Saturday, May 25, 2013

The End Of The Road With Jack Kerouac


Clackety
Clack
Jack
Don't look back

Those dreams
Of
Denver
Are
Getting
Fierce
Dim

Ah
Man
It's
Time
Time
Time

Time
You know
We
Both
Gotta
Blow

Blow blow blow
No no no

Yes
I'm
Afraid


Scared
Petrified
Terrified
God damn it
Man
We're
HittinThe End

Coast to coast
Gasoline defiance
Jazz fumed
With the radio on
In love with the modern world
Always with the radio on
Beaming 24 Dean
Yappin yappin yappin
Jaw chewing
Non stop neon

Can't catch us
Can't catch us

We're on the road
We're on the road

The
Wide
Open
Road

Hurtling
Towards
The
Inevitable
End

But we out ran them all.
All.
Every last one of them
Didn't we Jack!
Showering their murderous Korean piety
In reefer brake squeal exhaust

The dreams
We dreamed
We lit
Alight
Dash dial guzzling
Bright
Hep Cat
Night
Zoooom zoooom
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Oooh shit
Feds on our tail
Time to bail

The boat to Tangier
The first whiff of fear


So
Farewell
Jack
Farewell
Kerouac

We've
Just
Run
Right
Outta
Right
Outta
Right
Outta
Road


Friday, May 24, 2013

FIRST FULL REVIEW OF I LOVE THE INTERNET FROM ITASPOETICALWORLD.COM

Review – “I Love the Internet” by Kevin Barrington

Someone once said that having the confidence to publish a book is like going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you.
It was with this, no doubt shut away at the back of her mind that C. Flower of Political World entered the world of online publishing with the launch of ‘I Love the Internet’ a contemporary and abrasive poetry collection written by Dubliner, Kevin Barrington.
Prompted by the discussion and submission of poems to the political discussion forum, Politicalworld.org, and pushed along by the decision of Declan Ganley to threaten the author with legal action concerning disagreements on twitter, it was suggested that Kevin might respond to this threat in a creative riposte ( and help to cover possible future legal fees) by putting together a collection of his best work.
At this point, Kevin grabbed the ball and ran with it, and pulling together a team of artists and photographers, with C. Flower as editor and publisher and Ephilant as e-booker, turned that notion into a reality.
But make no mistake, C. Flower, who first suggested the project, would not have done so had she not believed that Kevin’s mastery of words and grasp on the workings of the world around him, were worthy of the effort required to bring the project to fruition.
It was worth the effort all right; Kevin Barrington’s words do not jump off the page, they hurtle towards you as if fired from the barrel of a Barrett Light 50. But a scattergun it isn’t! Kev’s relentless tirades will hunt you down, find you and riddle you with politics, philosophy, the force of literature and a very generous helping of humour.
Right through, ‘I Love the Internet’, the reader is reminded of modernity and it feels contemporary and yet it nods openly back at the art of yesterday and without fear of taking on either the ancient or the new. Similarly, Kevin Barrington knits together the parochial and the global and kicks the living daylights out of both and still for all that, there is a tender appreciation of family, tight but not always smooth, which permeates the extremities, should you care to look for it.
Barrington’s poems are not designed to wash gently over the reader; they angrily tumble down the page but always in a controlled enthusiasm. Yes, even the nice ones. Who would have thought that the humble moggy in ‘Clam’ could fire such brash emotion? That’s not to say that Kevin can’t turn on the detail when required as can be seen in the gnarled politics of ‘Cambodia’s Rock Star King’, a piece riddled with experience which oozes with the author’s undoubted knowledge of the subject.
This collection is not for comfort reading and nowhere is that more obvious than in the painfully personal ‘Interference’ where we are led to believe we are voyeurs but where in truth, we are simply being shown what could be around the corner for ourselves or our loved ones.
So what’s my favourite poem in ‘I love the Internet’? Well I’m drawn to the curtness and comical abandon of ‘Social Media’, ‘Crack’ and ‘Laughter’ but for me, these just set the reader up for the disturbing and viciously circling masterpiece which is, ‘Daddy’s Cooking Crystal Meth in the Barna Shed’. We all have a Barna Shed.
Above all, the fight in Kevin’s written word comes across as genuine, borne out of his love for language, his personal battle with illness and his utter inability to shut his mouth for much over eleven seconds. Barrington’s book is about more than just words, set in an attractive suburb of fine art and photography, it’s as varied and as vivid on the eye as it is on the ear.
‘I Love the Internet’ will not be the only book which Political World Publishing will release, already several other projects covering literature, history and politics have been commissioned. In a time when franchises, corporate creations and the ghost-written ramblings of incoherent, soon to be fading celebrities dominate the world of publishing, maybe, just maybe, the time is right for a small house like pw to just jump in there and demand its tuppence-worth before the conglomerates choke all resistance.
You gotta love the internet.
vince2


I love the Internet by Kevin Barrington is published by Political World Publishers and the whole  bucket of lunacy is available from our e-bookstore, priced at €5.00.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

HOW DID STONE AGE MAN CUT THE NAIL ON HIS TOE?

Things were getting pretty bleak there in March
Felt a bit like
Prepare to meet your maker
And all that jazz
And sure what can you do?
Spit punk rage
With a touch of Sam B
Then go with the flow
The end of the show
Curtains
Call Massey
Died in his prime
Sad
Tragic
Such a terrible shame.
Until finally deep inside, someone said
No
No Kevin
No
No
No

Not going nowhere
Not until I know
This one last thing
I just gotta know
Before I go

Cool
So come here
And tell me
Tell me right now

How did Stone Age man
Cut the nail
On his toe?

Do you know?

Do you?

Do you?

Do you?

Friday, May 17, 2013

I'M IN REAL BAD NEED OF SOME REAL GOOD RELIGION

Anyone know of any good religion?
Would you please keep an ear out for some good religion?
Cos I'm in the market for some good religion.

In fact, I'm in bad need of some really good religion.
And Jesus that's telling the truth.
And I also mean it when I say 'really good religion'
I don't want any of that messy interfere with children religion
I don't want no kiss no bishop's ring religion either
But fuck me!
I am in the market for some pure liberation.
I'm a sure sales sucker for some high grade theology
Hit me now
I am crying out for a little top drawer religion
Uncut!
You hear me!
I don't want your adulterants
In fact, I don't need your cathedrals
I sure don't need your sacraments
And I won't be wearing those robes
But can I make it any clearer?
I
Want
Some
GOD
DAMN
Theology
THEOLOGY
NOW
Yeah.
Sure.
The sunshine helps
It really really really does.
And for that I am eternally grafeful.
Oh but you have no idea how a little bit of pure theology would be real nice too.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
A little high mercury 8mm Robinson's Barley salty ham dam bursting bouncey castle cousins rounders sorta theology.
That sorta theology!
You know exactly the sort of theology I mean.
Just a little little little little little bit of that
A little bit
A little hit
of
that
Sweet
RELIGION.
Then
All
Will
Be
Ever Ever Ever Ever Ever Ever Ever
So
Dandy
For
A
While

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I LOVE THE INTERNET/ READING/DALKEY BOOK FESTIVAL/CORNER NOTE CAFE

I'll be doing a gig at the Dalkey Book fair, June 15th 5pm at the Corner Note Cafe where I will be reading and talking with legendary literary agent Ivan Mulcahy. I am told that some other foreign correspondent is looking for a little limelight. Some geezer called Robert Fisk. Whoever he is. Then there's some writer who seems to be robbing most of my identity. Kevin Barry. Should have taken that lad out at 18 summers. Some other pokey nosed journo and bugger of bugging presidents called Carl Bernstein. There's an Anne Enright. She rings a bell. But jesus - your head would be wrecked keeping with all this crew. They all write things.

On the subject of writing things and wrong things, listen to me growl.

Listen to me bitch.

Just wasted 40 quid entering some Fish poetry competition judged by Paul Durcan.

Some crew with obviously very questionable taste in Cork.

Didn't even make the long list.

That's what I get for being fool enough to be giving money away to that class of carry on.

Big big boo.

Fuck it.

Let's look at pretty pictures.

By Gary Coyle

Ivan Mulcahy and myself flanked by Brian Barrington and Fiona Cummins
Vanessa and Fiona. Two dames.