27 May

Posted at 20:33h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1999?)
8 x 20.5cm, 4pp outer folded with a black on deep blue drawing of the famous heavy cruiser. Internally there is a 8 x 20.5cm, 4p printed sheet with a poem:

PRINZ EUGEN*
Her nouns were round, her verbs were straight and swift

The poem sees the battleship as a sentence - the actions of this war machine are immediate and once presumes deadly, it's shape and form more aesthetic.
One of Finlay's poems in a folder although the format could be seen as a card. VG+.

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22 Jun

Posted at 22:56h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
16 x 11cm, 4pp orange outer folder with printed title. Internally a 16 x 11cm, 4pp sheet with two concrete poems both entitled THE INSCRIPTIONS but the first being for Carl Rakosi and the second for Harry Gilonis.
The former is an objectivist poet, the latter a friend of Finlay's and also a poet. The first form of the poem is duplicated in both but in the second Finlay has crossed out the original words, kept the physical structure but the classical names replaced by names of meaning to Gilonis. The echo here being the similarities in the two poems.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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26 Aug

Posted at 11:44h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn, 1994

11.7 x 10.8cm, 4pp outer printed blue folder content of a 11.7 x 10.8cm, 4pp printed purple insert with a text poem by Finaly. The full title of the work is "AN EARLY PICASSO IN J.L. DAVID" below which is a text from revolutionary sources about how female citizens should dress for one of the major public festivals encouraged by the National Convention. The description is suggested by Finlay to be equivalent of a Picasso painting but 200 years beforehand.

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22 Nov

Posted at 23:05h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.5 x 14.5cm, 4pp light green outer folder with printed title. Internally a 17.5 x 14.5cm, 4pp sheet with two concrete poems left and right
The left poem repeats the word oval as a central spine to the work with the words leaf blue song pink foal grey on both sides with the letters emboldened to create a rough oval of the letters (see photograph). The right hand poem has the same physical structure but the words leaf blue song pink foal grey become the central spine of the design and the word oval is repeated above, below and on both sides.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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13 Mar

Posted at 12:59h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
18 x 14cm, 4pp brown outer folder content of a 4pp insert with a poem by Finlay:

AUTUMN.

The woods
milestones

The mountains

signposts.

Finlay indicates how the distant hills act as means of orientating a traveller and the trees act as steps on the way in any rural journey. VG+.

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22 Oct

Posted at 12:21h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
8.1 x 6.8cm, 4pp green outer folder with a drawing by Gary Hincks. Internally a 8.1 x 6.8cm, 4pp sheet with a text telling a tale of a discussion of "the moral effects of the arts and sciences" after stopping at an avenue of chestnut trees.
The text is in two parts - one taken from Thomas A. Clark and the other referring to an essay by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The title of the work refers to the attempted escape of the French king and queen while being held hostage during the first months of the French revolution - they were stopped on the way because a shop keeper recognised the King's striking (ie big nosed) visage from the coin of the realm and escorted back to the capital.
Together Finlay has created a new story of morals and escape from unthinking philosophies of behaviour.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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22 Sep

Posted at 22:18h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
15.3 x 11.1cm, 4pp grey outer folder with a drawing of a fallen leaves printed in green. Internally a 15.3 x 11.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

SUICIDE NOTE

"The canoe
of life
is shattered.."

The windblown
willows' leaves
hide the path.

The suicide note referred to is from the Russian avant-garde poet Mayakovsky. The reference to the 'canoe of life is shattered" is a direct quote from his despairing final letter. Finlay brings attention to the shape of the willow leaves that have fallen (shattered by the wind) to the ground. The image on the front of the folder also shows that death of the leaves.

This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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26 Jul

Posted at 13:02h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn, n.d. (1999?)

19 x 14.5cm, 4pp green on white printed card (with an image of a second world war fighter plane flying over open water. Internally a 19 x 14.5cm, 4pp green on white printed card with the names of five military airplanes (fighters, bombers and reconnaissance planes) and their dates of service much as one would name dead combatants. All of the planes had names based on popular English forenames. Murray has this (in the supplement to his catalogue raisonee as a poem in a folder so we have continued that classification.

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22 Apr

Posted at 22:48h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
11 x 15.5cm, 4pp blue outer folder. Internally a 11 x 15.5cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

SUBLIME

Where the eagles circle in
darkness, the sons of the
Alps cross from precipice
to precipice, fearlessly,
on the flimsiest rope
bridges.

In the Place de la Revolution
the man-made mountain
torrent clatters
and clatters.

The first half of the poem is from Hegel, the second Finlay refers to the increasing pile of heads (which did not really happen but is a popular historical meme) caused by the clattering guillotine.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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11 Feb

Posted at 14:45h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991) 13.6 x 8.9cm, 4pp unprinted outer folder content of 4pp insert. Finlay's poem has only three words/lines after the title:<BR><BR> Sackcloth<BR><BR> Stars<BR><BR> woven<BR><BR> in<BR><BR> The lowly fabric (traditionally made out of goats hair) is given a greater status by Finlay's perception that the wove of the cloth looks like stars.  VG+ although slight corner crease to front of the plain light brown cover....

23 Oct

Posted at 22:44h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
13.4 x 11cm, 4pp blue outer folder with a drawing of a bird. Internally a 13.4 x 11cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

Morning and evening
dove

rill
in its throat.

This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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22 Oct

Posted at 22:40h in Poems in folders

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+.

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