More praise for J. O. Morgan’s Natural Mechanical:
‘A single, book-length poem telling the story of Rocky, a dyslexic boy who grows up on the Isle of Skye, dropping out of school and learning his lessons from the land. Sounds old-fashioned and Wordsworthian when you sum it up like that, but it’s an amazingly fresh, assured piece of work, full of memorable episodes, all beautifully told. On a first reading, you can enjoy it purely as a great story (perfect for film adaptation). But then you can revisit it time and again just to savour the music of the language. Best thing I’ve read in a long while.’ – Nick Asbury
This is from the website of 26 – which seems to be a kind of networking site for marketing copywriters, brand consultants and the like, founded ‘to inspire a greater love of words, in business and in life’. There’s a page on which members recommend ‘anything that hits the spot’ (Nat Mech falls between the Museum of London and a Jonathan Meades DVD set). I’m thinking it all looks a bit too mission-statementy for me but then, oh, look, Elise V is a member and Simon Armitage too and they do some odd and interesting things.
1 comment:
Hello Charles - just stumbled across this. Your characterisation of 26 isn't too wide of the mark - primarily to do with business writing and therefore perilously close to the realms of the mission statement, but also involved in all sorts of interesting side-projects and collaborations.
Hopefully most of our members are on the side of the good guys who try to turn the tortured mission statements into something more readable. I recently tried to take this a step further with a chapbook called Corpoetics, which rearranges the words from corporate mission statements into poetry. You can read some of it here http://tinyurl.com/y86w6ov
and it was reviewed over here http://tinyurl.com/ylqzl32
Natural Mechanical left a lasting impression on me - delighted to see it getting the recognition it deserves.
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