pure-poetry.co.uk
Welcome, welcome, and congratulations on discovering this "palace of poetry".
Might I first ask that you take off any footwear you might be wearing, put your feet up, make yourself at home, while we put the kettle on, and get you a nice hot cup of poetry.
And as I usually feel I have to point out, this site predominantly contains poetry by a certain Mr Nick Fisk, although increasingly it is featuring other poets with the introduction of the Guest Poet of the Month section.
Mr Nick Fisk has self-published 5 books under the banner of Pure Poetry, and one other under another banner. The latest of these is a mini-book entitled "Departure Lounge 25" (see newly refurbished bookshelf, left - the old one did not have enough shelfspace!). This precedes the launch of a new book, to be published under the banner of Square Books, entitled, "Departure Lounge 58".
Mr Nick Fisk is now proud to have also published a book by someone else, this being, The Dresden Cantata, by the only and the one, Mr. Jonathan Brookes, one of Cardiff's most well known and well loved poets. It certainly is a fabulous book. The cover illustration is by the wonderful Liverpool-based artist, Naive John. You can read some of the poems from it (see guest poet section), read a review of it, and buy it on this very site.
He also now edits a poetry/writers magazine called Square - more info on this from "sister site" www.squaremag.net.
To your left, you will see the (newly refurbished) bookshelves with "thumbnail" depictions of all the aforementioned Fiskian books. "Clicking" on each book will allow you to "take it down from the shelf" and read more about it, and also grant you the opportunity to read selected poems from each.
To your right (I feel like a tour guide here), you will find other options, including news about The Dresden Cantata, "other poetry", a selection of poems by the notorious "other poets", including the new Guest Poet feature, and, we welcome, again with excitement, the introduction of a new-fangled "new media" section.
The "internet savvy" amongst you are no doubt aware of a popular site known as YouTube. Here, you can watch people being slapped by people with mobile telephones, you can watch people with mobile telephones drive around housing estates at 100mph, and now, you can watch poets read poetry! See the "Video/Audio (new)" section for more details about this exciting proposition.
Also new to this site is the opportunity to sign the guestbook.
As always, you also have the option to buy things, you could book a poet to read if this sort of thing is your sort of thing, or you could go away somewhere else.
Finally, as always, I would like to encourage other poets to get in touch. This does happen occasionally, and I always welcome such contact. I would happily put your stuff on this site. If you too can videotape yourself, that'd be cool, and now that I'm hopefully venturing out into publishing other poets, who knows - if I like what you do enough, there's always the chance that might happen too!
Comments from anyone are also always welcome, and if you'd like to be updated with pure-poetry news, etc. just send me a quick email, and I'll add you to the mailing list.
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contact:
mail (at) pure-poetry.co.uk
2 Richmond House, Richmond Road, Cardiff CF24 3AR