Tag: Barney Ashton-Bullock

Poetry Showcase from Barney Ashton- Bullock

Arraigned Excelsis in Suburban Winter

The boundary of infinity, its horror void contained in an anthrax picture frame,
This archetypal death in life, this concrete in motion, this conjoined voyeur,
This tundric countenance,
This obfuscation of reclusive handsome,
This recent aversion from habitual preen, pick and comb in the hallway mirror,
This slipshod, wall-grip, trudge-drudgery,
This thaw to laugh at his fails, fall and falter;
Don’t destroy yourself in a little bit of snow.

The pocket crumb memoirs of long chomped snacks afloat in streaks of mustard mastic,
The micro-discordant, cyclonic schluppety of coked nose,
The hunger it staves,
The breaking of background nations and foreground hearts, 
The amplified ice-crack-alike of the shoring apart 
Of the two sides of a pre-sliced frozen muffin.
Home is a hope for the future and a surety lodged in the past:
I’ve been thinking of you all my life 
But, you’re not what I’ve been waiting for;
Don’t destroy yourself in a little bit of snow.

By This Or That Street Or Bench Or Gate

by this or that street or bench or gate,
privet channels wrought by the stomp and trample 
of kidlets en route to dens within dens within the density 
of municipal park boundary delineating thickets;

by this or that street or bench or gate,
eschewing the ‘No Ball Games’ cul-de-sacrilege, 
the ‘No Cycling’ signs hammered aloft 
by the ‘Bureau of Cut-Throughs’, 
the riven floes of summer Sunday mirth overspill, 
on overspill Estates… 

just as that brazen, criss-crossin’ o’tit-bits and the rat-a-tat of jaw-jaw 
are now recalled as the molten motion of a golden age,
so are the freeze-frame, discoloured, Disc-Camera photographs, 
35 years on, reclaimed from dusty bottom drawers 
for the mantle of a ‘Northern Heritage’ exposé

in which we were the crust and core; 
cut adrift, thencefrom, the coltish, kiddy-clan, brick-built bucolics 
by the severity of severally meted teen-gang fist’n’flicks 
from which I still, in mid-life, twitch from the witness thereof,
by this or that street or bench or gate…

incoterms     (poem also in Bare Bones Writing Issue 1)

There are no incoterms for smuggled, cut narcotics;

You’ll pay in bouquets of necroses 
And spindle-pinscher, tweezer-tease 
Of scabs where syringe pricks hath pitched and roamed 
To foam the cauls of laced, iced, blood on fire.

Each draw a dull microcosm of ‘endgame’
That disequips motion from churning stases of belligerence;
Have you noticed no encore called for you,
Or your presence, or your bore-jaw; ne’er no more. 

And, if your teacher smacked you in the mouth 
For a verbal rout with the pastor in ’84
As he cupped your puber balls 
Calling you out for indecent exposure. 

Some o’erseer suit’ll write your ma ‘n’ pa
And say you’ve been wanking in class
And then the beatings will alternate
Betwixt centripetal and centrifugal force majeure!

And the wavering flesh turns sclerotic 
And the trackmarks anthracitic 
And the mind to a doughty blancmange
The flavour of which is undiscerned:

And the ‘base-mix’ powder tamped 
And the groundswell gullies of comedown earned
And the hackling hawkings of crows unknown
Slow in their circlings, swoop in predate to confirm

There are no incoterms at all.


Bio: Barney Ashton-Bullock is the poet in the hybrid poetry/pop projects Andy Bell is Torsten and the Downes Braide Association. His poetry is widely published in cult journals in the US, UK, Eire and Canada including in Travesties, Queerlings, Poetry Bus, both of the ‘Avalanches In Poetry’ tribute anthologies to Leonard Cohen, the Dreich pamphlets ‘Famous’, ‘Ismism’, ‘Pop’ & ‘Response’, the Pilot Press ‘Queer Anthology Of Healing’ and in the Broken Sleep Books Aphex Twin anthology. His recent pamphlets are ‘Café Kaput!’ (Broken Sleep Books, 2020), ‘F**kpig Zeitgeist!’ (Cherry Red, 2021), ‘Bucolicism’ (Cherry Red, 2021), ’Geopoliticus, Pupsy!’ (Red Ceilings Press, 2022) with his latest collection, ‘Cul-de-Sacrilege!’ due for publication by Polari Press in October, 2022.

Poem re-post by Barney Ashton-Bullock : L’anti-arriviste est parti

L’anti-arriviste est parti


Even within the abhorrence of absence
is a marked aberrance of pulsing joy;
we are left conveyancing the wounds –


We are abeyant to their melodic seep;
your intuit repertoire of counter-hex,
your quasi-bittersweet loll of lyrical intrigue –

Here, a sallow heart inflates with hope,
there, a hollow mind tolls in outreach;
we are all but trough-laden, sod-bound arrivistes,


Cusping it, winging it, drowning in it someday,
therein be the tragedy, the mystery, the mirth;
the orientation is the destination –

For when, to a sailor, the sea is as mildew in motion,
its wonderment worn to slicken sick liqueform veldts ,
its waves puckering in indigest, vomiting for revolution –


For when, to that sailor, the ambics of trussing waves
testify in their throt of malaise; their unchewed tether
of gruelly variegations lap ‘round slung, trash-forms a-ripple –

Pollutant detritus, deleterious of such seafarers’ safety;
sizes serried from swirling particulate to the lumpen, sunken,
dumped ‘white goods’ sea-bed bedrocks of corrosive causticities –


We, shoreline blind to this immersed bind of junk cluster,
ever await for a hallowed sunset, imbuing it with miracle,
with the cure, the penance, the forgiveness; a prophecy –


Just as you soothsay sang it, mister;
residuous and resonant,
in shalom and amen.

Poem from Avalanches in Poetry Writings & Art inspired by Leonard Cohen (2019)by Barney Ashton-Bullock “Yet”

Bio: Barney Ashton-Bullock, is the poet/librettist in the ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ music-theatre-poetry collective and he narrates his own verse on the Downes Braide Association albums. He is the founder of Soho Poetry Nights. He has poetry published, or pending publication, in a wide range of cult poetry journals**, in the ‘Avalanches In Poetry’ tribute anthology to Leonard Cohen, in the Dreich pamphlet ‘Famous’, in the Pilot Press ‘Queer Anthology Of Healing’ and in the ‘Soho Nights’ anthologies published by The Society Club Press who also published his first collection ‘Schema/Stasis’ in 2017. His latest poetry pamphlet ‘Café Kaput!’ was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2020.
(**the Wellington Street Review, the New River Press Yearbook, SPAMzine, Re-Side Magazine, -algia Press, Scab Mag, Pink Plastic House Journal, Lucky Pierre Zine, Poetry Bus, Neuro Logical Magazine and the Babel Tower Notice Board) 

A Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Barney Ashton-Bullock

with Barney Ashton-Bullock

Q1: When did you start writing and first influences?

Barney: My first theatre show was called ‘Church At Llanbadrig’ and was performed at the now defunct Bournemouth Centre For Community Arts in South-West England. My first influences were playwrights; Harold Pinter, Steven Berkoff, Jim Cartwright. Towards the end of my teens you could add Derek Jarman, Hanif Kureishi, Rupert Brooke and Thomas Hardy into the mix. In terms of contemporary poetry, it was specifically the two film-poem texts ‘Xanadu’ by Simon Armitage and ‘V’ by Tony Harrison, both published by Bloodaxe in the nineties. The arena of Cultural Studies particularly infuses my work and the conversational transcript and diary keeping ‘qualitative research’’ approaches in particular.

Q2: Who are your biggest influences today?

Barney: Thomas Hardy’s poetry is still a major influence, but I’m ruthless a contemporary poetry reader these days and some that recently I have found inspiring are Roy Guzmán, Caleb Femi, Jameson Fitzpatrick, Kathryn Maris, Bobby Parker, Matthew Walsh, Dom Hale, Jamie Thrasivoulou and Joelle Taylor

Q3: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your writing? Have any travels away from home influence your work?

Barney: I was living and working in Swanage in Dorset, South-West England immediately before starting at Goldsmiths’ Art College and grew up predominantly in the Southbourne suburb of Bournemouth, a Victorian seaside town. Both living in rural Dorset with my father from the age of 15 onwards and with my mother prior to that in the seaside resort (my Grandmother having run a seasonal guest house) these formative experiences still resonate in my work. I always had a very strong and specific interest in Norway from the earliest age, doing school projects on it from age 8 onwards and the Norwegian landscapes both isolated and urban have a profound influence on my writing and aspirations.

Q4: What do you consider the most meaningful work you’ve done creatively so far?

Barney: I have a creative non-fiction tract with the working title ‘North’ that has lived alongside me for about 25 years and with which, in its original 8 page form, I was chosen to represent the UK as a young playwright at the Interplay Europe Festival through the Royal Court Young Writer’s programme. All these years later, it’s about 50 pages with photos, poems, speeches and fragments. It is everything I’ve ever wanted to create and unlike much of my published work, it’s an achingly personal, yet, non-linear work and I’m not sure that I’ll ever, can ever or want to ever finish it. But, I do know it has a spiritual hold on me and that I do find it deeply comforting to know that alongside everything I’ve ever written and had published and performed are these pages which I think and hope reflect the best of me and everything creatively that I ever aspired to be.

Q5: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be a writer?

Barney: Two pivotal moments when I sussed that the fusion of poetry and music was a direction I was compelled to explore was when I heard the album ‘Wild Seed’ by Morten Harket and could visualise, though my listening to it, a world I’d rather live in. The power of that transformative experience, coupled with reading Derek Jarman’s searingly honest thoughts in his autobiography ‘At Your Own Risk – A Saint’s Testament’ and my sensibility shifted into a conviction and dedication to fuse the radical and accessible within a hybrid of poetry, theatre and music

Q6: Favorite activities to relax?

Barney: I love listening to whole albums in a dim-lit room with no distraction. My favourites are contemporary classical and new age instrumental music for deep relaxation but I also love electronic pop music and atmospheric pop in particular. The most amazing defelction from stress is walking the Dorset Coast Path when back in my hometown.

Q7: Any recent or forthcoming projects you’d like to promote?

Barney:

I have a fairly in-yer-face poetry pamphlet, ‘Café Kaput!’ out with Broken Sleep Books. https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/barney-ashton-bullock-café-kaput

And the last remaining copies of ‘FPig Zeitgeist!’ which is my verse diaries spin-off poetry book from the ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ project are available through Cherry Red Records mail order

Barney Ashton-Bullock ft. Andy Bell: F**kpig Zeitgeist! – The Torsten Verse Diaries (Book & CD)Andy Bell

My next book which will be coming out in August this year, will shortly be available to pre-order through Cherry Red Records and it is called ‘Bucolicism – Alt-Lite Lyric Verse For A Post-Pastoral England’  visit www.cherryred.co.uk and search for Barney Ashton-Bullock

Q8: What is a favorite line/stanza from one of your poems or others?

Barney:

“the conch shell held to an itchy ear,
a touchstone to a myriad of uplifting whispers;
forebearers, predecessors, ancestors, antecedents,
illusive Gods and dead heroes
jostle in a chirp-a-thon
their wisdoms in a soothe of song”

From ‘Some Sort Of Salvation’ in my forthcoming booklet ‘Bucolicism’ through Cherry Red Records mail order from August 2021.

Q9: Who has helped you most with writing?

Barney: Being an avid attendee of salons and classes at Coffee House Poetry run out of The Troubadour Cafe in London’s Earls Court district, I have to mention organisers and teachers Anne-Marie Fyffe and Cahal Dallat as real enablers of creativity. My dear friend, salonista and editor Chip Martin is the most selfless and life-affirming mentor as has been an inspiration in all he has done. I am honour bound to also mention Noël Greig, my now deceased tutor from many years back at the Royal Court Young Writers Programme who first green lit my urge to fuse poetry and theatre. Finally, my muse, Andy Bell, the singer in the synth-pop duo Erasure, for whom I’ve written three solo albums and stage shows as part of the Andy Bell is Torsten music / poetry / theatre hybrid collective of which I am a founding member. Those albums also available through Cherry Red Records

Links:

A poem called “blizzed” by Barney Ashton-Bullock

3 poems from Barney Ashton-Bullock in Fevers of the Mind Press Presents the Poets of 2020

Poem from Avalanches in Poetry Writings & Art inspired by Leonard Cohen (2019)by Barney Ashton-Bullock “Yet”

Poem by Barney Ashton-Bullock : L’anti-arriviste est parti

Twitter: @barney_poet

Instagram: @barneyashtonbullock

https://429harrowroad.com/tag/barney-ashton-bullock/

https://www.thebabeltowernoticeboard.com/featured-writing/three-poems-by-barney-ashton-bullock

Bio: Barney Ashton-Bullock, is the poet/librettist in the ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ music-theatre-poetry collective and he narrates his own verse on the Downes Braide Association albums. He is the founder of Soho Poetry Nights. He has poetry published, or pending publication, in a wide range of cult poetry journals**, in the ‘Avalanches In Poetry’ tribute anthology to Leonard Cohen, in the Dreich pamphlet ‘Famous’, in the Pilot Press ‘Queer Anthology Of Healing’ and in the ‘Soho Nights’ anthologies published by The Society Club Press who also published his first collection ‘Schema/Stasis’ in 2017. His latest poetry pamphlet ‘Café Kaput!’ was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2020.(**the Wellington Street Review, the New River Press Yearbook, SPAMzine, Re-Side Magazine, -algia Press, Scab Mag, Pink Plastic House Journal, Lucky Pierre Zine, Poetry Bus, Neuro Logical Magazine and the Babel Tower Notice Board)

A poem called “blizzed” by Barney Ashton-Bullock

this poem is inspired by this Rockwell Kent painting ‘The Trapper’ (1921)

blizzed

your remnant shred of cleaved sentience,
its integral winnowing downforce; whorling 
from pioneer skittish flakes to full-sketch sophomore, 
from freeze-dried petrichor to bombrush, snowfield fuzz
eddying in fleeting, fitful plenitudes ‘midst our want for more - 

your intercession; awed exfoliant of tepid vacuities - 
your tufting micro-ministrations mush sombre vastnesses;
your crystalline emboss/deboss of serene, splayed splenetics,
your fluffy flux of fractious loads that witter down 
the last winsome aspects of icicle throtted flora - 

we await our snow-capped causeway’s re-emergence,
we approximate the wherefores of the tufted tracks 
we trekked the day before within these subsumption
frontiers of distal, mulched horizons you’ve presently 
so presciently blurred; you, slawing radiant as 

a brilliance of moonbeam, as distill, as a manifest
granularity smunched, in desiccate compact of frenzied 
flurries seemingly cemental and yet, so soon, so sunlit, 
flailing, expiring, revealing that now’s all is muchly more than 
the fallow-followed, drear furore of bored, workaday before -

renewed point and purpose to that watchful, lapping shore,
your selfless blanch to meltwater and our hallowed eyesmeet;
its ice-break whip-crack of quench and thaw and that’s when, 
dear friend, we’ll go rafting again, our buoyant brusque laughter 
in spindrift skim on those much missed lakes of deep azure.

Bio: Barney Ashton-Bullock, is the poet/librettist in the ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ music-theatre-poetry collective and he narrates his own verse on the Downes Braide Association albums. He is the founder of Soho Poetry Nights. He has poetry published, or pending publication, in a wide range of cult poetry journals**, in the ‘Avalanches In Poetry’ tribute anthology to Leonard Cohen, in the Dreich pamphlet ‘Famous’, in the Pilot Press ‘Queer Anthology Of Healing’ and in the 'Soho Nights' anthologies published by The Society Club Press who also published his first collection ‘Schema/Stasis’ in 2017. His latest poetry pamphlet ‘Café Kaput!’ was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2020.(**the Wellington Street Review, the New River Press Yearbook, SPAMzine, Re-Side Magazine, -algia Press, Scab Mag, Pink Plastic House Journal, Lucky Pierre Zine, Poetry Bus, Neuro Logical Magazine and the Babel Tower Notice Board)