Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13 x 9.1cm, 4pp light brown outer folder. Internally a 13 x 9.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem
Sundial
The motto is silent.
The shadow speaks.
The poem emphasises that the true importance on a sundial is the shadow of the gnomon and not the carvings added to it as decoration. The drawing on the cover was by Kathleen Lindsley.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
10.4 x 14.1cm, 4pp light brown outer folder. Internally a 10.4 x 14.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem and a drawing (a still life)by Carlo Rossi.
The poem is:
Still-life
"From the Monad and the Dyad
Come the numbers"
- Of 'le violon', 'la musique',
Et 'la carafe'.
The poem cites a pre-Socratic saying meaning that number is an emerging-property of units and elements. Those elements in a still life are a violin, music and a jug which are common in most period still-lives.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp red outer folder with a drawing by Kathleen Lindsley. Internally a 13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
Avenue Studios, Fulham Road*
Rose
Pettigrew
Pettigrew
Rose
Rose Pettigrew was the most significant of Whistler's models but later is recorded as falling in love with Philip Wilson Steer (apparently unrequited). Steer was one of the artists who lived at the Avenue Studios which gives this poem it's name.
By reersing the model's name in the second part of the poem, Finlay is comparing her to an English rose.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
10.5 x 8.2cm, 4pp purple outer folder. Internally a 10.5 x 8.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem
A Memory of the 90's
exquisite bloater
The decade is being compared to a cured herring. Given the date of publication Finaly presumably is referring to the 1890s - a decade that sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" because of William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion (and the folder here is indeed purple) and also as the "Gay Nineties" because of a perceived happiness despite the economic depression in the USA and elsewhere hence "exquisite". An "bloater" perhaps refers to the way such memories are dry and distant.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (c. 1990?)
16.5 x 12.2cm, 4pp folder content of a 4pp insert with a poem by Finlay:
FORECAST
'Rain - some
of it
heavy
more particularly
in the glens
of Scotland
where it may
fall as
sleet'
the sound
of calligrammes
The poem about the awful weather in Scotland is rounded off with a reference to Apolloniare's calligrammes and, in particular, his famous version of rain where the poem's words are in the shape of falling rain.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1990)
19.5 x 11.8cm, blue outer folder with a drawing of a swallow on power lines with a 4pp insert with a one line poem by Finlay:
The Sound of a Single Swallow
gathering
The amusing one word naming of the sound made by a single bird being usually associated with a group also indicates the loudness of the sound.
VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
18.4 x 11.1cm, 4pp red outer folder. Internally a 18.4 x 11.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
KING
ohne
titel
sans
title
without
a head
The poem compares an artwork that has no title to a beheaded monarch who also presumably has no title once dead.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
21.4 x 13.7cm, 4pp red outer folder. Internally a 21.4 x 13.7cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
THE REVOLUTION
The Revolution is frozen; all
principles are weakened; there
remain only red bonnets
worn by Intrigue.
The waves in the rye grass
never reach the shore.
The poem is denoted to be from S-J (Saint-Just) and IHF (Finlay himself). Finlay is comparing Saint-Just's complaint of the stagnation of the revolution to the movement of grass in wind which may look similar to waves but do not affect the sea.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
17.6 x 11cm, 4pp grey outer folder with a drawing of a guillotine. Internally a 17.6 x 11cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
1794.
The steeples fell silent.
The guillotine tolled.
1794 was the year in which the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre became the most powerful centralised body in the state (or at least Paris). There had been a concerted campaign against the church by many of the Revolutionaries (but not Robespierre who thought it counter-productive) and churches and parts in many parts of France were closed. What was not closed was the guillotine. The tolling of that instrument of death is compared with the silence of the bells.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
19.5 x 11.8cm, 4pp light brown outer folder with a drawing of a piece of turf. Internally a 19.5 x 11.8cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
GOLDEN AGE
golden fields
golden flocks
golden flutes
golden hedgerows
golden hives
golden honeycombs
chuckie-stone currency
The repetition of golden initially refers to the light at the end of a summer day but turns into the colour of bees and their honeycombs. The abrupt last line is the key to the poem - a chuckie-stone is a stone that is thrown by children. The poem is a memory of a "golden age" when everything appeared bright and new.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
13.6 x 8.9cm, 4pp light brown outer folder. Internally a 13.6 x 8.9cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
Sackcloth
Stars
woven
in
The stars are compared with the rough hew of the flax cloth.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
13.4 x 11cm, 4pp blue outer folder with a drawing of a broken tree branch with leaves. Internally a 13.4 x 11cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:
Broken
willow branch
bent
to the pool
Willow branches usually take a structure where they bend to the ground - a broken willow branch is doubling down on the phenomena.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.
