Book Description
The first collection of poetry from this Hitchin-based writer. He lists his key influences as Philip Larkin, James Joyce, Douglas Adams, Terry Gilliam and John Peel.
From the Author
It could be any town in England with nothing special about it, or with a sense of faded glamour, but when I heard on the radio last year that there had been a tornado in Cleethorpes, it struck me as being a good metaphor for the unexpected or amazing happening in the most mundane of places - devastating the landscape in its wake. A lot of my poems echo this theme, from using source material such as a microwave oven or doing the washing up, to the sudden death of my father a few years ago. It's also the idea that history - personal or otherwise - is made up of a series of these events, and some of the poems try to address these wider issues.
About the Author
David Van-Cauter was born in 1972. He lives in Hitchin, Herts, and works in London as a DVD subtitler. He is a member of the Letchworth group Poetry ID. He is currently celebrating his 30th birthday and trying to finish his first radio play.
Excerpted from Tornado in Cleethorpes by . Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Changing You
I’ll redesign your history in yellow,
I’ll splash a coat of purple on your eyes,
I’ll cover up your secrets in fake velvet,
I’ll cut your heart into a different size.
I’ll plaster over cracks in your demeanour
and trail fleur de lys across your mind,
I’ll gather up your silences in bunches
and drape them in the worst place I can find.
The sofa where you sleep will be recovered
and dreams, like scumble glaze, will slowly dry.
I’ll redirect your thoughts to somewhere sunny
and build a parapet, so I can pry.
The script will be re-written as I panic –
The time is up for both of us, they shout.
When we return, eyes shut, to where we started,
the locks have changed. Can someone let us out?
