Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14 x 7.6cm, 4pp, A two part poem is illustrated by Gary Hincks with three feathers:
Drowned
fish?
feather
drowned
fish?
Finlay's fondness for minimal changes in word order is here - giving different images - a "drowned fish" (something which is not possible unless you change the definition of "drown") may be a feather that has been mistakenly identified, a feather drowned in turn might be seen to be a fish. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14 x 6.4cm, 4pp, The poem (after Louis Zukofsky) is
AFTER LZ
BR>
an
other
in
equality
wild
flower
The pairs of words when conjoined change the meaning to the opposite - which is also true of the last two words which are spaced apart to make the pairing less obvious. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
7.8 x 7.8cm, 4pp, A drawing of a boat's rudder by Gary Hincks on the front of the card has a poem by Finlay inside:
NEW BOAT
BR>
Pintles cast bronze -
Rudder mahogany -
Varnish like ice on
A clear water pool.
A pintle is the attachment for a rudder. Finlay has other works that liken the varnish found on a rudder to ice. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1996)
13 x 9.5cm, 4pp artist's card with a reproduced watercolour drawing of a blue sailship by Gary Hincks and a long "quotation" supposedly from Heinrich von Osterdingen which Finlay dubs "An Alternative Opening" where a young man thinks about a tale of a blue sailboat and how much he would love to see such a thing. In a 1802 book about Heinrich von Osterdingen by Novalis the young man dreams about a blue flower (rather than a boat). The blue flower became a regular reference in symbolism for romance - here Finlay alters the symbolism to that of the sea and long voyagesVG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.8 x 7cm, 4pp, A drawing of two parts of a model boat hull by Gary Hincks has internally:
BUILDING THE HULL
First plank
this half
then plank
that half
then wonder why
2 matching halves
won't fit
The word plank here has a double meaning - in lowland Scots it means "to place" - hence the poem can be read as either a description of bad design or bad construction. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
7.6 x 6.9cm, 4pp, A drawing of a thistledown by Gary Hincks on the front of the card has a poem by Finlay inside:
THISTLEDOWN
BR>
the early snows of thistledown
the airy asterisks of thistledown
the clotted cream of thistledown
the distant peaks of thistledown
Four different one line visual poems by Finlay all use thistledown as their essential metaphor. Thistledown is white and fluffy which is somewhat strange given the astringency of the rest of the thistle. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
6.5 x 5.4cm, 4pp. A drawing of dwarf beans by Gary Hincks has a two line poem inside:
DWARF BEANS
BR>
The stalks, wrists, appear too delicate
for the quarter-moons and leaves.
Finlay compares the shape of the long thin beans to the waxing or waning moon. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9.5 x 15.2cm, 4pp, folding card with a drawing of a row of beached boats in Hastings by Gary Hincks printed black on brown. There are three one line poems inside the card:
The WEST COUNTRY STONE BARGE bares mortal timbers
the HASTINGS LUGGER steers backwards slowly
The LEIGH BAWLEY sails on silent sails.
Finlay as ever likes a pun or an association with a sound - the Bawley (Bawl) is silent not loud, the Lugger goes backwards because traditionally it was launched stern first and the Stone Barge carries wood not stone. VG+.
Little Sparta/Nottingham: Wild Hawthorn Press/Tarasque Press, 1996
15.5 x 11.3cm, 2pp. A constellation of short translated haiku which were previously allocated to their Japanese authors have the names of the original writers crossed out and replaced by names from the English National football time such as:
Breakwater posts
the sea so calm
on the other side
Paul Gascoigne
The original poems were translated by Stuart Mills and Finlay appended the footballers. Finlay suggesting that the poems give up some essence of the sportsman.
This card has a short dedication in ink on the back from Mills to Robertson "for Paul from Stuart". VG+.
