Menagerie à trois
1. Using a sling harness, remove the animal carefully.
Blindfold this majestic creature and drive away.
Prepare a large room, the size of a small field.
2. The dolphin will not last a week living in the bath;
it does not enjoy swimming. The otter is happier in
the chest freezer. The otter’s face is on a mask I wear.
3. On the floor, paint the stars, each a different colour.
Play soft sounds and whale music into the room.
When the giraffe awakens it will be confused.
Illustrations courtesy of Oliver Meehan.
The first free issue of LAMP is being distributed across universities, coffee shops, retirement homes, bars, libraries, hospitals, and art galleries, from May 2009.
Composed in solitude, it was time for these writers to circulate and aerate their work. LAMP includes a new generation of poets who want to serve the subjective wonder of poetry; writers who regard poetry as that rare place in language where anything is possible. This issue celebrates the importance of diversity and the continual relevance for poetry within our lives.
Each writer has approached and selected their subject and style with a unique perspective. Poetry is perhaps the most challenging of all forms of artistic expression both to define and produce. Who can categorically say when a particular kind of text even becomes a poem? The poet Gwendolyn Brooks once said, 'Poetry is life distilled,' and therefore, it remains a truly subjective experience.
On this online version of LAMP, a taster for the issue as a whole, you will find examples of the energetic and ambitious writing being pursued by seven newly emerging poets.
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