Comments on: Rarities http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com The Writings of Cliff Burns Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:40:55 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Cliff Burns http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/rarities/#comment-4711 Cliff Burns Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:07:01 +0000 http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/odds-sods/#comment-4711 Mark: delighted you're still around and hope you continue to foist good, ground-breaking authors on the unsuspecting world. Those little chapbooks have become collector's items, fetching some pretty decent prices. All the best to you, mon! Mark: delighted you’re still around and hope you continue to foist good, ground-breaking authors on the unsuspecting world. Those little chapbooks have become collector’s items, fetching some pretty decent prices. All the best to you, mon!

]]> By: Mark McCawley http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/rarities/#comment-4709 Mark McCawley Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:49:18 +0000 http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/odds-sods/#comment-4709 Dear Cliff, old buddy, my tiny Canadian micro press (Greensleeve Editions) is far from defunct. I'm still publishing new work by emerging writers, though the mandate of the press has been refined and defined more extensibly since I published that limited edition volume of 'That First, Wound-Bearing Layer' by you back in 1992. Still, thanks for allowing my young micro-press to cut it's publishing teeth on your work. I'm pleased to see you have reprinted it through your own micro-press and are making it available free as a pdf. Technology has finally caught up to our dreams and intentions. All the best with your writing. Mark McCawley, editor/publisher Greensleeve Editions/Urban Graffiti Dear Cliff, old buddy, my tiny Canadian micro press (Greensleeve Editions) is far from defunct. I’m still publishing new work by emerging writers, though the mandate of the press has been refined and defined more extensibly since I published that limited edition volume of ‘That First, Wound-Bearing Layer’ by you back in 1992. Still, thanks for allowing my young micro-press to cut it’s publishing teeth on your work. I’m pleased to see you have reprinted it through your own micro-press and are making it available free as a pdf. Technology has finally caught up to our dreams and intentions. All the best with your writing.

Mark McCawley, editor/publisher
Greensleeve Editions/Urban Graffiti

]]> By: dannywhitelock http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/rarities/#comment-266 dannywhitelock Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:28:02 +0000 http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/odds-sods/#comment-266 I enjoyed your poetry a lot. There are many interesting ideas raised to be sure, but I am curious; why so dark? Another poster noted a tone of cynicism, which is nice, but after reading all of the poems, I wish there had been something more joyous, more halcyon, even if it was in the minority. The vicissitudes of life call for a treatment of the everyday and the extraordinairy, glimses of hope in despair, and for such a chronologically broad selection, I am suprised there was not more of this. This is just me though; the work was still first class I thought. Although I agree that some longer work would be excellent (some of my favourite poems were 'Lon Chaney' and 'Lon Chaney Jr.' the link there really expanded the poems sensations for me) I enjoyed the fragments the most. Are you going to expand on any of these? I would be very interested to hear of anyhting that arises from them; very laconic stuff. I should love to hear a longer poem which could maintain the efficiency and perceptiveness all your shorter works have in such quantity. I enjoyed your poetry a lot. There are many interesting ideas raised to be sure, but I am curious; why so dark? Another poster noted a tone of cynicism, which is nice, but after reading all of the poems, I wish there had been something more joyous, more halcyon, even if it was in the minority. The vicissitudes of life call for a treatment of the everyday and the extraordinairy, glimses of hope in despair, and for such a chronologically broad selection, I am suprised there was not more of this. This is just me though; the work was still first class I thought.

Although I agree that some longer work would be excellent (some of my favourite poems were ‘Lon Chaney’ and ‘Lon Chaney Jr.’ the link there really expanded the poems sensations for me) I enjoyed the fragments the most. Are you going to expand on any of these? I would be very interested to hear of anyhting that arises from them; very laconic stuff. I should love to hear a longer poem which could maintain the efficiency and perceptiveness all your shorter works have in such quantity.

]]> By: Andre van der Merwe http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/rarities/#comment-113 Andre van der Merwe Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:54:00 +0000 http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/odds-sods/#comment-113 Cliff, Your poetry made me very uncomfortable sometimes, and at other times elicited a cynical guffaw. Some poems , however made me spring back into my state of comfortable denial and scroll on hurriedly, as if a giant had trodden on my lizard's tail and I , by leaving it behind as a wriggling memento could distract him into ingnoring me whil I fled back into my hole to wait for Godot. This is great art, which can make this drug-numbed, deaf-mute-blind fool FEEL something real again, even cringe back in fear because I have seen, heard, and spoken to myself and God again in forgotten reaches of the soul. And I have am induced to "come out" of my shell to write you this. Welcome to my party. Perhaps we have been celebrating darkness in opposite corners for aeons, but you have turned on the lights of this grand hall long enough for me to acknowledge you, see the banquet that has been laid on, and step back from the brink, breathing a sigh of strange comfort. I'm not alone in here. Cliff,

Your poetry made me very uncomfortable sometimes, and at other times elicited a cynical guffaw.

Some poems , however made me spring back into my state of comfortable denial and scroll on hurriedly, as if a giant had trodden on my lizard’s tail and I , by leaving it behind as a wriggling memento could distract him into ingnoring me whil I fled back into my hole to wait for Godot.

This is great art, which can make this drug-numbed, deaf-mute-blind fool FEEL something real again, even cringe back in fear because I have seen, heard, and spoken to myself and God again in forgotten reaches of the soul.

And I have am induced to “come out” of my shell to write you this.

Welcome to my party. Perhaps we have been celebrating darkness in opposite corners for aeons, but you have turned on the lights of this grand hall long enough for me to acknowledge you, see the banquet that has been laid on, and step back from the brink, breathing a sigh of strange comfort.

I’m not alone in here.

]]> By: El Condor http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/rarities/#comment-38 El Condor Fri, 18 May 2007 16:47:38 +0000 http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/odds-sods/#comment-38 on Redbook Parts I and II By no means incomprehensible, but like all worthwhile poetry it is 'elusive', springing from that inner well (fecund or arid) we might term the 'root of personality'. Aye there's the rub: how to make the personal understandable to others. Assuming Redbook is chronological, then in the first two parts we discover the preliminary honest night-time gropings of one developing an artistic sensibility, who begins to ask the tremulous questions he is afraid to answer, digging below the flesh to see the why and how. Revelatory without mundane explicitness. Unsolicited Suggestions: Don't be afraid to write longer poems, further spadework can take one beyond the first strata of discovery. Some of the shorter pieces have related themes and could suggest the possibility of combination into a longer multi-part poem? Query: Was Sherron the only one who replied to the SWM ad/poem? Or the lucky winner pared down from hundreds of letters? :) on Redbook Parts I and II
By no means incomprehensible, but like all worthwhile poetry it is ‘elusive’, springing from that inner well (fecund or arid) we might term the ‘root of personality’. Aye there’s the rub: how to make the personal understandable to others. Assuming Redbook is chronological, then in the first two parts we discover the preliminary honest night-time gropings of one developing an artistic sensibility, who begins to ask the tremulous questions he is afraid to answer, digging below the flesh to see the why and how. Revelatory without mundane explicitness.
Unsolicited Suggestions: Don’t be afraid to write longer poems, further spadework can take one beyond the first strata of discovery. Some of the shorter pieces have related themes and could suggest the possibility of combination into a longer multi-part poem?
Query: Was Sherron the only one who replied to the SWM ad/poem? Or the lucky winner pared down from hundreds of letters? :)

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