Divan by Jenny Kellerman Pillay

A Little Extra Victoria Williams for the New Year

A double post of Victoria Williams to start the new year. Don't say I never get you anything.

Victoria Williams: 0033

Dear 2006,

I AGREE TO:
Dramatically reduce caffeine intake.
Eat something of nutritional value once in a while.
Drink more water.

IN RETURN I EXPECT:
Clearer skin.
Cleaner conscience.
Some lovin?

Victoria Williams: 0032

Apparently Memories

I remember Raz. Who wouldn't? Rich in words, he could produce a bouquet of flowery phrases from his waistcoat when he felt the situation demanded it.

Linda Stenman on Glumlazi

Glumlazi (Tearoom Books, 2009) is the first collection of poems from Pravasan Pillay. The format is more booklet than book, and the poems are very short.

I was a bit nervous when I started reading Glumlazi, since this is my first review copy. I was afraid that I wouldn't like the poems and would have to write a one-star review (despite the generosity of Tearoom Books). I worried for no reason. Pravasan Pillay's poems are unique - and really good.

Some of the poems remind me of Oscar Wilde's witticisms. Some of them are almost zenlike in an everyday manner. And some are filled with simplicity and sadness. You could read one each day and enjoy it until the next day.

I say: ****(*)

First published on Linda Loves Books

Haidee Kruger on Romancing the Dead

"...It’s just as well I waited before reading Gary Cummiskey’s new poetry chapbook, Romancing the Dead, published by Tearoom Books. Sure, there’s plenty of razorwire, but it’s not the razorwire that will get you. It’s the big, hollow, echoing melancholy below the jagged, surreal surface. Gary’s deadpan surrealism is December on the Highveld, with its blisters of hot tar and endlessly bleached afternoons that hide the sinkholes quietly opening up below.

(And I love the cover, with its austerely retronostalgic look. The design sensibility over at Tearoom Books is totally lovely.)"

First published on Messy Things With Words

Victoria Williams: 0031

Dear Mr. Lawrence
I've rewritten the parts,
that isn't a sword
This isn't a scabbard
This is a mouth
with soft pinky gums
It can shiver and swallow
and suck your sweet thumb
Dear little mummy's boy
I'll go on top
and soon you'll forget
you're the one with the cock.