areas close to Neil’s then-temporary home:

THE ESSENCE OF LEMONS

is largely sunshine. Its bitter juice

the last catch in the throat.

There are references, too, to the poet Byron’s stay in Portugal:

In Sintra, ‘the glorious Eden’, he ate oranges,

luscious globes of refreshment

that helped him stand the heat;

conversed with monks in bad Latin

and shocked society with his pocket pistols,

swearing in Portuguese.

BYRON IN PORTUGAL

In his poem, LISBON HEAT, we find Neil on posthumous nodding terms with Alfred Lord Tennyson, who had long since roamed around this region. In another poem, we visit Oporto, an excursion somewhat marred by the excessive summer heat, at the time. Readers will readily warm to this writer’s wealth of detail and descriptive colouration in creative imagery so vital to his topographical depictions. A superb collection of well-penned verse, available now, at low cost, budget price…and post free, into the bargain!' Bernard M. Jackson: Quantum Leap Issue 84

ISBN 978-0-9955802-4-4                                   £3.60 

 Chang'an Poems:  Mark Leech

"Mark Leech’s sequence of 41 poems centres on a tyrannical empire where dissidents experience foreign exile and banished lovers can only dream of homecoming and reconciliation. The ancient capital Chang’an has towers, temples, parks, squares, courtyards—even jade rooms. A long bridge crosses a river. Geese fly in bitter winter winds. A drunk looks deeply into his bottle. Several elements of classic Chinese poetry are present.... Surprisingly, interlayered with the matter of ancient Chang’an is a modern version of the nastiest police state full of people suffering the consequences of violent turbulence—imprisonment, censorship, separation, fear, blood and death ... What we have with Chang’an Poems is a poetry of ambiguity where meanings are veiled, perhaps complying tonally with the dissident’s fear of the repressive apparatus of a totalitarian state. Even so, frequent discontinuities in the poems’ narrative threads affect adversely the overall cohesion and coherence." Peter Jarvis

"Leech’s playfulness unpicks his close observations, his concern for the world, and renders them mimetically to create a fractured, shifting picture.  Is this how we experience our world?  This is a carefully woven sequence that is astute and uncomfortable." Angelina Ayers: Antiphon

"This is a haunting collection that is reminiscent of elements of the Carcossa Mythos in its surreality and hopelessness, crossed with dark hints of a repressive police state. A powerful and evocative collection. Highly recommended." DJ Tyrer: The Supplement

"Mark Leech’s Chang-an Poems are winningly sentimental and full of blunt-nosed brilliance. Built on a tripod of surveillance, where the omnipresence of state censorship meets personal censorship and immingles (sometimes brutalizes) a deeply affecting love story, Chang-an is a survival fight and a haunting reflection of our precipiced world at large.... Without question, the longevity of this sequence confirms Leech as one of the most illuminative poets of my generation." James Byrne

"In Chang'an Poems, Mark Leech has produced a collection of rare grace, subtlety, and power. In his concern for our fragile earth and its most vulnerable and exploited people, he is an eloquent advocate for social justice for all humanity." David Olsen

"...The style and structure of this work is so authentic it could be taken for a translation. Leech is an excellent craftsman. The lexis has the spare quality and tone of Chinese writing. Poetic form is adapted to suit narrative shifts. The more complex and frankly uglier side of the conflict is recounted in longer poems with harsher language.... The overall effect is a sequence where beautiful imagery of love and nature counterbalances the harsh realities of a civil war." Fiona SinclairISBN 978-0-9570197-1-3      £3.00        (price for UK only)   

Lost in the Slipstream by Rupert M Loydell 

"....is a very varied, very large suite of rooms, all of them fit for habitation. In most of them you know precisely where you are because you've read Rupert Loydell before and know something of his preoccupations - his eye, his imagination, his hopes and fears, his inner questings. As I read it now .... it is a diary or record of days or occasions, some of which, conceivably, are still to arrive. Some of the matter is immediate and rendered without interpretation or analysis, whilst others appear to push Loydell into either carefully directed introspection or onward and into a sequence of tenuously related or, as far as the reader is concerned, totally unrelated events, memories and thoughts. Questions are asked, discoveries are related, mysteries - perverse as well as wondrous - play themselves out in almost real time .... "    Peter Dent  

ISBN 978-0-9562433-2-4                        

£2.50  (price for UK only)

Rimbaud's Hair by Paul McDonald

“An unpretentious poet who is good company,” (Caroline Clark, Welsh Books Council).  

“McDonald's language is sharp, street-smart and lyrical…These poems don't try to fool anyone. They give it to you straight.” Andrew Belsey.

 “Every line works in its own right, every stanza has something in it to enjoy.” (Claire Askew, Sentinel Poetry Quarterly)

 “Hilarious observations and talent for reproducing conversational speech.” (Raw Edge)

 "A keen sense of observation and playfulness" The Journal.

 “Witty, honest observations offer up characters you may have viewed in your childhood through the bottom of a Vimto bottle - or, in later life, through a beer glass” (Julie Boden, Writer in Residence, Birmingham Symphony Hall)

“This is a book that throws itself into your face like torn paper from a clown’s bucket, and leaves you soaking it all up.” Ink Sweat and Tears.

“…a delightful miscellany of portraits and landscapes that are a pleasure to read.” David Troman: Carillon Magazine

ISBN 978-0-9955802-2-0                                         £3.60

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 Valuable Things by Paul McDonald

This pamphlet takes some of the world’s most compelling art and explores its themes in a series of ekphrastic poems. Using individual paintings as a starting point, the poems offer lyrical responses that function simultaneously as art criticism and art in their own right. The author brings both his critical and creative skills to bear on key paintings by, among others, Degas, Hopper, Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Vermeer, in ways that eloquently capture their character and complexion, deepening our understanding of the work,and unpacking its force and relevance for the twenty first century.

ISBN 978-0-9955802-6-8                          £3.60  

Bloomvale Home by Joan Michelson

'I was surprised at how much I like them because I am a difficult reader of poetry. These got through to me because of how direct they are. They are also clear and sympathetic. I was pleased that they did not sink to sentimentality, which we hate.'  Diana Athill (99)

'With their finely-calibrated tone of voice, Joan Michelson's new poems vividly document the practicalities, mundane details and inevitable fate of those who live in Bloomvale Home. At the same time, she moves us powerfully with her portraits of the residents' confusions, heroism and still-vigorous emotions. One of the residents bursts into song in a "language strange"; in a similar way, this highly original book makes for essential - if often uncomfortable - reading for us all.' Martyn Crucifix

'These finely observed and compassionate poems give the reader a vivid sense of what might be in store for any of us.' Carol Satyamurti

ISBN 978-0-9931186-8-5    

£3.60  

Almost Human a collection of poems by Ian Mullins

According to Wikipedia autism is a highly variable neurodevelopmental disorder that first appears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steady course without. People with autism may be severely impaired in some respects but normal, or even superior, in others. Overt symptoms gradually begin after the age of six months, become established by age two or three years, and tend to continue through adulthood, although often in more muted form. It is distinguished not by a single symptom, but by a characteristic triad of symptoms: impairments in social interaction; impairments in communication; and restricted interests and repetitive behaviour. So says Wikipedia. 

“Not only is this chapbook full of very good poetry but, if you let it, it may adjust how you look at those who occupy a different space to you on the spectrum which is its backdrop.” David Troman: Carillon Magazine

ISBN 978-0-9955802-0-6                      

£3.60

Notes - while treading water  :  Alfred Todd

'These are dark, sad, joyful and wonderfully funny poems. Unlike many poetry collections, I wanted to read on to the end, then and there, find the diamond in the rough, the worm in the apple - so I did. And I did.' Hylda Sims'Alf Todd's poems are engaging and memorable, his characters poignantly and individually drawn, while also capturing the human frailty in us all. An enjoyable and heartening collection.'  Cathy Grindrod'These poems are peopled with strangers we recognise and wish we had known. Their stories are told concisely and without sentimentality. The magic of Brendan and the Moon-path made this poem particularly memorable for me.'  Jeremy Duffield

ISBN 978-0-9570197-8-2                 

  £3.00  (price for UK only)

West Abutment Mirror Images by Geoffrey Winch

"This title is intriguing and so apt with its connotations of junctions and substructures. There are layers of allegory in these poems concealed in details, apparently suburban and commonplace, that trigger a mass of associations. Here we have chains, gates, windows, mirrors, door bells ... stained glass in a cul-de-sac, a lay-by where ‘Dave’s Diner’ juxtaposes with a biblical cave in the Middle East, a blackthorn that is ‘scrappy’ as it harbours wrappers and junk. This landscape is a wilderness posing as domestic, there is menace beneath the surface, a sense of crossroads and a mood of time ignored and passing. Ashes are all that’s left of fire, light is thin and fading, even the guitar, forgotten on top of a wardrobe, has become ‘dumb’.  These are strong, beautifully crafted poems, palpable with tension and twist." Mandy Pannett (Poetry Editor: Sentinel Literary Quarterly)  

"Geoffrey Winch takes us on a detailed, even actually measured sometimes, exploration of a mirror world.  His careful descriptions of often the most prosaic detail lead him to larger insights, like the meaning of time and the effect of the seasons. The use of classic Japanese forms, so appropriate to this most diligent of observers, punctuates this collection.  There are sections that might have come straight from a translation of Basho, except the waterfalls and the rice wine have become culverts and cans of Guinness as Winch reaches into his civil engineering experience.  This is a well-crafted set of work with great variety and many surprises for the reader from a poet at the top of his form." Tim Dawes (Director: The South Downs Poetry Festival) 

"Winch has long been acknowledged as a master of both haiku and tanka. In this collection he extends that ability to include the haibun which combines prose or prose poetry with a succeeding haiku that develops the theme further... Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of this chapbook is that every time you pick it up you find fresh delights within..." David Troman: Carillon Magazine

ISBN 978-0-9955802-1-3                             

£3.60