HappenStance Pamphlet Poetry Press
I have now published four collections of poetry, but though it is pleasing to see one's name on the spine of a book, there is still something special about a pamphlet. My third one appears later this year – a pamphlet feels more unified, more of a performance, like blasting out a number, rather than crooning through your repertoire.
Pamphlet, chapbook, pocket-book. Fife-based poet Helena Nelson has now founded Sphinx, a magazine dedicated to poetry pamphlets and those who publish them, with reviews, interviews, articles and extracts. Pamphlet derives from a Greek phrase meaning 'loved by all', chapbook from an old English word meaning 'barter' and the aftermaths of poetry readings often include the sight of poets happily swapping booklets and magazines.
Small press poetry in Scotland is thriving, with the Scottish Pamphlet Poetry site listing over 30 presses - some tiny - offering pamphlets, among them Mariscat, Kettillonia and Akros. Helena Nelson's own imprint is named HappenStance; now a year old, it has already published quite a number of high quality pamphlets – good paper and coloured endpapers. One of Nelson's aims is to be internationalist – a new chapbook series, North & South, will feature one Scot and one poet from another UK country. A further cross-continental series is planned for later.
Winter Gifts is a short collection of well-chosen wintry poems by poets old and new. Then there are individual chapbooks from Matt Merritt, Eleanor Livingstone, Rob A Mackenzie, Andrew Philip and Nelson herself, all of which contain measured and interesting writing. Nelson is a poet who writes in various styles, both lyrical and satirical; her collection Starlight On The Water (The Rialto) is well worth tracking down. Unsuitable Poems is a deliciously wicked selection of her barbs, pastiches and unflattering self-portraits ('Until now, I believed Helena Nelson to be a woman of integrity' runs a pinch-of-salt quote from Hugh McMillan on the back). Trains and trainspotters, toilet paper and teachers, and various areas below the belt are prodded and provoked in these funny poems.
My favourite of the bunch is Andrew Philip's Tonguefire, a selection of careful, image-heavy lyric pieces dealing with the domestic and the numinous. I first encountered Philip, who now works as a reporter for the Scottish Parliament, when he was an Edinburgh University student a decade back, and it is rewarding to read this pamphlet, hopefully a step towards a deserved first full collection.
