The
Inkjet Books
by John Gibbens
This series of pamphlets started in 2002, continuing the self-publishing enterprise that began with Man’s Laughter / Simples in 1999 (which was also the year of The Children’s debut CD release, Play).
The first two inkjet books were Aliens and Intimations, taking the opportunity the new technology offered of producing illustrated books cheaply. These were old texts, from the late Seventies or early Eighties. The next two in the series were newly written, Four Creatures and Pictures of Birds, in 2004.
In 2011, there are 29 of these titles (the latest are the set of Makings) and three in readiness, The Entertainers, Not Sleeping But Dreaming and The Gun Site.
All together (along with a few other works too large to appear like this) they constitute a new Collected Poems, and they’re grouped below under the headings of that future book.
New titles
The
Gun Site
A
Norwood allotment pastoral
The
Entertainers
2nd edition
Twelve
poems of the sawdust and the boards, illustrated with linocuts
Not
Sleeping But Dreaming
A
cinema sequence of 13 poems and linoprints, a sequel to The Entertainers
Lites
Aliens
Biblical
sci-fi fairytale
Intimations
A
dreamtime voluntary
The
Improvised Version,
Volume 1
Poems
about musicians, from Albert Ayler and the Beatles to the band in your
local pub
The
Improvised Version,
Volume 2
Poems about musicians, from Lol Coxhill and Jimmie
Rodgers to the buskers on the corner
Septet
Seven
instruments speaking: alto, double bass, electric guitar, drums, piano,
tenor, trombone
Picture
Word Book
Two
sequences of visual poems, From The Picture Word Book and Quercy
Sonnets
Underscore
A
set of concrete sonnets
Makings
Makings
’77-’83
Earlier
poems recollected
Makings
’84-’88
Further
earlier poems recollected
Makings
’89-’91
Final
earlier poems recollected
A Wild Inhabitation
A
Wild Inhabitation
Down
from the hills of the north into the city on the plain
Eye
City
A
sequence seen from EC1
Legacy
Twenty-one
sonnets and three short lyrics – “Unlet passion / In the old
fashion”
The Smell of Thyme
“…
fresh thyme / speaks of the future”
Bay
Small
but true
Characters
You & I
Portraits
from life, of the living and the dead
One
Life
A
sequence of moments, from the grave to the cradle and back
Ballads & Histories
Ballads,
One
Romance
takes a swan-dive, from Majorca to Swanage Bay
Three
Histories
“One
small stab for man, one giant sleep for mankind.”
Comprising: Blue
Lion, Originals, The Astronaut Adrift
Ballads,
Two
Tales
of the death-defying, from Icarus and Hector to Ernie Pyle
The Ghost Path
Church
of Thorns
Religious
poems and poems about religion
Becoming
Light
Weddings,
funerals, wars and christenings – poems from time to time
Pisces
Pieces
of water, including the Voyage of the Conger, and an elegy for a goldfish
called Elvis
The
Promise
a Comedy of Eros
The
Promise
Act
One –
Pictures
of Birds
Seven
women: Wren, Heron, Swallow, Robin, Wild Goose, Tern and Sparrow
Four
Creatures
Hare,
Hind, Hedgehog & Vixen: magic, modesty, wisdom & courage
Further
Sonnets
Etcetera…
London Bride
Sand
of the Thames
London
through the lens of its river
Falling
Down
Further
leaves of a city life
London Bride itself is a longer unpublished poem, part of which can be downloaded here as a pdf.