Poetry and Publishing | Flux Gallery Press | Leeds, Yorkshire» Authors | Flux Gallery Press | Leeds Poetry and Publishing

Milner Place

Barry Reynolds — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:53:37 +0000

Milner Place contributed six poems to “The Great Refusal” published by Flux Gallery Press in 2005. Milner began writing poetry following many years of travelling, including eleven years as a captain of operating sailing vessels, including yachts. His first poems were written in Spanish and he was in his late fifties before he began to write in his native language.

His poems have been widely dispersed in magazines and have been broadcast on both Radio 3 and Radio 4, on television for Bookworm on BBC 1. He has had eight previous poetry collections published, the most recent being “Certain Matters” published by Belfast Lapwing in 2007.

Currently, Milner is engaged in producing a book, concerning a three poem cycle centred around Huddersfield, the area in which he now lives. During July of 2007 he has recorded these poems for release as a spoken word accompaniment to the limited-edition version of the collection, entitled “Odersfelt”. “Odersfelt” is due for publication by Flux Gallery Press in May 2008 in two versions, the first hand-bound with the spoken word CD, the second as an ordinary perfect bound paperback.

Deer Hill – from ‘Odersfelt’

A vibration starts up, vague and insistent
the west wind’s singing through the ling,
a curlew weeps its notes, the millstone grit
against my back bears scars
of mason’s wedges, of the unnamed men,
scavengers of stone, weavers
of fleeces and salubrious dreams
who slaked the thirsts of hunger
with thin ale, the women racked,
bent, blinded at the wheel,
the childrens’ fingers raw
and blistered.

And I happen to know that
the young blonde and brunette
in the Rose & Crown are discussing
the merits of the car ferry from Hull
or Dover if you’re going to Belgium.
The old man in the corner moans
how things ain’t what they were,
and that is the lie of it.

Deer Hill sleeps in the sun.
Someone is renovating a weaver’s cottage.
Interest rates are rising.
Kiwi fruit
is on offer at Tesco’s.

In Odersfelt Godwin had six carucates of land for geld where
eight ploughs can be. Now the same has it of Ilbert but it is waste.

There’s water dogs about,
they scurry over Buckstones Moss
and Garside Hey, licking
at Goat Hill, they course the sky
off on a run past Birchencliffe
and Ainley Top, a straggling pack
of grey-backed hounds without a voice
or whipper-in, but sure as hell,
as Billy Prest might say,
the wild horsemen of the rain
will follow as night falls
on day.

All through the wind shout
voices from the past, grey cottages,
grey chapels, ruined mills;
a hooter’s morning moan,
crack of a bargeman’s whip,
clatter of looms, whine
of wheels, hum of spindles,
serpent hiss of steam.

Ian Parks

Barry Reynolds — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:52:10 +0000

Ian Parks contributed six poems to “The Great Refusal” published by Flux Gallery Press in 2005. Ian was born in Mexborough in Yorkshire. He has been instrumental in developing the presentational side the Flux Gallery, introducing various poets and co-ordinating many of the early readings with great success. His most recent publication was “Shell Island” by Waywiser Press, which saw its northern launch at the Flux Gallery in 2006. His collection “The Cage” published by the Flux Gallery Press is due to be released in June 2008.

Peter Lewin

Barry Reynolds — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:51:37 +0000

Peter Lewin :“The Pig” is his first major collection for Flux Gallery Press. He spent his childhood in the idyllic village of Silverdale in North Lancashire. His cthonic work has appeared in a variety of poetry magazines and journals, such as Brando’s Hat, Dream Catcher & Pennine Platform to name but three. His work has also been broadcast on Radio Cumbria, Radio Lancashire and Radio Merseyside. Previous publications include : “Lost Passports” [also with Jason Lee] Transference (2005) and “Silverdale”, Kendal Press (2003).

T. F. Griffin

Barry Reynolds — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:51:05 +0000

T. F. Griffin is the author of “The Leveller” which was published by Flux Gallery Press in 2006. He has been involved in the poetry world since the 1970’s when both Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin assisted in the publication of his early works in several literary magazines. After attending Douglas Dunn’s workshops in Hull he was one of ten poets represented in the Bloodeaxe publication “A Rumoured City Revisited” (1982). T. F. Griffin’s two core books are “Cider Days”, Headland (1990), and “Kavita”, Shoestring Press (2003). T. F. Griffin contributed four poems to and also edited “The Great Refusal”, which was the first anthology of poetry from Flux Gallery Press

Dennis Gray

Barry Reynolds — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:50:26 +0000

Dennis Gray is in fact the first novelist to be published by Flux Gallery Press. Born in Yorkshire in 1935, he started climbing at the age of eleven and has

David Agnew

Barry Reynolds — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:49:35 +0000

“Walking into Eternity” is David Agnew’s first publication from Flux Gallery Press. Its main themes draw on his personal inner journey from addiction to sobriety which took place against a background rooted in Belfast and the Northern Ireland of the 1960’s. David is now resident in Leeds and works in the area of therapy and healing within the further education field.
He is also involved with a number of poetry groups in Leeds and the surrounding towns of Ilkley and Otley and Bradford. In his classes David explores not only simply elements drawn from his life experience but also discusses the idea concerning the power of poetry or the written word to re-shape ideas and re-build broken lives.
More recently, he has introduced the interpretation of visual imagery into his classes

Poems from “Walking into Eternity” by David Agnew

Aunty Penny

I see her face, I hear her voice
She says the words she said before.
I feel their force as I did then,
Their power reaches to my core.

The words seem harsh, but said with love.
Its love which carried them so deep,
Within my heart I know they’re true,
They are the words I need to keep.

Strange now, when I remember then,
I hated her so much that day.
The passion that those words aroused,
And yet they would not go away.

Addiction

I hate this fucking illness.
hate it with a passion.

Why must it
be so random
in the way
it picks the lives
which it chooses
to destroy?

But other illness
does that too.
This one’s such
a fucking bully,
that’s what I really hate.

Why must it pick
out those -
vulnerable,
beautiful,
talented,
sensitive,
squash their potential,
waste their lives
and kill them young?

Why can’t it kill
the bastards too?
I suppose I know it must.
but every now and then,
what occurs to me
is that its them-
the bastards -
who survive.

Perhaps that is
the reason
that its me
who’s still alive!