Peasant Tower

 

A new poetry book by the brilliant UK poet Tim Allen, published last week. Peasant Tower is a book-length journey flowing without breaks from the epigraph to the end notes. In that respect the reader's challenge is very straightforward. Here's a sample page from around half way through.

eggshell dates frock shop walk-in wrecking ball
passenger absently watches mid-air fuel change

unbaptised bee tumbles in through fire door
filing system has feelings just as the dirty peanut does

brown wine with a head wins plain grey pennant 
he does penance for coveting her pittance

what happened to him hasn’t happened in her notebook
on first name terms with happy history teachers

patriot larger than a country is smaller than this city
ceremonial matchstick archly complaining

film director stands out in swarm of snappers
litter on radar skittles behind vehicle

skis clutter up left luggage 
get your tongue around the yawn of an afternoon prayer
 
bums and faces but no overheads
stories in which young men’s wallets are cuckoo clocks

incinerator in church cellar
a bird with eleven feet gets accepted by the establishment

messing around with an extraction fan
emasculated by a dowsing stick

subeditor crosses out coincidences in crossword 
e.g. bus shelter in cathedral crypt

gull on its tod on refuse tip reads scorched love letter
vintage carnival route empty of the peanut

she stands back-to-front before a lost child
motorcycle sidecar carrying a demolished block of flats

This is normally the point where I'd dive off into a sort of conversation with the poetry, but it doesn't feel quite appropriate this time, because (I'm thrilled to say) Peasant Tower is published by Disengagement Books, my own imprint. 

But anyway, I've written quite a bit about Tim's poetry in the past (and surely will again). Here's a longish post from about 2015:

http://intercapillaryspace.blogspot.com/2014/04/tim-allen-settings-etc.html

Buy a copy of Peasant Tower:

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/tim-allen/peasant-tower/paperback/product-975zdw.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Peasant Tower reviewed by Steve Spence in Litter:

https://www.littermagazine.com/2021/08/review-peasant-tower-by-tim-allen.html

Peasant Tower reviewed by Billy Mills in Elliptical Movements:

https://ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com/2021/11/25/recent-reading-november-2021/