September
Snuggly Slim edition, n. 3.
“Poetry is one of the oldest, most widespread and yet most secret means of renewal known to human culture. It is the most essential way of prizing single words and the immemorial heritage that is language. With poetry, science and magic are mixed; we put runes under a microscope. A poem is a fish that has swallowed a ring of many meanings, leaping from the belly of a lake to flash for an instant in the sun.
“In recent years, I have found myself drawn to the Japanese tanka form, and have developed my own version of it, in English, through practice rather than theory. I say ‘my own version’ not as a boast, but as a disclaimer; as a disclaimer and not as an apology. I would say I ‘attempted’ to develop my own version, except that, in being something worked out in the doing, it has been entirely natural to me. The new form combines a discovery of small mental and emotional specimens, like shells on the mind’s shoreline, with a stylistic means of presenting such natural and serendipitous finds as aphorism, memento, meditation and so on.
“In 2015, I decided that for the month of September, I would write, upon waking, at least one such poem a day. In this way I have attempted to keep a diary of time, place, mind and their relations to each other.”
—Quentin S. Crisp, Bexleyheath, February, 2016
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Quentin S. Crisp
Quentin S. Crisp (born 1972) is a British writer and publisher of supernatural fiction. Unlike the better-known personality of the same name, this Quentin Crisp was given the name at birth but, being younger, must use his middle initial to disambiguate. Originally from North Devon, Crisp now lives in London. He has a bachelor's degree in Japanese from the University of Durham, has spent two periods living in Japan and Japanese literature is a significant influence in his work.
Crisp is responsible for the Chomu Press, publishing fiction by contemporary authors.
Crisp also writes lyrics, which have been recorded by Kodagain.
His novella Shrike was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist.
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