A poetry collection full of probing post-modern observations, to concrete poetry, to Romantic-esque reveries of childhood and innocence lost

“Traveller in an Asphalt Land” by Tom Draper is published

About the Book:

You can’t freeze life like it’s 1953, before the Suez crisis and Elvis or TV. You can’t stop progress, stay canuted on the shore, wash your car on Sunday, and wax the parquet floor… Listen: hear the new sound… Knocking at your door. Sometimes shocking, often beautiful and always thought-provoking, this cornucopia of poetry has an honesty and freshness that is both exhilarating and unnerving in its audacity. Utilising an amalgamation of poetic influences, a keen and witty eye and a fluid command and appreciation of language, Draper manages to shock his readers time and again, moving with effortless ease from probing post-modern observations, to concrete poetry, to Romantic-esque reveries of childhood and innocence lost.

There’s something for everyone here, So Listen: hear the new sound… “You may think I’m crap – but my mum thinks I’m brilliant.” Tom Draper has been writing poetry since the age of five. He has won poetry prizes both in the United Kingdom and abroad. He has been influenced by the Prague School of poetry. His hallmark is the post-modern use of established quotes and styles, in original work. He currently divides his time between London and Prague.

Excerpt from the Book:

Gossamer Threads

Back in the summer when my love bled
A gossamer thread came floating by
Wide angle of the eye, and I
Recalled the day that you had left
How I had never said goodbye

What bland unfeeling epithet
Could every try to hold you in –
Of gentle heart and complex mind
From I beneath the willows’ whim?

Leave softly, Bob, we cannot take
The sound that dying persons make
Leave softly, kind heart, radiate
Beyond the walls that held you round
No ages, time or sundry date
Can hold you now

Go swiftly, and if you there recall a while
In sleep or in some trance-like state
The world below in constant flux
Too still or scared to contemplate

Tell them – tell them to wait for us
Us the old and the slow and the crippled,
Who tried so hard, but could not keep up –
Us who in the morning feel the chill of the wind
Feel the surgeons cut and the long lost ribaldry

There are indeed no needs,
Imaginary or real, you need aspire to
Rise gently now, above these things
From the past that held you
To where your future sings

Filtered through life’s soft silken screens
As damask gently on my hand
I woke to wonder, understand
How strong yet hollow short life rings
As if gossamer threads could affect such things.

Traveller in an Asphalt Land is available in paperback from Amazon at:

www.amazon.co.uk/Traveller-Asphalt-Land-Tom-Draper/dp/1844011143

Press/Media Contact Details:

New Generation Publishing
Tel. 01234 712 064
E-mail: info@newgeneration-publishing.com