FABLES FOR LOVE
Poems New & Selected
Poems by Bill Turner

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Bill Turner was born in York in 1927, but an early transplant to Glasgow left him permanently encumbered by a Scottish accent, despite living in Leeds, Malvern, Bedford, and Lincoln since then. He edited and hand-printed fifteen issues of The Poet between 1951 and 1956. He has been a Creative Writing Fellow at four institutes of learning, and has taught creative writing for the WEA and The Arvon Foundation. At the time of this volume he has had six plays for radio broadcast, and six novels published, yet prefers to give most of his time to poetry still. His first six collections of poetry , all now out of print, were published by E. Price Turner.

From review notices:

’His work is forthright, and full of intellectual and verbal curiosity. In some of the humorous pieces in this book he leaves the best-selling Liverpool poets standing.’
                                    Roy Fisher, The Birmingham Post

’From The Rudiment Of An Eye to The Flying Corset, Fables From Life and later poems, increased skill in delineation goes with the emergence of a tone of voice that we recognise. The voice ranges between a mocking humour and a fairly swinging satire. It draws an alert bead on the contemporary world, but seems more original and distinctive in allowing for an element of the grotesque.’
                                   Edwin Morgan, Contemporary Poets

’Equally original, these poems are even more vivid than Mr Turner’s earlier ones. He belongs to no school or group, and speaks with his own voice.’
                                   Bonamy Dobree, The Yorkshire Post

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Behind The Times

Just around the era when the entire trade
switched over to digitals and quartz innards,
old Arthur started on digitalis tablets
and feet up on his stall between customers.
Funny how such a sharp merchant, lumbered
with a dicky ticker, should still fret about
clocks losing character and stuff like that.
He began to mutter about chucking his pitch.
But when his time came he stood surrounded
by old-fashioned movements, inlaid cases.
New-fangled cheapjack lines, already obsolete,
were sent flying like space capsules as Arthur
staggered and dropped: one more stopped clock
in a world where everything must go.

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FABLES FOR LOVE: POEMS NEW & SELECTED
Price £7.95 per copy post free (£5.30 post free to Associate Members)
Cover illustration:
Publication: JULY 1985 (80 pages laminated paperback)