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Robert Warrington

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About Robert Warrington

Robert Warrington: United Kingdom

Bio: I live in the English West Midlands, the part known as The Black Country.

Genres: I write plays and short dramas. Some are performed locally (Birmingham Rep, The Crescent Theatre), others further afield or at festivals.

No website at present but one planned.

Publishing Credits: Poems in various webzines, such as The Beat, Beat the Dust, Savage Manners, Parasitic 101 (UK) Slow Trains, Contrary Magazine and Zygote in My Coffee (USA). Have also had things published by Leaf Books, Wales.

Awards: None really except being a runner up in Dylan Days (yearly Minnesota competition honouring Bob Dylan) in 2007.

Influences: They may or may not be influences but all of the following have made a big impression: William Blake, D.H. Lawrence, Egon Shiele, Expressionism, Surrealism, T.S. Eliot, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry, The Beats, The Beatles, Pinter, Dylan, Joe Orton, Fay Weldon, The Slits, The Raincoats, Billy Childish, Charles Bukowski, Alice Walker, Kathy Acker.

Favourite Books: (If I had to pick five:)

Songs of Innocense and Experience by William Blake
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Studies in Classic American Literature by D.H. Lawrence
The Women's Room by Marilyn French
Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines by Bill Hicks

Writer, Prizefighter, Or Caffeine Inspired All Nighter?: Writer with insomniac tendencies - caffeine rarely required

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Just Brewed

Robert Warrington left a comment for C. Boylan Nov 9

Robert Warrington added 'The Karaoke Killer' Nov 7

Robert Warrington commented on A Balanced Pendulum Swings Left Again Nov 7

Robert Warrington commented on Untitled Nov 3

Robert Warrington commented on Untitled -- Raw Draft Oct 25

Robert Warrington's Writing

The Karaoke Killer

The karaoke killer
is setting out his stall.
He's killing country music
in the Black Country mall.

He mangle-strangles every song,
mallet-tongues it cartoon flat,
shreds it with a rictus grin
under a comedy cowboy hat.

He karaokes all traces
of desire and loss.
He makes Paper Roses sound the same
as The Old Rugged Cross.

No lovelorn lonely strangeness,
no lost highways and no sin.
If Hank Williams is in hell…

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Posted by Robert Warrington on November 7th, 2009 at 10:50am — 3 Comments (Add)

Who were the Olmecs?

Who were the Olmecs? Who were they?

With their raised houses
Their ingenious ditches
Their earth pyramids
Their basalt thrones

Their jaguar masks
Their concave mirrors
Their unknown symbolism
Their weird figurines

Their palm-thatched roofs
Their undeciphered hieroglyphs
Their rubber ball rituals
Their jade art

Their deliberately buried monuments
Their stone heads dreaming in the primeval jungle
Their obsidian arrows
T…

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Posted by Robert Warrington on October 26th, 2009 at 4:42pm — 1 Comment (Add)

When they told me I had cancer
I was overwhelmed by a sense of things needing to be done
or done again, done better
I went to the archives and pulled everything
The novel that never got beyond the first few pages
Short stories that stalled after a promising first paragraph
Numerous notes towards essays never written
Flawed scripts to unmade films
Partial lyrics to unrecorded songs
Going through it all turned my stomach
The incompleteness of everything s…

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Posted by Robert Warrington on October 26th, 2009 at 4:32pm — 1 Comment (Add)

Cracked Crystal

In my cracked crystal
I see broken windows
I see a wrecked flat
I see you showing your bruises
to a sceptical officer in charge
I see one year
of statements at the police station
I see a fist with your name on
I see a restraining order
not worth the paper it's written on
I see a different flat
I see him spotting you in town
and following you home
I see more broken windows
I see him standing in the dock
in a sober suit
and a caref…

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Posted by Robert Warrington on October 25th, 2009 at 10:15am — 1 Comment (Add)

Handgrenade of Flowers

You are a floating wood
of violet trees

You are violet trees
with roots of blue starlight

You are blue starlight melting
to liquid diamond

You are liquid diamond
budding in to firedrops

You are firedrops forming
a handgrenade of flowers

You are a handgrenade of flowers
exploding in slow motion

You are a slow explosion
in a sky of ten dimensions

You are a ten dimensional sky
with an ice cloud sun

You are an…

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Posted by Robert Warrington on October 25th, 2009 at 10:09am — 1 Comment (Add)

Comment Wall (7 comments)

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At 10:34pm on September 30th, 2009, Paul Grimsley said…: hey man, no problem, am enjoying hanging out here and reading people's work. getting a fair bit posted too.

paul

At 10:11am on May 15th, 2009, C. Boylan said…: Hi Robert. Thanks for reading my poem.

At 1:31am on May 11th, 2009, Acadia Harper said…: I appreciate you leaving a comment on my piece "Faded Nights". I like to keep my writing as truthful as possible :D

At 6:39pm on April 21st, 2009, Fran Friel said…: Thanks so much for the kind welcome, Robert.

At 7:22pm on January 6th, 2009, LisaJeanine said…: hmm, it's funny how everyone wants to prove God...it just isn't part of the equation of faith. You aren't supposed to prove his existance...that's the point.

funny how I keep hearing how there is a scientific explination of spiritual things...

anyhow, just crusing the poets and seeing where everyone's head is at!

At 10:19pm on January 5th, 2009, LisaJeanine said…: Hey, good to be here. I've just sort of started out finding what writers are doing these days. If there are any other directions I might go, just point.