"...he does not depict appearances but the forces that shape them and the possibilities they contain."
Jeremy Hooker, writing in PN Review
My author page from the Shearsman website.
books
Living in the Shadow of the Weather (Kawabata 1984)
Ancestral Deaths (Stride 1985)
Decoded Chronicles (Stride 1987)
St Catherine's Buried Chapel (Taxus 1987)
The Invisible Children (Stride 1991)
The Mute Bride (Stride 1998)
Ha Ha (Shearsman 2007)
Josian in Ermonie (bending oeuvre 2009)
Bonehead's Utopia (Smokestack 2011)
Hegemonick (Shearsman 2012)
Hegemonick
Poems to do with things that happened on, or near, or below the surface of Portsdown Hill in Hampshire (UK). I lived on Portsdown Hill during the 1970s, my local pub was the Portsdown Inn. The hill, a long east-west chalk ridge, overlooks the city of Portsmouth (home to most of the Royal Navy's surface ships). The hill is a centre of military mysteries; it is encrusted with derelict and still functioning bases and research facilities.
Published by Shearsman Books in February 2012.
ISBN: 9781848612204
Paperback, 114pp, 8.5x5.5ins
Price: £8.95
There is a sphere of power—the centre is beneath
the ground—
like a bubble over Portsmouth and the harbour,
its hinterland and marine approaches. It has an edge,
it forms a dome, and everything is washed and rewashed
by radar, the endless monitoring and the chatter within.
from Farlington Redoubt
From the blurb: Hegemonick is a ‘free history’ of the war against children, something unearthed; it is a delusional narrative, an ode to oblivion; a hymn to the goddess, the once and future porn queen; a therapeutic journal, partially rewritten; a decoy (but not a plan).
“This is astonishingly powerful writing. The hair
on the back of my head rose. It is a great poem sequence.”
Peter Philpott, Great
Works
Along the way the poems explore the context of the 'Paulsgrove paedophile riots' (August 2000), they go deep below ground and, although it might seem odd to some, they go Inside Mary Millington. Mary Millington was the UK's first shameless porn star. She was a mighty goddess and we love her very much.
Hegemonick is not a cosy book. It is meant for grown up adults to read, which means that people on the 'poetry scene' probably wouldn't like it. If you think you might be a part of a 'poetry scene' don't read this book.
Bonehead's Utopia
Poems from a Southern Arts residency at HMP Haslar, an Immigration Removal Centre near Portsmouth.
Published by Smokestack Books in February 2011.
ISBN: 978-0-9564175-7-2
Price: £7.95
Order Bonehead's Utopia from Inpress.
Reviews of Bonehead's Utopia
" . . . it is political poetry in the most imaginative
and intelligent sense, a deeply philosophical collection of poems . . . "
Alan Morrison, The
Recusant
Bonehead's Utopia on the internet
Inside
the Outside An article published in Poetry
Review
(Volume 94, No 4, Winter 2004/5)
Once on the Poetry Society page, click on the Andrew Jordan
link to download the article as a PDF.
First published in Shearsman
Magazine, two poems :
No Resistance and Working with Narratives: Our New Reality
as the Main Theme
Download a PDF sampler of Shearsman issue 60 (2004) here.
poems in Great Works
poems in Blart Magazine
Ha Ha poems
Palimpsest - first published in Angel Exhaust 15
The Antiquarians - first published in Angel Exhaust 15
