BIG LITTLE GUYS
Bernard M. Jackson
SOMETHING OLD - SOMETHING NEW by Paul Nicklin. Price £3.50 post free. BETELGEUSE by Don Stallybrass. 12pp. Card cover. A6. Price £1.00 post free. Both published by LITTLE big WORDS, 62 Willowhale Green, Aldwick, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO21 4LW.
For some years now, Sussex writer Paul Nicklin has been content to promote the poetry of others. He has organised local poetry events and competitions and was a founder-member of the celebrated Poetic Circle of Friendship (Bognor Regis). During latter years, and after much personal sacrifice, he has finally managed to launch his own publishing outlet, LITTLE big WORDS POETRY PRESS, and a number of well-known poets in the Small Press circuit have already pledged support for future planned anthologies.
Something Old – Something New, Paul’s maiden collection, contains much previously published work, including the inimitable Me and You, and the MJQ, a jaunty, jazz-inspired six-verse tribute to the famous Modern Jazz Quartet. Poems range from the reflective Three Windows, a haunting little poem imbued with eerie mystique, to the unrestrained slapstick of several other inclusions; for Paul is essentially a happy poet and, though often found delving into the vernacular and well-intentioned gobbledy-gook phraseology, his verse is guaranteed to bring a smile to even the most poker-faced of readers. I was very impressed with The Byker, a modern parody, written with remarkable perception and aplomb in the true Chaucerian idiom. But don’t just take my word for it; check it out!
Don Stallybrass, a Sussex poet of note, is also an astrologer and former editor of Towel Corner in the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy magazine, Mostly Harmless. Now a sprightly octogenarian, several of his included poems look back to his younger days with startling clarity. I particularly enjoyed reading his Chichester High School, West Sussex, Winter 1938:
Sixth form commuter at Barnham Junction – my blood
Sang crystal sonnets to the girl I loved,
Who along the platform like a Snow Queen moved;
I wrote some words – “under the Snow’s white hood.”
Also in this pocket-sized collection is his prize-winning poem, My Siegfried Idyll, which won first prize in the Times Christmas Competition 1975, a love poem with a difference.
There are poems here that reflect Don’s astrological interests and, for good measure, a fine rondeau and several rather unusual haiku.
So why not buy both booklets and thus help little big words make its mark on the Small Press world?
Bernard M. Jackson