An Interjection

My barnacled hull has ported – for a moment – and I request a bending of your ears and a pricking of your interests…

Just a few updates. Firstly, thankyou all for your attention. It has been to my unwavering and fragrant delight that so many of you are taking the time to read my poems each day – when I started this blog to display my first tentative (and admittedly amateur, occasionally appalling) forays into poetry, I did not imagine that a) I would still be doing it nearly four years later and b) gather over 500 “followers” and several hundred viewers per day. I am flattered, and grateful.

I just want to direct your eyes to a few developments which have occurred these last two months, and to promote a few who have decided to promote me. It seems only proper, after all.

The last few weeks have seen my work published on the frankly lovely Poetry Breakfast website – almost ironic seeing as I am far from a morning person, as many people would attest to, seeing me stumble around searching for my shoes and complaining loudly whilst others are going about their business, like real people. I genuinely pity any students who have me bang on about old Indian buildings before midday, I really do. Anyway, you can find me here: http://poetrybreakfast.wordpress.com/category/poets/benjamin-norris/ and I would encourage you to check many more of the pieces included.

Also, in the next few weeks, my work will be included on http://vscorpiozine.wordpress.com/ – another poetry/cultural dispatch website I must strongly endorse.

On a slightly different note, I am delighted to announce that my personal favourite work “The Hothouse” has found a fine and fitting home in the dry valleys of California, and will be featured in the next issue of the fantastic poetry journal “A Few Lines” alongside some truly far-out writers. I am greatly pleased about this. If any of you come from the New World, and wear flowers in your hair, I would urge you to get yourself a copy. http://www.afewlinesmagazine.com/

Also, the very dedicated Bonnie McClellan runs International Poetry Month’s flash poetry section through a series of readings online – this year, there is to be one reading per day on the subject of ‘Gesture’. She has kindly requested to read my poem ‘Gesture IV’ at some point over the next two weeks. More information can be found on her blog at http://bonniemcclellan.wordpress.com/

Finally (for now, I’m still waiting for confirmation from two other journals), one of my recent poems will be featured on the popular ‘Ink, Sweat and Tears’ poetry site http://ink-sweat-and-tears.com/  in the next couple of weeks. So be sure to keep checking and enjoying the work on that website.

I wish to say thankyou kindly to all of these publishers for giving me the opportunity to share more of my work with a kind and appreciative audience. And thankyou very much to all of you for your comments, critiques and feedback – it means more to me than any of you realise. I can only apologise when I slip into a level of surrealism and arseyness which is uncomfortable for all. I apologise, but by no means intend to stop.

Love from an icy strait

Benjamin Norris