February 2023.
A book that comes in two parts. Released first, 20th January, is a CD selection of my readings set to music. Following this, 3rd February, is the print edition introduced by veteran poet, editor, and critic Jim Burns. Both book and CD come from growing planetary phenomenon Space Cowboy Books, based in Joshua Tree, California. The Sierra Nevada redoubt is run by Jean-Paul L Garnier, comprising publishing house, independent science fiction bookstore and Simultaneous Times, a podcast specialising in readings of the works of new writers and poets. The Mojave Desert is the perfect setting for my poems, which are a link back to my beginnings as a writer-poet in the New Wave of Science Fiction and small press poetry scenes of the 60’s and 70’s, and more.
“Michael Butterworth’s poetry is rolling news from a since-outlawed territory of ideas; bulletins filed from a redacted country, edited out of cultural continuity. In beautifully clear language, human moments are examined as though artefacts dug from the future, or the debris of a missing world. Caught in a jeweller’s eyepiece, fugitive impressions from near sixty years of subterranean endeavour here condense to lyric crystal, ringing with the poet’s radical and laser-guided voice. This is a wonderful collection, mined from times that aren’t supposed to happen. Lose yourself inside it.“
Alan Moore – author of Watchmen, From Hell and Jerusalem
“This is not only a lifetime’s poetic work but overwhelming evidence of a poetic lifetime. Readers should enter carefully through the author’s Preface, a classy, condensed autobiography in itself and the perfect warmup for the multi-faceted, often surprising poems that follow; ranging from sharp, haiku-like observations to densely layered dramatic episodes – and always written with wordmanship, wit and a constant intelligence.”
Jay Jeff Jones – poet, essayist and author of The Lizard King (a play)