Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995)
9.9 x 11.2cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of a needle sewing on the front by Gary Hincks, and internally a poem by Finlay:
EMBLEM
Your needle and thread
in the sail of my Zulu.
Which is dedicated to Pia Simig.
On one hand the basic act of repairing sails is described but the practical help of someone in life (Pia was Finlay's lover and assistant) is a comparison. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
14.5 x 10.5cm, 4pp. A drawing of the birds by Gary Hincks on the front of the folding card is matched by a poem internally:
The Stones of the Field are the Birds of the Air
peewits
Peewits or northern lapwings are ground breeders which lay their eggs in nests which they angrily defend. Hence the stones of the field hatch and fly. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995)
11 x 11cm, 4pp artist's card with a b/w reproduction of a painting by Philip Wilson Steer (who often painted his subjects looking out of a window) and inside the text:
Philip Wilson Steer Paints the Waves at Walberswick.
"window"
Finlay also notes on the inside left page:
"window" - tinfoil strips scattered from an aircraft to confuse enemy radar
making a poetic correspondence between the flecks of rain seen in the painting with the war decoy. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
14.5 x 10.5cm, 1pp. printed black on red card. Two quotations - one from a letter by a Untersturmfuhrer of the Hitler Youth Division before the Battle of the Bulge and the other from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Both quotations discuss the glory of death in battle. Finlay by this correspondence suggests that the views of both good and evil are often the same and "political correctness" (which sound very like "Political Corrections" tends not to allow one to consider the views of the defeated in anything other than negative terms. A final note says "The works of J. M. Barrie ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
8.4 x 6cm, 4pp artist's card with two poems internally:
the camouflaged
magpie
whose white
parts are
sky
and
the camouflaged
Messerschmitt
whose blue
parts are
Humbrol
.
The living bird is compared with a toy war airplane - the former however has natural colouring whereas the latter uses the paint brand Humbrol. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995)
10.4 x 14.4cm, 1pp artist's card. A translation from Virgil's Ecloga (translated by Jessie Sheeler) reads:
BR>
And now from the steadings already
smoke is rising: the shadows
of the light blue mountain tops extend.
VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 10.6 x 11.3cm, 4pp outer folder in grey with tipped on 9.5 x 44cm opened out, 8pp concertina folded, white paper with the text: "a line of foam along an empty shore" which is printed with a font that is not solid to reflect the form of the foam. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
Two different cards - one is 9.4 x 8.3cm and the other 8.3 x 5.2cm
The first card has a text:
GILL SANS
Whatever
GILL SANS
says
it always
says
'Gill Sans"
The second card has a design by Gary Hincks, where the Underground sign has the station "GILL SANS" on it.
Gill Sans is the name of a sans-serif font family based on a design by the artist and typographer Eric Gill. It was originally inspired by another font by Edward Johnston in 1916 - an "Underground Alphabet" which Gill had helped develop as a younger man.
The font was very successful and was marketed for its clarity and lack of fuss: this seems to have caught Finlay's interest in the short poem whereas the second card is a clear reminder of the origins of the letting style. Both are VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
13 x 10.9cm, 1pp. The names of different fishing boats from around the coasts of Britain are arranged in a "constellation" form poem - the names are if read aloud sound poems - Mans Nobby and Manx Nickey, Fifie Skiff and Scaffie Yawl, Banff Zulu and Buckie Scaffie are matched up in pairs for instance.
The names and forms of boats has always fascinated Finlay who lived in a fisherman's community in his early life. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
4 x 7cm, 4pp black on green folded card. Inside the poem is
ARCADIA
Rubber-powered aircraft are successfully launched over long grass on a calm day.
An image of childhood play with models is seen as an idyll of rural life. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
6 x 12cm, 4pp. A monostich is a one line poem -
Inside the poem reads "It rains, and the old thatched hut blossoms again".
Finlay is comparing the new foliage after spring's rains to the roofing made of branches in traditional homes. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
9.8 x 8.6cm, 4pp artist's postcard that show a drawing of a republican liberty cap on the front by Gary Hincks. Inside is a poem by Finlay:
For P.E.
A cap
of liberty
with a Spitfire
roundel
In place of the traditional cockade in blue, red and white is a Spitfire (airplane) roundel which is in the same colours (sometimes yellow or orange is a further outer colour). A reminder of the weapon is added to the revolutionary symbol - terror being alongside virtue. VG+. ...