{"id":7771,"date":"2022-12-01T12:50:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T12:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/?p=7771"},"modified":"2025-05-20T07:34:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T07:34:18","slug":"robert-sheppard-swift-songs-and-essay-on-james-a-theory-of-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/7771\/robert-sheppard-swift-songs-and-essay-on-james-a-theory-of-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Sheppard: ‘Swift Songs’ and Essay on James’ ‘A Theory of Poetry’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swift Songs for John James <\/strong><\/p>\n

Late Advance to Bonheur<\/em><\/p>\n

i.m. J.J.<\/p>\n

the Atlantic Drift<\/em> scrum
\nspiders ahead to leave us
\npacing behind<\/p>\n

I\u2019m attentive to frailty
\nthe dandyism of the advanced guard<\/p>\n

we plod the endless perimeter
\nof the museum\u2019s black railings
\nits global plunder sealed for the night<\/p>\n

all the tourists off to their bolt holes
\nall the wage slaves back to the peripheries
\n(even as far as Cambridge)<\/p>\n

August Sander\u2019s \u2018last people\u2019
\nswept out of our way<\/p>\n

all the poets ahead of us, it seems<\/p>\n

to play catch up I sing
\nthrough Fred Astaire<\/p>\n

the British Museum
\nhad lost its charm<\/em><\/p>\n

you laugh and your laugh
\ndances along the pavement
\nahead<\/p>\n

jouissance<\/em> on its last barricade<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Un(en)titled<\/em><\/p>\n

big \u2018Old\u2019 England \u2013 we\u2019re still here
\nand most of us are \u2018not bad\u2019 \u2013 as we
\npour fire on fire and fail to get it<\/p>\n

and now? What can we do
\nnothing that doesn\u2019t acknowledge
\nour own servility<\/p>\n

own<\/em>
\nservitude<\/p>\n

oh! trades-union banners riding the slavish winds<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Night and Day<\/em><\/p>\n

passing under the railway bridge
\nby the Dragons\u2019 Teeth, concrete pyramids
\nleft over from the War, trains tremble<\/p>\n

above, flashes of light on the wet road either side
\nstop to feel this moment without movement
\nlate workers and night workers cross their rhythms<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2026 as you walk out into morning sun and<\/em> rain
\nthe cry of gulls has displaced
\nthe blackbirds\u2019 songs with blasts of panic<\/p>\n

and laughter. The blackberries on the common
\neven up the municipal alley, are there for the taking
\nbut the peasantry has forgotten how to forage<\/p>\n

they get their mates to phone the foodbanks for them
\nin such a State interest rates rise
\nto keep the living wage unliveable<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

11 August 2022: Radical Landscapes<\/em><\/p>\n

we drift through the gallery
\nwhose exhibits keep reminding us of poems<\/p>\n

(I\u2019m thinking of your rivers Severn Avon Cam Thames Taff
\nwhere trout leap, no sewage dumped in their heat)<\/p>\n

between the \u2018Trespass\u2019 documents and news cuttings
\nrises Peter Riley\u2019s The Ascent of Kinder Scout<\/em><\/p>\n

beneath the photos of burning headdresses of New Year tar
\nchants Tom Pickard\u2019s \u2018Dancing Under Fire\u2019<\/p>\n

Ken Smith\u2019s priapic chalk Cerne Abbas Giant
\nposes twice, as photograph, as throbbing neon<\/p>\n

even Bryan Winter\u2019s abstract hail of seed
\nconcretises WS Graham\u2019s wordblind blasts<\/p>\n

at last! We find your friend Richard Long
\ncircling Dartmoor, a revolution of sorts<\/p>\n

\u2018still holding the line still walking the line\u2019
\ncontinuously from your poem for him<\/p>\n

Ian Hamilton Finlay speaks for himself by quotation
\nin eclogic Latin, on guillotine blade<\/p>\n

Zo\u00eb Skoulding\u2019s A Revolutionary Calendar<\/em>
\nliteralised in the wilting plants and working implements<\/p>\n

of Ruth Ewan\u2019s
\n\u2018Back to the Fields\u2019<\/p>\n

the isolate potato
\nthe threatening axe<\/p>\n

quartidi 24 Thermidor
\nthe year of the Republic CCXXX<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bending the Ear<\/em><\/p>\n

they sound in my dream
\nor are left as echoes<\/p>\n

as I plunge up
\ninto a day that carries<\/p>\n

me onto and out of
\nthe tin-eared magic<\/p>\n

of feigned foreignness but
\nthose words I woke with<\/p>\n

our finite rituals in the service
\nof an infinite obligation<\/em><\/p>\n

seem somehow balanced
\nagainst the englishing Dictate function<\/p>\n

of my laptop that hears
\nmy hard-picked word<\/p>\n

jouissance<\/em> as
\n\u2018swift song\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

June \u2013 August 2022<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO READ: <\/span>John James and Poetics – ‘A Theory of Poetry’<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robert Sheppard edited Atlantic Drift<\/em> with James Byrne, which includes the work of John James. His most recent books are Bad Idea<\/em> from KFS, part of his sonnet-project ‘The English Strain’, and a reprint of Collaborations<\/em> with Bob Cobbing from Veer. His selected poems and a book of essays on his work are both available from Shearsman. He lives in Liverpool and from the top of the hill he can see Wales. He is currently editing the New Collected Poems of Lee Harwood<\/em> with Kelvin Corcoran.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Click here to go back to:\u00a0Contributors and Links to Pages 1 – 4<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swift Songs for John James Late Advance to Bonheur i.m. J.J. the Atlantic Drift scrum spiders ahead to leave us pacing behind I\u2019m attentive to frailty the dandyism of the advanced guard we plod the endless perimeter of the museum\u2019s black railings its global plunder sealed for the night all the tourists off to their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[68,12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/images.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42xiC-21l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7771"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8335,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions\/8335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}