83. Peter J King

Veteran of the poetry wars, poet and translator of poetry.

Peter J. King was active on the London poetry scene in the 1970s, as poet, publisher, editor, performer, broadcaster, and events organiser, and was on the losing side in the Poetry War centred on the National Poetry Society. Returning to poetry in 2013 after an absence of about thirty years, he’s since published three collections, and has appeared in a wide range of journals and anthologies. He also translates, mainly from modern Greek (with Andrea Christofidou) and German, writes short prose, and paints. More of his work can be found at Wisdom Bottom Press. He is also active on Bluesky

The following poems come from a sequence, “Pocket Lights”, In each of them, Peter took the first line of a poem from the “Pocket Poets” series from City Lights as a starting point Sometimes the poem goes completely its own way after the first line, sometimes it takes some or all of its inspiration from the original poem or from the poet. “What new element before us...” is unusual in that it also ends with part of the original poem’s first line. The original poems are listed at the foot of the page.

Poems

What new element before us..
O anti-verdurous phallic
Listen
O now the drenched land wakes
I have shut my windows
And I am an unhappy stranger

What new element before us…

< < <

---

O anti-verdurous phallic

< < <

---

Listen

< < <

---

O now the drenched land wakes

< < <

I have shut my windows

< < <

And I am an unhappy stranger

< < <

Starting Points

What new element before us Allen Ginsberg “Plutonian Ode” from Plutonian Ode: Poems 1977–1980 (1981)
O anti-verdurous phallic Gregory Corso “Ode to Coit Tower” from Gasoline (1958)
Listen Vladimir Mayakovsky, from Listen! (1991)
O now the drenched land wakes Kenneth Patchen “O Now the Drenched Land Wakes” from The Love Poems of Kenneth Patchen
(1960)
I have shut my windows Federico García Lorca “The Weeping” from Thirty Spanish Poems of Love and Exile ed. & trans. Kenneth Rexroth (1956)
And I am an unhappy stranger Jack Kerouac “Mexican Loneliness” Pomes All Sizes (1992)

< < <