The epigraph contains fragments from playground songs first published in Painted, spoken and transcribed from performances by Ellen Price and Maisie Price. ‘Faster!’, arranged by the author, is taken from a song sung by Ellen Price in the same survey. ‘An old drawer up beyond the children’ first appeared in Julie Johnstone’s one poem project, less.
Other poems collected here were originally published in Alba Londres, Cahiers intempestifs, cul de qui, The Lyre, Magma, Manhattan Review, Poetry Review and The Red Wheelbarrow.
‘Jazz syllabus’ appeared in An Unofficial Roy Fisher (Shearsman) and ‘I am greatly changed’ within A Mutual Friend: Poems for Charles Dickens (Two Rivers), both edited by Peter Robinson.
An alternative version of ‘House martins’ was first published in Birdbook 1 (Sidekick), edited by Jon Stone and Kirsten Irving; ‘Delicate greenery’ and ‘Pinnacle wordfinder’ were first published by likestarlings.
Both ‘Blue black permanent’ poems appeared in the letterpress collection Frosted, melted (diehard), and ‘Left neglect’ in Adventures in Form (Penned in the Margins), edited by Tom Chivers.
Versions of many of the poems collected here were recorded in a single session for the online Archive of the Now, curated by Dr Andrea Brady, Queen Mary, University of London.
My thanks to all involved, and to Judith W., Peter McC., Sandy H., and David K.
“In memory” is dedicated to the late Fiona Farquhar.