Play Time: the First Collection
 

hardcopy from lulu.com £2.49 +p&p
eBook (pdf) version - £free

Play Time is my first collection of poems. Well, that's not strictly true as I uploaded the pdf file to the website some time after releasing 22 Facets of my Father into the wild, but that was more of a poetry sequence than a collection of poems, so this is my first proper collection.

These 22 poems are some of my earlier work, from the poems that survived the post-puberty bonfire up to around the turn of the century. There's no over-arching theme to the poems as such, but if you look carefully you'll be able to spot the various experiments and approaches I was trying at the time.

  • Appreciation (August 1992)
    » In the kingdom of time suspended
  • Cusp (November 1993)
    » On the last morning of Summer
  • Commuting (May 1999)
    » Whitechapel, 8:38. We shuffle-pack onto the train, a mix
  • Art (March 1992)
    » It was speeded and slowed:
  • Beachhead (May 1999)
    » Here lie brittlestars, evicted from deep-channel muds
  • Shot (July 1993)
    » The fox is shot:
  • Daisy (November 1991)
    » Where is Daisy's baby?
  • After Class (July 1999)
    » After the first class, we went to the bar. Introduced
  • Candle (November 1991)
    » In an island of hard-polished desk
  • Autumn (August 1999)
    » This year autumn arrives in August:
  • Perhaps (January 1992)
    » The desk sits square on the side of the room.
  • Menses (May 1993)
    » A new year: my goodwill drains away with the dregs
  • Traveller (May 1994)
    » To remove the shirt as Man examines,
  • God (February 2000)
    » My God has skin that tints alongside time:
  • History (October 1991)
    » Here lies the portrait of a woman long lost:
  • Consent (November 1996)
    » It is contrived to a practiced degree:
  • Drafting (March 2001)
    » I suppose a pen and a scrap of envelope
  • Home (March 1993)
    » When the wind was warm and the day
  • Postcard (October 1999)
    » Molyvos must be
  • Priss (April 2000)
    » A shadow has stalked from the room,
  • Sustainability (July 1999)
    » I wake, dead. Five foot six
  • Vampyr (June 1999)
    » Dogs have knocked the coffin down

Copyright notice

Please be aware that all the poems on The Rikverse Website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License, unless otherwise stated. In essence, this means that you are allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform these poems; however you must give the original author (that's me, Rik Roots) credit, you may not use this work for commercial purposes, and you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.