FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET
Poems by John Latham

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John Latham is a physicist. Many of the poems in this, his second Peterloo collection, have won major prizes in national poetry competitions. The title poem won 1st prize in the Stroud International Poetry Competition, 1983. Several of the poems in this collection have been broadcast on Poetry Now (BBC Radio 3). John Latham is one of the most original poets to have emerged in recent years. His first volume, Unpacking Mr Jones (Peterloo, 1982), has sold out in its first impression, but a second impression is now available.

From a review notice of Unpacking Mr Jones:

‘Whether writing from the child’s-eye view or the man’s, John Latham emerges from this sad, funny, tender book as a poet who sees truths from a strikingly original angle of vision.’
Jeremy Hooker / Anglo-Welsh Review

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Survival Kit

‘To Dad, for your long journeys’.

Tobacco tin so full it wouldn’t rattle.

A nail, diagonal, skewering three figs
already, staining the paper scroll
marked ‘Contents and Instructions’
in pen-sucked capitals.

Six matches, subdued by candle-wax.

A silver button for flashing coded signals,
dazzling leopards that come too close.

Grandma’s hairnet for trapping fish,
mice swept up by whirlwinds,
juicy butterflies.

Chewing-gum for leaks,
‘A food that lasts forever’.

Sketches showed where north is,
how to bake an elk in mud,
construct an engine for a floating sleigh.

And in a corner, round three apple-pips,
a coil of string
frayed wildly,
as if my son, left-handed,
couldn’t use the kitchen scissors,

or had sawn it with the ‘knife’,
- a sliver of green glass -
its edge darkened
with a quarter-moon of blood.

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FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET
Price £4.50 per copy post free
Cover illustration: Edward Hopper, ‘Nighthawks’, Oil on Canvas, 1942. By courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago. © The Art Institute of Chicago. All Rights Reserved.
Publication: AUGUST 1985 (72 pages laminated paperback)