Dye Hard Press is proud to announce the publication of pushing from the riverbank by alan finlay.
ISBN: 978-0-620-48421-3
A new collection of 20 poems by one of South Africa's most innovative poets. 46 pages, perfect bound.
One of the poems from the collection is:
Shadows
i am explaining to my son
you see, crocodiles eat people
“but why?” because they’re meat eaters
because they’re hungry, i don’t know
i begin to build the food chain in my mind.
so that’s why, i finish off
us people watch everywhere we go
and we’re always alert for snakes
and crocodiles (and i could add other things)
i’m telling my three-year-old child
that the world is not so safe
but he knows already: he’s fighting
dragons with his sword, shooting
down dinosaurs, closing the door so
strangers don’t come in. he’s picked up
on the shadows -- they’re real enough
for him. He sits on the edge of the bed,
waiting, watching me get dressed.
Previous titles by alan finlay include Burning Aloes (Dye Hard Press, 1994) No Free Sleeping (with Vonani Bila and Donald Parenzee) (Botsotso, 1998) and The Red Laughter of Guns in Green Summer Rain (with Philip Zhuwao), published by Dye Hard Press in 2002. In 2003, he co-edited with Arja Salafranca glass jars among trees, an alternative anthology of poetry and prose, published by Jacana.
He founded and edited the literary publications Bleksem (1994) donga, with Paul Wessels (2000) and was editor of New Coin poetry journal from 2003 to 2007.
pushing from the riverbank will be available at bookstores countrywide at an estimated retail price of R90. You can also order directly from Dye Hard Press for R65 (including postage).
