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    Number Poems
    Number Poems
    Number Poems
    Ebook112 pages46 minutes

    Number Poems

    By Matthew Welton

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    About this ebook

    The Number Poems occupies the playful middle ground between tradition and experiment. An innovative and unconventional poet, Welton presents us with poems which fuse techniques like rhyme or iambic metre with a playfully postmodern aesthetic, creating new forms that unfold as sets of variations. Fascinated by poetic form but bored by the idea of writing sonnets or sestinas, Welton peppers his poems with extreme alliteration and crazy mathematical vocabulary to give us a selection box of experiments in working within formal constraints. The Number Poems is all about the formal possibilities of poetry. More importantly, these poems are all about the love of language.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCarcanet Press Ltd.
    Release dateJan 1, 2017
    ISBN9781784102210
    Number Poems
    Author

    Matthew Welton

    Matthew Welton's poems take a playful approach to language and often blur the boundaries between poetry and other forms, such as fiction, music and visual art. His three previous Carcanet books are: The Book of Matthew (2003), We needed coffee but we'd got ourselves convinced that the later we left it the better it would taste, and, as the country grew flatter and the roads became quiet and dusk began to colour the sky, you could guess from the way we retuned the radio or unfolded the map and commented on the view that the tang of determination had overtaken our thoughts, and when, fidgety and untalkative but almost home, we drew up outside the all-night restaurant, it felt like we might just stay in the car, listening to the engine and the gentle sound of the wind (2009) and The Number Poems (2016). Matthew Welton was born in Nottingham, lives in Nottingham, and teaches creative writing at the University of Nottingham.

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      Book preview

      Number Poems - Matthew Welton

      The Number Poems

      MATTHEW WELTON

      to Alison Henry, Kevin Chambers,

      Paul Tornbohm and Pete Thompson-Swaine

      Contents

      Title Page

      Dedication

      I THE BOOK OF NUMBERS

      Construction with phrases

      Hey, hey

      Abstraction with instructions

      I must say that at first it was difficult work #2

      Twelve deflections

      Construction with stencil

      Under Jack Wood

      Instruction with obstructions

      Poem in 72 words

      Twelve restrictions

      Construction with six constraints

      There to make the rest of us look bad

      Obstruction with abstractions

      DFW #2

      Twelve infractions

      Construction on six principles

      Protraction

      II MELODIES FOR THE MEANWHILE

      a

      A measure for the meanwhile

      A modesty for the meanwhile

      A methodology for the meanwhile

      A manifesto for the meanwhile

      A mutuality for the meanwhile

      A multiplication for the meanwhile

      b

      A muddle for the meanwhile

      A manoeuvre for the meanwhile

      A mortality for the meanwhile

      A monotheism for the meanwhile

      A mitigation for the meanwhile

      A metonymy for the meanwhile

      c

      A mumble for the meanwhile

      A malevolence for the meanwhile

      A makeweight for the meanwhile

      A marigold for the meanwhile

      A materiality for the meanwhile

      A manipulation for the meanwhile

      d

      A murmur for the meanwhile

      A mycology for the meanwhile

      A minimalism for the meanwhile

      A meaninglessness for the meanwhile

      A mannerism for the meanwhile

      A marginality for the meanwhile

      e

      A melancholy for the meanwhile

      A modifier for the meanwhile

      A marsupial for the meanwhile

      A makeover for the meanwhile

      A modernism for the meanwhile

      A moratorium for the meanwhile

      f

      A meander for the meanwhile

      A minimum for the meanwhile

      A metricality for the meanwhile

      A mouthwash for the meanwhile

      A momentum for the meanwhile

      A mayonnaise for the meanwhile

      *

      A note on the title

      A note on the note on the title

      A note on the note on the note on the title

      Notes on the poems

      Acknowledgements

      Also by Matthew Welton from Carcanet Press

      Copyright

      I

      The book of numbers

      Construction with phrases

      ONE

      Whatever I was thinking it was almost right:–

      literature’s for losers; religion makes us weak;

      the mind’s a kind of monkey with its teeth all gone.

      I’m sitting in the kitchen with a pile of books

      I thought I’d read but can’t remember reading and

      I’m wondering what’s for supper ’cause I had no lunch

      and when the monkey in the mind pulls up outside

      and rubs his ribs and sucks his gums and says Aw shucks,

      we need to talk – what else am I supposed to do

      but give him coke and coffee till his words won’t come?

      The insects in the windows fill the air with thoughts.

      The clouds are closing in on us. The sun looks lost.

      TWO

      I’m living in a lighthouse with a girl so tall

      the heavens round her head surround her thoughts with stars.

      I’m thinking of the sea-fish. I’m collecting rocks.

      The summers last forever here, we like to think,

      though when we go on picnics we expect some rain

      and any day she’s out of sorts her windfall words

      come blurting out in blusters till her breath’s all gone.

      The days she takes the car to town my brains feel bruised

      from wondering how she’ll find her way, and what she’ll spend,

      and who she’ll meet for lunch, and

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