NOON: An Anthology of Short Poems, edited by Philip Rowland, presents a carefully arranged and strikingly diverse selection of poems from the issues of NOON: journal of the short poem that appeared between 2004 and 2017. Focusing on poems of less than fourteen lines, Philip Rowland has assembled a richly suggestive, renga-like chain of over two hundred poems by almost half as many poets, at the same time showcasing some of the most interesting minimalist poetry being written in English today.
It cheers me up that there are still people on the planet who think poetry is worth such care and attention. – Geraldine Monk
So full of splintered richness. – Jane Hirshfield
Evidences the wealth of the minimalist tradition, resolutely international. – Alistair Noon
NOON succeeds in exemplifying the Borgesian idea that all literature can be read as by a single author, that ‘in this correlation, the identity or plurality of men’ (or of women) ‘doesn’t matter.’ – Barry Schwabsky
You have drawn together so many I have prized so long – who would have seemed an improbable mix, if not ‘incompatible’ – and, placing them side by side, shown how they are wholly of a time, a world, ours. – John Martone
An anthology that registers as a single work.… Philip Rowland’s editorial tour de force is an absolute must. – John Stevenson in Modern Haiku. Click here to read the whole review.
If only more anthologies were as diverse and enriching as this one. Philip Rowland has identified and demonstrated a strong vein in contemporary poetry and deserves continuing attention for his commitment to it. Although Basho’s ghost (and his frog) haunts the spirit of this collection, it is excitingly open to what may come next in the always changing condition of creative imagining in words or their shapes or sounds. – Tony Beyer in breath, a collection of haiku. Click here to read the whole review.
I thoroughly enjoyed my encounters with this beautifully produced tome. The mix of compression and exactitude, troubled by puzzle, uncertainty and a sense of the nebulous, is a wonderful combination. I hope you enjoy dipping in and out as much as I did. – Steve Spence in Litter Magazine. Click here to read the whole review.
The work in Noon is poetry tending towards the ideal condition of silence, which is a kind of music, and the visual element, not only within but in the space around each poem, is key to eliciting the quality of attention required from the reader when a poem places so much weight on so few words. Rowland and Isobar are to be congratulated for allowing each poem its page to breathe in. – Billy Mills in Elliptical Movements. Click here to read the whole review (you’ll need to scroll down a bit.)
May 2019. Paperback. 162 pages. 8.5 x 5.5. ISBN 978-4-907359-26-3.
Click here to read Philip Rowland’s Introduction, plus a full list of contributors to the anthology.
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