Kirjahaku

The largest collection of original writing yet by this talented British poet, painter, editor and publisher. "Loydell is a poet who, in painting a Steinian portrait of himself, tells us he is 'interested in several sounds at once, he is withdrawing into the museum of improvisation'. There appear to be two aspects of these several sounds: tightly drawn lyrics that speak to his most intense experiences, and texts that improvise into predetermined structures, from other texts, whose reading is a different kind of intense experience. In the end, the distinction is a false one. What this book contains is a substantial collection from one of the most interesting writers around. Everything is in his voice, wherever it has come from. Even if it our own voices we hear, strangely othered, something angelic amidst our animal grunts." - Robert Sheppard

Rupert M Loydell's third Shearsman collection shows him continuing his forays into collage and experimental writing, but always with a lyric turn.

In these mercurial poems, real and imaginary events combine with overheard, quoted and misquoted voices to produce a slippery and unreliable series of opinionated poems. What appear at first to be heartfelt confessions reveal themselves to be exercises in ventriloquism, argumentative fictions that seek to subvert and surprise the reader. This poetry is a different kind of beast to what you might have expected.

Interviews, essays and conversations with or about Alan Garner, Russell Hoban, John Burnside, Iain Sinclair, David Toop, Nicholas Royle, Andrew Poppy, David Kennedy, Greg Bottoms, Ken Edwards, Robert Sheppard, David Miller, Steve Spence, Paul Sutton and Brian Louis Pearce.

These five sequences of linguistically-driven word patterns, draw on the visual and written work of named photographers to explore ideas of seeing, language and being. Each line sits on an another line, subtly asserting its right to be there as a thing in itself, yet also asking the reader why these phrases are placed where they are and just how they all link together. The relentless rhythmic noise of these poems-perhaps the equivalent of heavy metal-can detract from this process, whilst the coherence of form only emphasises the differences contained in this disturbing and elliptical work; but those who persevere will find a rewarding and original poetry, full of experiental moments as well as diverse music and perceptive thought. These are ballads for the 21st century: tough, fragmented and unsure of themselves, yet given to insight and swagger.

In The Return of the Man Who Has Everything, Rupert Loydell continues to explore post-confessional narrative in his poems, as he has previously done in Wildlife and the Smartarse anthology. The Man Who Has Everything is an unlikely anti-hero, adrift in a world of instant gratification, momentary experiences and instant answers, in contrast to the music, art, books and conversation he prefers. Melancholic, witty and sometimes absurd, these new poems offer stories and observations, asides and assumptions, as they try to clear a way through the chaos that surrounds us and make sense of contemporary life.

In Dear Mary poet and painter Rupert Loydell writes about art and life and how they intersect. Fascinated by both renaissance and contemporary painting, he re-invents moments of annunciation in today's world, and revels in the colours and sunshine of Italy. This is a world of wonder and surprise, where aliens abduct the Virgin Mary, 20th century rock singers find themselves collaged together and singing about her, infinite greys (and grays) blur together between other greys, Francis Bacon paints angels, and even the weather forecast predicts the future. Above all else, this is a book which celebrates language and art, and explores how we navigate the world around us, seen and unseen; how we might wonder, explain, and begin to understand.

A tepestry of contrasting poems, some ironic, some light-hearted and some delicately lyrical.

Rupert Loydell's second Shearsman collection is another large compendium of his many-faceted experimental writing. "More than ever, Rupert Loydell's new book An Experiment in Navigation reminds me that he is a painter. By which I don't mean that his writing is primarily visual, but that he rejoices in discovering what his medium is capable of." (Jane Routh) "Loydell renders with equal deftness the plainsong of direct statement and melodious phrasal waves of speech. While he acknowledges that it is '...easier to map out fictions and wallow in distant clouds that deal with linear time', Loydell gives terra firma its full due. His work displays engagement with the figurative "folded pocket map". (Sheila E. Murphy)