With one of the poems that opens Edition 01 of The Arsonist Magazine here is the incredible Canadian poet and artist stephanie roberts reading ‘Catawampus’!
Gravity Falls, the Dusk is Claimed
Return your tray to the window on the right.
Ignore the grasping hands within.
They jigger the lights as you walk to remind you,
never a footfall invests in the shadow lines
without a hesitation. Continue reading “‘Gravity Falls, the Dusk is Claimed’ by Matthew Smart”
The Arsonist Magazine Edition 01 – available to purchase here
Featuring the best poetry, flash fiction, photography, art, interviews and features from around the world, including the UK, Japan, Canada, USA, Malaysia, India, Philippines, Sweden:
stephanie roberts – Saquina Karla C. Guiam – Penny Goring – Adrianna Robertson – Anneghem Wall – Dawn Fredericks – badpoem – Dean Lilleyman – Antony Owen – Aina Izzah – Bruno Neiva – Paul Hawkins – Keith Ford – Joseph Ridgwell – Dhiyanah Hassan – C. R. Resetarits – Rob True – Sophie Pitchford – Jamie Thrasivoulou – Martin Appleby – Liz Zumin – Siddharth Dasgupta – Ben Williams – Caitlin Meredith – Adam Steiner – Jim Gibson – V.M. – Fredric Nord – Mark Goodwin – Hiromi Suzuki – Trevor Wright – Howie Good
The Arsonist Magazine Edition 01 is a 92 page full colour/b&w matt/gloss perfect-bound A5 magazine (this is a limited edition and, being the inaugural print publication from Burning House Press, is sure to be a collectible item)
The Arsonist Magazine Edition 01 – available to purchase here
FIRST KISS
Bone tongue sticking out of grinning knee,
a mouth where it shouldn’t be,
wet and pink like a lizard’s gawp,
a mean mimic of the mouth
that’s screaming into silence
the whole of the playground. Continue reading “3 Poems by Thomas McColl”
The Arsonist Magazine Edition 01 will be officially launched on Thursday 22nd June at Nottingham’s Chameleon Arts Cafe!
The magazine has been printed, is looking fantastic, and will soon be available from our online shop.
The launch event is free entry, and will feature an open mic, and readings by contributors from the magazine, headlined by Derby’s finest, Jamie Thrasivoulou!
Really hope to see you there – copies of the Arsonist will be available for purchase on the night – see you there! XX
Shimmering Pebbles
May your world be cast
Into tiny shimmering pebbles
Set upon a bookshelf
Arranged in the chapters of your life Continue reading “‘Shimmering Pebbles’ by Martin Dean”
Some cold Jan morning Cruz and I were sitting at a Neon Express coffee bar, mouthing off about BlackGenie’s latest album cover; mirrored vinyl shining through star shaped perforations in the polyplas sleeve, a mini constellation in the shape of the BG’s glyph. Cruz strongly disagreeing with the criticism that I’m laying down on the lack of artistry “…any one can just cut a bit of the sleeve out to show the vinyl underneath, but what’s the story… you know ?. This album is about something, so why don’t they make a picture of it ?, this isn’t album art it’s packaging design man…!” after gulping his stale Mericano Cruz casually wiped his mouth and replies “you think with your eyes too much bud…”, sighing I put the album down on the counter and reach for my quadro espresso. “you know what I’m saying Cruz, I know you do…” Continue reading “‘Shoot Out At The Neon Express’ by Simon Woodward”
The Best Of A Bad Situation – by Jamie Thrasivoulou
– poetry collection published by Silhouette Press
Jamie Thrasivoulou has seen the zeitgeist and, to be honest, he’s disgusted. These poems are translators of tarmac, asphalt whisperers, mediators of a sonic correspondence between broken hearts and broken promises, busted causeways and lost causes, high hopes fallen down and low-roads taken up. One of the greatest sights in contemporary poetry is to witness Jamie Thrasivoulou explode these poems on an unsuspecting audience. Let’s call it the truth, let’s call it word and testimony, let’s call it the salvo and the salve, let’s call it what it is. ‘The Best Of A Bad Situation’ is the most urgent, vital collection of poetry you will read all year. This is gonna hurt you much more than it will Jamie, but it’s a word-surgery that the body and mind require. Don’t thank the man, he doesn’t want nor need it. Just buy this book, read it, imbibe it’s blood-spirit and turn your life over to the justice and insistences of its restorative frequencies.
– Miggy Angel, author of ‘Grime Kerbstone Psalms’
Continue reading “The Best Of A Bad Situation – Jamie Thrasivoulou”
the following story contains content relating to self-harm which could be triggering to some readers
“Tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“Tell me how you feel then.”
“Honestly, I don’t feel anything. Please. Please don’t. Fucking hell. Please don’t do that.” Continue reading ““Tell me what you know.” – by Jonathan Taylor”
Between the years 1990 – ’93, the poet Paul Hawkins was squatter/occupier/protestor in one of the most contested of spaces in the U.K.’s recent and past history of place-and-occupancy wars. Claremont Road, in London’s East End, was an occupied site and scene for the protests of the ‘No M11 Link Road Campaign’. Paul Hawkins was there, and has documented what took place in his book, Place Waste Dissent, published by Influx Press.
In the foreword to the book, Alice Nutter refers to Claremont Road as ‘the symbol of resistance to the road-building programme of the early ’90s’ – Place Waste Dissent operates not only as flame held close as intimate torchlight illuminating that symbol, but as intravenous entry point into the sign itself. An immersive invocation of the sign and the times it symbolises, a border-shamanic reanimation act that brings Claremont Road back breathing bleeding spitting and bounding into the now. Into the Now that requires reckoning with what was and is still its Then.
Hush
Our girls walk with their hands in their pockets. Arms over bellies.
Slip through this city.
Stay soft, our girls are told. Stay quiet.
Our girls who drop their chins and gazes as they pass your boys.
Your boys who smile like they’ve never known sadness. Continue reading “‘Hush’ by Kate Berwanger”
Firewoman Shimmies at Canyon Mouth Park
Your hair—slicked flame spikes. You built this blaze
beside the shoals to mirror their brash shine.
Scavenging downed wood along the water’s edge,
collecting branches up the pass— sunshine’s spring splurge—
our daughters found tangled nests— driftwood globes—
balled stakes, stems, moss and trash—fuel for fire shine. Continue reading “5 Poems by Laura Secord”
First Class Stamp
Terence Stamp in ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’, that’s who I think of as the doctor pokes about my ancient lady bits. Terence Stamp in his cavalry outfit on a hillside, jacket red as rose hip. It’s a nicer picture, that, than the top of this doctor’s head, all mottled like the backs of my hands. No, it’s worse, more like the bottom of a teacup with the floaty bits left. He wants to be careful with that. Continue reading “‘First Class Stamp’ by Nick Black”
I woke up thinking of you,
and the word, Komorebi
Japanese, for the light
that filters through the trees
I woke up and thought of the sunshine I found
in your arms
in your eyes
The Sandpipers
It’s time for a ghost story—now,
while opalescent giants, dark-robed, stride
over us, hair blazing with the night
to come—
they imagine themselves
masked, bejeweled, descending
to the asylum window. The inmate’s lament—
They came in the night and stole my head.
What did they do with it? My old green head. Continue reading “3 Poems & An Interview With Poet Amee Nassrene Broumand”
Britain’s Most Wanted
It was while opening a package from the States
That it happened
The package contained the artwork to my latest novel
Burrito Deluxe
By Calif’s finest
Jose Arroyo
Holed up and rolling with the punches
East of East LA
The artwork was perfect for
The novel and nobody but Arroyo could’ve come up with it
Unique
But as I stood there admiring the creation
Britain’s Most Wanted
Came on the television
A list and faces of UK’s most wanted criminals
And the shock when I heard the name
And looked up
And there on my television
In High Definition
Was the hero of my novel
The inspiration and catalyst to
Everything that had happened
On our great Mexican adventure
The man who once said the creation of a myth
Was the only thing he was interested in
And that if you join them, you will always be at odds with them
And everything they stand for
And there he was on the run
Still running free
And laughing at the sun
Long may he run. Continue reading “4 Poems by Joseph Ridgwell”
Just Pull It Out
The doctor was getting younger, by the minute. And I kept telling him I recognized him from somewhere.
The more I sucked on the gas the more I knew him, and the younger he got. When I’d first come in he was middle-aged. Now he was early twenties. We’d shared an experience together, we were good mates, didn’t he know that?
There was sweat on his forehead, his top lip.
He looked to the nurse. ‘We need to call a surgeon.’ Continue reading “‘Just Pull It Out’ by Peter Jordan”
BURNING HOUSE PRESS 
Poetry as Experience
by Amee Nassrene Broumand
Note: Creators, would you like to be interviewed for one of my Burning House Press blog posts? See the details at the end of this post.
Continue reading “Poetry as Experience” →
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