Chris Mansell, 101 Quads.
New poetry collection in collaboration of Puncher & Wattmann and Thorny Devil Press
Visual Poetics #1
A lickety split trip through Australian life with slippery language, puns, sleight of lip and playful sharp-eyed observation. From the sudden sharks waiting under the water in Sydney Harbour to rainbow lorikeets, and too too sleekly cheeky bower birds conducting affairs in the back yard, to how the boomers will misbehave in the nursing homes of the future, the language pops from the page. The poems look sharp, and sing.
“We have entered the territory of concrete poetry here, where the extreme formality of the book’s layout begins to shape content. The expressionistic and often elevated lyricism of Quads is held in a fine balance by the book’s formal restraint, and Oulipo meets concrete poetry in the service of conceptual play. But there is also passionate protest, mostly against the inescapable crap of life!”
John Jenkins, Cordite
To Koskino 