The Sixty Odd Press

Four Fine books of Poetry!

Contents

Introduction
Life Histories - Barry Griffiths
Cynthia Payne - Brothel Keeper of Renown - Barry Griffiths
Dragged Up a Northern Childhood - Ali Rowland
Putting the Hymn Numbers Up - Ali Rowland
Working Class Zero - John Beal
In Freedom - John Beal
Notes from Various Settees - Roger Waldron
Bruised Fruits and Other Matters - Roger Waldron

Introduction

I never intended to become a poetry publisher. But I have always loved poetry, and when I began to self publish stuff on Amazon, I realised that I could just as easily publish other people by the same means. More easily actually, because I wouldn’t have to do the writing bit. And that was how the Sixty Odd Press was born.

Well, at first it was called the Headless Orphan Press, because I had had a running joke about Headless Orphans since I was a callous teenager. First just as a horrible nightmarish idea, then as an idea for a charity to pretend that gigs were in aid of. Not that I ever used it to deceive people, I just thought it was funny.

The Sixty Odd bit came after I published a book of my own lyrics and stories called Sixty Odd Songs.

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Life Histories - Barry Griffiths

The first book I published for someone else came in 2018, in the form of Life Histories by Barry Griffiths. Barry is a well known figure on the Mexborough Poetry scene, he is celebrating his 80th Birthday this month, so he must have been 72 when the book came out.

I published it because I knew that if I didn’t - nobody else would. Not because It was terrible, but because no one would be prepared to transpose his hand written notes from the lined exercise books that he had handwritten them in. They were not easy to decipher, nor was it easy to persuade him to lend them to me. I was determined though. I had seen Barry read them a number of times and wanted them saved for posterity.

Barry has never really come to grips with the digital age. He did have a typewriter at one point, he maybe still does, but he invariably brings handwritten pieces to readings and open mics, unless he uses the book or any of the Sherwood Handcraft compilations that he features in.

The book was called Life Histories because Barry often likes to use his poetry to celebrate the birthdays, deaths, and passing of famous/or notorious people. With his incomparable sense of rhythm and rhyme and his trademark mixture of biographical fact and personal insights, his work is both memorable and instantly recognisable. To see him perform live is a real treat too. He regularly attends Sixty Odd events and he still has a rich, loud, voice, and can still hold a room with his personality. He is a great British eccentric. He was number 14 of the Sixty Odd and appears in the Sixty Odd Poets Compilation The Joy of Six. Heres a poem that features in neither of these places, but is in Life Histories. A real treat to see him perform live…

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Cynthia Payne - Brothel keeper of Renown

(December 24th 1932 - November 15th 2015)

Our Cynth
Put her on a plinth
Last Sunday the Grim Reaper took her to a better place 
Where she'll be able to indulge in lewdity and lust at
her own pace

An eccentric noted fop house keeper
Her brush with the law got deeper
Fame embraced her
Convicted of running a disorderly house in 1980
Became a household name and her fans were plenty

Provided personal services for elderly clients who were rich
Thought the world of her, she was kind, courteous and no bitch
A precocious child, our Cynth, expelled from convent school at ten
Led a wild and rebellious life on the South Coast As a young woman had lots of admiring men

Cynth placed in the dock 
Her emotions ran amok
Requesting a non-custodial sentence
Her barrister, in mitigation 
To the court gave a good oration 
Stating No beardless youngsters were
Initiated into the flesh pots 
But was sent to prison
Six months in Holloway, but on release her spirits had risen

The madam was punished, but punters got away free 
Held no malice and made after dinner speeches for a fat fee
At her brothel, clients included barristers, politicians, peers of the realm and men of the cloth
And a cross dresser from the city who was regarded as a bit of a toff
Punters charged just twenty-five quid for a luncheon voucher which was exchanged
For an entitlement to sex with a woman in the house, that agreed, would be arranged
Pensioners received a discount of three quid
A concession she insisted on and would not get rid From being a bawdy entertainer

Argued for the legalization of prostitution and became a campaigner
Stood for election as an MP for the Rainbow Alliance Candidate
Only got 145 votes, that was her political fate

A musical of her life by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
She tried to persuade them but they did not take her advice
So today we all remember our Cynth 
And keep her in perpetuity on that Plinth


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Dragged Up - A Northern Childhood - Ali Rowland

It was six years before I ventured into publishing a second collection for someone else. By this time both the substack and the published editions of Sixty Odd Poets were well underway, and I wanted to see if I could get another individual publication out. This time, for some reason, I wanted to approach someone who I didn’t know. So I approached Ali Rowland who was one of the first people outside of my social circle to send anything over to the page. Those were heady days. I think I had a waiting list of about three months from pitch to publication at the time. I try and avoid that these days by not shouting about the opportunities quite so much and closing submission windows every now and again.

After I had suggested that I might be interested in publishing something print wise Ali sent me a draft of Dragged Up, and I loved it. As someone who now lives in South Yorkshire, its stories of Sheffield Childhood had real resonance for me. Before I got back to her though, I read that she had been nominated for a Best of the Net and I wasn’t sure if that put her out of my league. Fortunately she was happy to go ahead.

There followed an exciting back and forth of edits and refinements, testing out cover designs and blurbs and loads of various little tasks that go into making a publication happen. Because I was working with someone who I didn’t really know, it felt like a real achievement, rather than a venture between friends. And the result was a marvellous little collection that I am proud of, and I hope that Ali is too.

Ali was number 46 of the Sixty Odd and appears in the Sixty Odd Poets Compilation An Eighth of Sixty. Heres a poem that features in neither of these places, but is in Dragged Up - a Northern Childhood.

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Putting The Hymn Numbers Up - Ali Rowland

One day only, he let me choose a hymn,
it may have been my birthday, or even his.
Allowed in from the playground early,
the task suited my tall, gangly body;
standing on a box to slide the digits home,
each backwards so as to be forwards,
I had to lay them out, anxious not to look a fool. 

There was a favourite tune I chose that day,
after hesitation and stuttering, the number 
threatening to fall away from memory 
when needed most: I wasn’t ready, 
the sudden question was a surprise. I sang the words, 
in a voice never heard above the crowd,
and kept my eyes averted in case he smiled.

Up the steep, precarious stairs to his office,
knocking, waiting, steeling myself to listen 
carefully for any morning’s comment, 
to have something sensible to say.
At least it was over early, and then 
he was hidden away there for the day,
access only for miscreants and the school
secretary. I didn’t like the job 
much anyway.


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Working Class Zero - John Beal

Publication number three came just a couple of months later. I was back to working with friends. John Beal was the first ever poet to join the fellowship of the Sixty Odd, so he is an important part of the whole project. In addition, he always supports the Sixty Odd launches and open mics and organises the Read To Write meetings in Mexborough. When he suggested that I might like to work with him on Working Class Zero, I couldn’t turn the opportunity down.

Working class zero was the longest collection I had published so far, with over 50 examples of John’s thoughtful, precise poetry, resonating with themes of Northern life. With tales from the history of his own family, intermingled with stories of the landscape and people of South Yorkshire, there is a lot to enjoy in it.

John is a prolific poet, and soon had a second volume out with Sherwood Handcrafts Nature Poems. This piece, which has a lot of relevance in our troubled times is from Working Class Zero

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In Freedom

The marching men arrived Saturday
their dull shoes making noise unshelled – 
an armour of air like bells peeling
at a twilight almost forgotten mass.

The blood streamed shortly afterward
a rivulet becoming a torrent of pain
unbecoming in its virile desperation
for the end of others in moonlight

I remember you my friend of seldom
years ago, forged in quiet days
when we wandered from drink
to soporific drink, you would aid 
my return home and I gave nothing
in return, but solitude and silent
night-time grave-side vigil.

This Candlemas is a forgotten entry
in a young girls fancy handwritten diary
where pages are blotted with tears
and fancies – she would weep in
remembrance of her imagined future – 
no happily ever after, but the kick
start explosions inaugurating the circus
of war, where clowns drop like flies
from their collapsing tanks and guns.

She will never walk in freedom.


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Roger Waldron - Notes From Various Settees

And here I am, only sixteen months from the publication of Working Class Zero, about to bring out another volume of someone else’s poetry. The distinction between friends and Sixty Odd contributors has blurred in my mind now. This is due to the idea of the Fellowship of the Sixty Odd, a fellowship that anyone can be a member of as long as they have had something published on the website. It blurs further as now I get to see many of the people that I had never met before Sixty Odd at real life events, or failing that, stay in contact through social media and email.

I had never even heard of Roger Waldron before he sent some of his stuff to me back in the summer of 2024. He became the 37th member of the Fellowship and since then I have seen him perform a number of times, and also shared coffees and bacon sandwiches with him as we have plotted his forthcoming Sixty Odd Press book. Notes from Various Settees.

This will be released in the very near future. It has to be. We are launching it at the Fox gallery in Mexborough at the end of the month, and the planning of an online launch and other events is taking place even as you read this. If you have never read anything by Roger you are in for a treat. If you have read stuff by him, or seen him read, you will know exactly what I mean. He is a one off, with a whiff of magic about him.

Have a read of his Sixty Odd Page

Heres a poem from Notes from Various Settees to whet your appetite.

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Bruised Fruits and Other Matters - Roger Waldron

having a conversation with my Japanese love 
child   about my treatment of his mother  gets 
quite heated  I explain the circumstances 
he doesn’t buy my explanation  later he phones 
to apologise for grabbing my lapels in Home Bargains 
but never mentions  kneeing me  in what his mother 
called my perfectly formed bittersweet Kumquats 

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