New titles available from RC Clermont to see you through the lock-down.

Reflections An AnthologyReflections A Second Anthology imageRC Clermont Whitsun Weddings Revisited

I wish all my fellow writers the best of luck in their own individual fight against the global Coronavirus pandemic. These very challenging times can offer opportunities to  writers,  who are accustomed to solitude, which is our natural state. Being locked in with people who do not live, work or think the way we do can be difficult even in ‘normal’ times, but at least they – unknowingly – provide us with plenty of material (but beware of libel laws). Indeed, my own verse is not only inspired by the world around me, and how I perceive it, but also those around me with whom I am forced, by economic circumstance, to share a roof. As I cannot club them in the skull with a spade, I assassinate them through writing. That’s the writer’s way, and is one of the best types of revenge.

Without any obligation on any of my followers, I attach images of the front covers from my latest collections of verse which – as with my Reflections series – I have self-published on Amazon KDP.

Please share your own news and images if you have published something recently.

Reflections, An Anthology ( a collection of senru/haiku from the Reflections series)

Reflections, A Second Anthology (a further selection from Reflections series)

Whitsun Weddings Revisited (a collection of verse in different styles, including roccoco, acrostic, free verse, senru, haiku, tanka and minute). The title comes from the main poem in the book, Whitsun Weddings Revisited (or What Larkin Would Have Seen Today), a satirical and acerbic, acrostic and syllabic re-working of that famous poem by Phillip Larkin.

Best wishes,

RC Clermont.

Writer’s Revenge #1

WRITER’S REVENGE #1

In a world that passes judgement
on people for what they do,
which labels by occupation,
it cannot understand
the philosophy of ‘To Be’.
One was never good
at God and Games
and took the snide asides and sneers
of horrible little Englishmen –
fogeys like their fathers.

One doesn’t catch the cattle-wagon
so that stay-at-home mothers
could boast to other silly cows –
in gross exaggeration –
of their sons’ and daughters’
allocated living (which they hate),
or about their children’s town houses
in Battersea or Clapham
and basement constructions,
and grandchildren’s private schools.

What the act of writing and thinking
lacks in visibility
it possesses more in tangibility
than making it to Partner
or just mere Junior Associate.
Because, despite caustic condescension,
the writer has as their weapons
their pen and imagination,
and the list of names
of their enemies:

The put-downers and detractors,
the school contemporaries and masters,
and university rivals,
relatives and so-called family friends.
Their moniker becomes a character
who possesses perversions,
peculiar inclinations,
a most unpleasant person,
a villain most vile,
a psychopathic sociopath.

What was good for Waugh
is good enough for us;
our pen is our sword.
So to all those I know and have known
(and most of you are loathsome);
look out for your names –
you’ll become legends,
so people will laugh
when you telephone for service,
or make an application.

For the written word
Is the foundation
Of strength and power,
And for The Writer
The greatest revenge.

© Copyright RC Clermont 2017

 

An Interpretation of Bart

AN INTERPRETATION OF BART

A piebald pattern
On a pillow-case, shades of
Rorschach, conjures views, from an angle, ink-blot shapes
Of Bart, Bart Simpson –
The enlarged head, that haircut –
In different poses.
Bart Simpson at attention.
Bart stooping forward,
Hands on hips, making a speech.
Rear profile, standing
Erect with hands behind back.
Stooping at shoulders,
Wearing graduation gown.
There’s Bart, vomiting.
Bart with a duck on his head.
Sitting on a rock.
Carrying two large bundles
On his spiky head.
Surprise – playing a French horn.
Then he’s on all fours.
With three – unidentified –
Playing a game of
Football (the FIFA version).
Bart checking his flies.
Is that a fascist salute?
One says what one sees,
And not what one wants to hear;
That includes Hermann Rorschach.

© Copyright RC Clermont 2017

CREDO

CREDO

When the gunman comes
There are those who use
Thoughts and prayers
To cure the ills
In place of gun control.

Their faith is their salvation
As a form of protection
And a means of prevention.
So put God in your heart
Till the next massacre.

© Copyright RC Clermont 2017

Reflections 4: Impressions

Available at the Amazon bookshop.

Reflections 4 create space image

Reflections 4 is the fourth collection of haiku 5-7-5 verses in the Reflections series.

Reflections 4 fires  further acerbic shots in some themes already explored in Reflections 1, 2 and 3, as well as new subjects such as: vulgar displays of ‘new’ wealth (Wasteland III), economic malaise and inequality (Economics IV), the supremacy of the right in UK politics and its harsh socio-economic consequences (Politics) , the poison that exits within families, or various members therein (Blood IV), the importance of culture and the futility of conforming to  other people’s expectations rather than following one’s own path (Tangibility III), the lack of due process in an increasingly insecure world (Law and Justice),  the savagery of English holidaymakers abroad (Home and Abroad III), love, loss and friendship (Friends, Lovers and Other Relationships IV), the  life-and mind destroying daily ritual of commuting to work, especially by train from a far suburb into the Capital (Commuting III), the reality of sport for most people is the mediocrity  of being a pub-going spectator (The Sporting Life IV), the  myths and the fraud of the health and fitness industry (Health and Well-Being II), and the bigotry, fakery  and fraud that is religion (Religion and Spirituality).

Contains very strong language

Copyright 2015 © RC Clermont

Reflections 3: More Haiku Verses

Available at the Amazon bookshop.

Reflections 3 create space image

In Reflections 3, RC Clermont draws these haiku verses not from the Elements, Nature, or the Seasons in the ‘traditional’way, but from modern life, how we are all living a lie. The themes follow those in Reflections 1 and 2, including: global capitalism, economic, inequality, neo-liberalism, suburban greed, materialism and pretension, the English obsession with home-ownership, the pressure to conform, the importance of culture, literature and art instead of consumerism, commuting to a job one hates for poor pay, the toxicity of family life, love and friendship, the myths of sporting prowess and the golf and tennis ‘culture’ of Middle England.

Copyright 2015 © RC Clermont

Reflections 2: 55 Haiku Verses

Available at the Amazon bookstore.

Reflections 2 create space image

In Reflections 2, RC Clermont explores further themes visited in Reflections – the first anthology-such as family dysfunction economic malaise, the gross inequalities of the neo-liberal model and the post-Thatcher economic legacy in Britain which still exist today (Economics II). The vulgar materialism of suburban England (Moonscape II) and consumption are exposed for the worthlessness they are (Wasteland II).

New themes explored include the destructive economic, geopolitical and social climate of modern America (Atlantic).
Jerusalem critiques the darker side of Englishness, xenophobia and the sense of ‘entitlement’ to possess one’s own little piece of England.
Commuting reflects on topics that anyone who has ever commuted into a city to work, and wondered whether their way of life is worthwhile.
Tangibility sees culture, art, literature and learning as a signs of a civilised, enlightened society, increasingly under threat from the forces of consumerism, global capitalism and religion.

Society II comments on the social vanity of the London rich. The Sporting Life II explores themes of bigotry and misguided assertions about sporting prowess. Once again, in Home and Abroad II, embarrassing Britons are targeted. The vanity and the lifestyles of the rich are re-visited in Images II.

Proverbs II explores attitudes to success.

RC Clermont uses the English haiku 5-7-5 format and the intention is say what is needed in as few words as possible.

Copyright 2013 © RC Clermont. This edition published in 2015.