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From 23rd October 2022 to 28th February 2023 we have dozens of special offers on our publications. If you're looking for a Christmas 'stocking filler' for someone who enjoys reading poetry, browse our discounted books here. We're offering up to 50% reductions on selected collections and Book Bundles of 3 pamphlets for £12.00 including postage within the UK. 

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2022  ​VOLE Poetry Collections and Dempsey & Windle perfect-bound poetry pamphlets​ 

17 Paper Resurrections, by John Gallas, the winner of the Brian Dempsey Memorial Pamphlet Prize.

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Two poems from this week's featured book: 
FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, ABUSE, ETC
The shorter poems of Catallus by Ranald Barnicot

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"This lively translation will undoubtedly win Catullus new admirers. The volume is furnished with a clear introduction and includes a generous portion of absorbing endnotes. Here novices will find the crucial information they need, while old hands may be inspired to dust off that neglected copy of Catullus: A Commentary by C. J. Fordyce keeping watch from a high shelf. Whether tackling an enemy like ‘Prick the Poet’ (CV) or counting up beloved Lesbia’s ‘colossal kisses’ in ‘Kiss Poem 3’ (VII), Catullus and Barnicot blaze through this book as conjurers of the unexpected."
​ — Richard Hawtree (The High Window)

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To Flavius 
Were she not gauche, Flavius, and charmless,
A frank disclosure you’d judge harmless:
Who’s your delightful latest treasure,
Whom in concealment you so pleasure?
It is some fever-ridden tart
That’s taken captive your fond heart,
A fact that you’re ashamed to own.
You don’t lie sex-starved all alone
Of nights, as witnesses attest:
Silent in vain — it’s no contest --
Your bedroom bellows it, sweet stench
Of flowers and Syrian oils — “A wench!” --
Pillow symmetrically impressed
By double impact, rickety
Bed shrilling on its walkabout.
Your hobbling gait, with flanks fucked-out,
Argues you’re not pernickety!
From all of which we must conclude
​ You’re up to something rash and lewd.
So tell us what you’ve got, of good
Or ill. I would
Lay out some pleasing verse wherein incised
You and your love shall be imparadised. 

Translated from Catullus by Ranald Barnicot

Unexpectedly 
Day incandescent in my calendar of gloom
Restoring you to me
Quite unexpectedly!
You have flown back to me — kazoom!
Naturally, I’m over the moon!

​
 Lesbia’s Vow 
A joyful love, my life, you lay before me,
Reciprocal and for eternity,
Answer my prayers, great gods, to hope restore me,
So that she vows her heart’s sincerity,
So that we lead our lives through to the end
Pledged in the sacred friendship we intend.


For my part 
No woman can say that she has ever been
Loved as my Lesbia has been loved by me.
No one can say that they have ever seen
In any contract the like of my love’s honesty,
​My truthfulness to you, sweetheart,
Such as I’ve shown you, for my part. 

Translated from Catullus by Ranald Barnicot