The Puzzle Box (2nd Edition)

June 24, 2010 at 3:34 pm | Posted in australian poetry, poetry, writing | 4 Comments
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I would like to take a moment to introduce “The Puzzle Box” 2nd Edition. I was never really happy with the layout and presentation of the first edition, it had a very ‘first edition’ feel. So I employed (and at very reasonable rates I should add) the services of an experienced freelance editor, the inestimable Kiersty Boon. The book is now completely typo free, it has an index, acknowledgements, new font, a stylish cover, frontispiece, is perfect bound and is, in every way, new and improved.

Importantly, the first edition has now been removed from sale, so if you own a copy of it, you are in possession of a rare and valuable asset. However, with the second edition and the application of the incredible style and precision of Ms Boon’s editing expertise, I finally feel that the frame enhances and accentuates the work. If you are preparing a manuscript, a skillful and independent eye is an absolute necessity and I do not hesitate in recommending Kiersty’s services as an editor to all and sundry.

There are many ways of supporting the gentle art of poetry but none more effective and realistic than buying the work of the poets. Please consider this small investment, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

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sunonheads exit

February 16, 2010 at 7:02 pm | Posted in australian poetry, contemporary poetry, poetry, writing | 13 Comments
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sunonhead is always happy
he thinks tummyful by the riverbank
how does he do that then is distracted
by a flash of silver just beneath the surface

somewhere in the world a monk is happy
and his song carries the river forward
follows the shadow of the sparrow
as her hair cascades down mountainsides
and rivers unfurl
into the sea

there she is thinks sunonhead
and slips beneath the silken surface
ripples radiating behind him
and flattening, smoothing into
the surface of the still lake,

(from The Puzzle Box)

Giant Pink Snail

July 8, 2009 at 7:10 pm | Posted in australian poetry, blogging, links, writing | 19 Comments
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As a child I loved the original Dr Doolittle movie with Rex Harrison and I particular remember the amazingly fantabulous giant pink snail. For some reason there is no picture of this snail anywhere on the internet which is both a great disappointment and a mystery.

One of the things about the internet which has always intrigued me is the way that themes seem to arise in various places at the same time, spontaneously like magic. I think it has something to do with the fact that on the net there is literally no time (since everything exists permanently in archives) and no space (because links make everything adjacent).

There is no rational explanation for why one of my favourite poets, Maxine Clarke, should have posted this fabulous poem remembering a snail, “Trespassing (a poem)” on the same day that Paeonia Miko posted this beautiful photograph of my book “The Puzzle Box” being visited by a snail in Bali.

There is something special about seeing photographs of “The Puzzle Box” in places I’ve never been. It is as though I was travelling on the back of that Giant Pink Snail. Adulthood is an illusion. It is an uncomfortable suit of clothes which makes us stiff and complex and at odds with life which is fluid and simple and wondrous.

“The Puzzle Box” by Paul Squires (unleashed)

May 27, 2009 at 6:41 pm | Posted in blogging, memoirs, writing | 21 Comments
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Thanks to the support of all the ubercool people who have bought “The Puzzle Box” or showed an interest in it, Lulu have decided to give me a distribution package for free. Which means that the book is now available on Amazon without me having to do anything which is just as well given my laziness (I mean Taoism).

If you are in country (like Argentina) where the book was unavailable, or you wanted a copy of the hard cover collectors edition but the shipping costs to Australia were excessive, you can now access all the strangeness and mysteries of my mad mind, the crazy poetical adventures of F., Sunonhead, the old man with the hat on and that lazy piano-player as they pursue the mysterious vision in silk perfume across non-linear time without having to leave the luxury of your own time machines.

I’m not sure why Lulu decided to do this, it is all part of the magic of the internet. But I do know that the whole is more than the sum of its planets and that communities evolve naturally. So thankyou to all of you, the inspiracy, for your generous kindnesses and wondrous supportings, you are the most magnificent of human type creatures. And rage on, I say,

“The Puzzle Box” Hardback edition at Amazon (temporarily sold out)

“The Puzzle Box” Paperback edition at Amazon

Listen. (podcast)

August 28, 2008 at 8:39 pm | Posted in podcast, writing | 26 Comments
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“Listen” will always be one of the centrepieces of my writing but it is incredibly difficult to record well because it is about the relationship between sound, meaning and the mystical. But Mary P. was the first to make a request so here is another attempt at it. There will probably be many more and I am resigned to never getting a recording of it that I think is close to finished.

(Oh and Listen is in The Puzzle Box and so on but I am getting embarrassed about advertising it all the time, sorry and just for my notes I put a different more mellow less performancey version of Listen in the podcast site here.)

pauls tattoo (podcast)

August 27, 2008 at 7:46 pm | Posted in podcast, writing | 25 Comments
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This is a short 1 min 2 sec reading from The Puzzle Box.

If this player has trouble playing you can listen to the podcast here.

(If you have a request for a specific piece to be read from The Puzzle Box or from anywhere, even other people’s work, feel free to leave it in the comment box. I need a bit of a break from writing and now I have figured out how to post mp3’s in here I will be doing readings for a while. Hopefully it will help me get over my embarrassment before the world tour, haha,)

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