The print version of Mercurius’s iconic Surreal-Absurd series is now available!
An anthology like no other.
Slate Petals, Untravelling, and the Kazimir Effect
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
Penteract Press focuses on exploring the structural properties of poetry, promoting innovative constraint-based and visual poetry, as well as works that explore traditional verse forms. This article showcases three Penteract authors: Anthony Etherin, Mary Frances, and Christian Bök.
Surreal-Absurd Sampler James Knight
This week we have a nice combo. Some psycho-sexual Bird King poems from James Knight and art from Alex Stevens.
Surreal-Absurd Sampler Patricia Farrell
Continuing our linguistically innovative thread, this week we have Patricia Farrell. Her work is procedural. Absurd. Bodily.
Enjoy!
Forrest Gander: At Which Point Without any Lurching Commencement
Be With, 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Poetry, is a deep, blinding and stark book in which the poet recites his pain in the mirror of his wife's death. See below some poems from that authentic and voracious collection, along with a recording I made for The Nude Maja in 2016.
The Land of Mild Light
The legendary Venezuelan poet Rafael Cadenas has been admired and acclaimed by Latin American audiences for over half a century while remaining virtually unknown to US and Europe. In The Land of Mild Light, Mercurius editor Nidia Hernandez has assembled Cadenas’ most important poems in vivid translations by some fine English-language poets associated with the US-based Arrowsmith Press.
The Linguistic Eye Scans of Robert Sheppard
This week we delve into the linguistically innovative strand of the surreal-absurd with a poem from Robert Sheppard. It is full immersion.
The Mountain Where Nothing Happens
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
The Mountain Where Nothing Happens (Alien Buddha Press) is a conceptual documentary poem sequence with elements of minimalism, surrealism, absurdism, linguistic topography and elemental psychogeography. Join Thomas Helm, step-by-step, as he embarks on a journey to unravel the riddles of consciousness, first in the wilds of the mountain, and then later in the hyperreal city.
Surreal-Absurd Sampler Chrissy Williams
This week we have some LA surrealism from the poet Chrissy Williams. “Even cheerfulness is absurd, if you ask me. But I always want to look for some kind of route to laughter, because think of the alternative. “
National Poetry Month Celebration from Red Hen Press
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
Happy National Poetry Month from Red Hen Press! Our next collaboration with Mercurius Magazine features poems from Kim Stafford, Khalisa Rae, Nikki Moustaki and Allison Joseph. Their collections were published by Red Hen this April.
Aliens: Poems on Films
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
SJ Fowler renders the alien films into a set of avantgarde poems. In this tantalising glimpse of work from his new new book Come and See the Songs of Strange Days (Broken Sleep Books), cinema overlaps with language, combining lyricism with abstract visual commentary.
Sorry Gets Hooved
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
“Sorry Gets Hooved” is from Hannah Regel’s latest poetry collection, Oliver Reed (Montez Press). The poem looks at the relationship between film, horses, and the depiction of women.
Surreal-Absurd Sampler Vik Shirley
Welcome to the second instalment of Surreal-Absurd. This week we have the fab Vik Shirley. We hope you enjoy. These poems are selected from her chapbook Corpses (Sublunary Editions) and her collection, The Continued Closure of the Blue Door (HVTN).
Summer of the Cicadas
As the road rises in elevation, the air grows cooler. I keep going until the river narrows with boulders. Sweat sticks to my skin as I slow and pull over on the side of the road. I stash the bike amongst some bushes and climb down the encampment to the water bed.
Surreal-Absurd Sampler Zachary Schomburg
Surreal-Absurd - Project Jupiter
Some of the most exciting poetry and hybrid work being written today is absurdist/surrealist and often minimalist. Every other Monday, I will feature an absurdist/surrealist writer to tickle your fancies. First up, we have Zachary Schomburg. A selection of absurdist/surrealist prose poems from his book Fjords Vol.2. Forthcoming from Black Ocean in May 2021.
The Weightless World
Raymond Ess is going to kill me. This is the thought I can’t stop thinking. One way and another I’ve been thinking it for years, though I used to mean something like Raymond Ess is going to be annoyed with me or Raymond Ess is asking too much of me. I don’t mean either of those things now. I just mean he’s going to kill me…
A Word on Poem Brut
Images - Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
Paul Hawkins, who co-runs Hesterglock Press, reflects on the meaning and origins of the Poem Brut, an artistic and literary movement that celebrates artistic creative writing - embracing text and colour, space and time, handwriting, composition, abstraction, illustration, sound, mess and motion - affirming the possibilities of the page, the voice and the pen in a computer age.
Red Hen Press: The Poetry Special
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
Monica Fernandez presents four Red Hen Press poets Joshua Rivkin, Marie Tozier, Jim Peterson, and Susan Ludvigson.
Reflections on Editing
AGNI and Arrowsmith Press’s founder, Askold Melnyczuk, reflects on a life-time as an editor, revisiting the friendships and experiences that helped shaped his literary awareness.
The Man Who Smells of Lemons
“The Man Who Smells of Lemons” depicts a nonbinary figure who is never named, and who explores crumbling streets and buildings as an outsider; a ghost, almost; or a watcher who cannot connect. It comes from Jude Marr’s debut collection of poems We Know Each Other by Our Wounds (Animal Heart Press).
Never Mind the Beasts
Written with tremendous energy, Never Mind The Beasts (Dostoyevsky Wannabe) is Marcus Slease's debut novel. Beginning in Portadown, Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the book details the author's move with his family, as a small boy, first to Milton Keynes and then to Las Vegas before documenting his further solo travels trying to survive on the meagre pickings of a writer whilst teaching English as a second language in everywhere from South Korea, Poland to Turkey and, latterly, Spain (Madrid and Barcelona). Read an excerpt here.
The never-ending quest…
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