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Verses from the Ouselum Bird
With Christmas stockings in mind Martin has put together a small booklet (slim volume!) of sixteen poems most of which earned him prize money during 2012 from sources including the Literary Review, the Spectator, the Wells Festival of Literature and Flash 500. Among the subjects covered are the almost extinct Latin Mass, the totally extinct Ouselum bird, plus sloth, operatic sopranos, Madame de Maintenon, the defeat of Sir Gastro-Pub the Ghastly, a revolving hamster, a cuckoo, a choir, Great Expectations, Chaucer, show business and a newly-festive ox.
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No Longer Bjored (HappenStance Press)
Publisher's description: "Martin Parker is founder editor of the quarterly light verse webzine Lighten Up Online. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, The Spectator, The Oldie and Light (USA), as well as online publications such as Snakeskin, 14 by 14, The Chimaera and The Barefoot Muse. A HappenStance Sampler of his work (2008) gave rise to plans for a set of Po-Lite pamphets - this publication is the first in that series.
"Here we see light verse at its best: witty, wry, wilful and sometimes unexpectedly moving. Parker has a black belt in irony. Prepare to be disarmed."
The booklet is available direct from HappenStance Press or --
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Rubbing the Lamp
In Rubbing the Lamp we again find light verse that is not always as light as it first appears. Wry reflection about the ups and downs of life, love, lust and ageing is joined here by sagas of false teeth by moonlight, a schoolgirl heroine even more Brazil than Angela and of thong-wearing in suburbia.
We also find a prayer for unsuitable women, a lover's plea to share cornflakes, an extract from the Secret Diary of Old Nokomis and the pressing need for a boy to retrieve his mackintosh from beneath a sleeping girl.
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Martin Parker: A Sampler (HappenStance Press)
Pamphlets in the HappenStance Press 'Sampler' Series gather together a small group of poems to give a flavour of the poet's writing. Here is a handful of Parker poems at little more than the price of a greetings card - the perfect stocking filler for literary legs.
£2.50 plus P&P
Available to order online or by post from HappenStance Press.
Pick 'n' Mix
PICK ’N’ MIX was Martin's first slim, bordering on skeletal, volume. Among its thirty-seven poems are insights into some of the situations which can turn relationships into nightmares and vice versa; also gentler poems of love and lust inspired by things as domestically non-poetic as a clothes-line, bathroom scales, deckchairs and dentures.
You may also sympathise with his reason for not wanting to sleep with Tracey Emin, have your social conscience pricked at the poignant tale behind his first fan mail, quail at the stark mechanics of test tube parenthood and learn what happened when Coleridge met an ancient mariner who had no story worth telling.
“… inventive … witty … touching … rude … life-enhancing … I shed tears of joy …” D A Prince (Sphinx Chapbook Review)
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