Selected Poet #4 - Rachael Allen (new work)

I am delighted to be able to feature some of the newest work by one of my favourite up and coming UK poets – Rachael Allen.

Rachael Allen reading at the Betsy Trotwood, London

Rachael is one of the founding members of Clinic, which has become a by-word in South London for innovative and engaging new art and poetry. As well as curating art shows and gigs, they have also put out two very well-received poetry anthologies, featuring a menagerie of new and talented poetic talents.

But it’s Rachael’s poetic talents that we’re celebrating here. The new pieces below, which have been kindly donated by Rachael, are influenced by the meme-generating website 4chan. Each of the poems in this series takes its title, and some of the material, from the forum headings on the site.

These 4Chan poems provide an echo chamber between the internet and a writer. As much as the headings collate the website’s posts from forum members, they also provide a scaffolding for the poet’s own experience. These poems are deeply personal and at the same time address images we all know in one way or another from the internet.

cute/male
/cm/

random
/b/

rapidshare
/r/

social
/soc/

Useful links for Rachael Allen

Days of Roses – The wonderful Days of Roses blog has some new poems by Rachael on this.
Granta submissions – two of Rachael’s articles about poetry on Granta’s website
Clinic – the website of the art collective of which Rachael Allen is one of the founding members.

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