Neptune Blue
Published on 15. August 2013
Book
Hardback
80 pages
978-1-907773-59-4 (ISBN)
Description
`Neptune Blue' opens outside the galaxy and quickly zooms into a computer-generated Paris, dancing past the planets as it goes. With poems that fizz with wit and invention, Simon Barraclough's new collection bursts with crazy hearts and boisterous planets. What do Neptune, Derek Jarman and Edwin Morgan have in common and is Saturn really the undisputed supermodel of the solar system? And with over sixty moons, do its werewolves ever get a night off? If you based a whole new meteorological season on a slippery pool hustler from `The Color of Money', how would such a season feel? Is there money to be made in privatising snow? From the Sun to Pluto; from baby sharks in Miami to the forlorn dogs of Sri Lanka and the unlucky settlers of the imaginary Island of Schalansky; `Neptune Blue' sees Barraclough at his most playful and musical, dishing up a feast for the eyes, the ears, the heart and the mind.
Reviews / Votes
Terse, offbeat vignettes are where Barraclough excels but the highlight is the book's opener, "We'll Always Have CGI Paris", which blurs social commentary, romantic comedy and rhythmic intensity to unlikely effect. -- Ben Wilkinson * The Guardian * Neptune Blue is a dazzlingly inventive collection and a worthy successor to Barraclough's critically acclaimed first collection. It is a book with a tongue in its cheek, its head way above the clouds and its feet firmly on that `blue-green baubled gobsmacker' we call earth. * The Graft Review *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-907773-59-4 (9781907773594)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Simon Barraclough won the poetry section of the London Writers' Prize in 2000 and is the author of the collections Los Alamos Mon Amour (Salt 2008) and Bonjour Tetris (Penned in the Margins 2010). He is also the editor of the multi-poet homage to Hitchcock's seminal thriller, Psycho Poetica (Sidekick Books 2012) and is co-author (along with Chris McCabe and Isobel Dixon) of The Debris Field: Salvaging the Titanic in Word, Sound and Image (Sidekick Books 2013).
Content
Contents
We'll Always Have CGI Paris
Being a Woman You Will
Incorrigibly Plural
Hare of the Dog
The Dogs of Trieste
Starfish Heart
Jurassic Coast
Flashbacks of a Fool
Due Cinghiali
St. Francis of the Boston Hilton
Pizza Heart
SoBe It
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
The Dogs of Sri Lanka
Mr. English at Home
Celeriac Heart
Soldier of Fortune
Examination at Doom's Door
Roman Heart
Owl Creek Bridge
Tapestry Heart
Spotted Flycatcher
Braille Bird
Magpie Heart
Jumper
In Memoriam Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916-2010)
Logos
Hindenburg Heart
The Remote Island of Schalansky
Old Henry's Advice
Easter Saturday, Hyde Park
Christmas Vixen
Wiki Heart
DMZ
Anti-personnel Heart
Daimon
Everything Must Go
Braille Encore
Yuri Norstein Heart
Grady Seasons
Havisham Heart
Zabriskie Point
Wrigley's Heart
Sol
Notes
Acknowledgements
We'll Always Have CGI Paris
Being a Woman You Will
Incorrigibly Plural
Hare of the Dog
The Dogs of Trieste
Starfish Heart
Jurassic Coast
Flashbacks of a Fool
Due Cinghiali
St. Francis of the Boston Hilton
Pizza Heart
SoBe It
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
The Dogs of Sri Lanka
Mr. English at Home
Celeriac Heart
Soldier of Fortune
Examination at Doom's Door
Roman Heart
Owl Creek Bridge
Tapestry Heart
Spotted Flycatcher
Braille Bird
Magpie Heart
Jumper
In Memoriam Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916-2010)
Logos
Hindenburg Heart
The Remote Island of Schalansky
Old Henry's Advice
Easter Saturday, Hyde Park
Christmas Vixen
Wiki Heart
DMZ
Anti-personnel Heart
Daimon
Everything Must Go
Braille Encore
Yuri Norstein Heart
Grady Seasons
Havisham Heart
Zabriskie Point
Wrigley's Heart
Sol
Notes
Acknowledgements