These items were compiled as a festschrift for English poet Tom Raworth’s birthday a year or so ago. Various gremlins, sundry printer’s devils and the toad of work all conspired to prevent its publication in book form in a timely manner, and over the years some pieces have been withdrawn because they have appeared elsewhere in the interim or have found other homes.
Lawrence Upton, poet, editor and entrepreneur of poetical performances in London, and Geoff Ward, poet and scholar resident in St. Andrew’s in Scotland, have worked hard to gather, edit and collate the material.
I have long been an admirer of Tom’s writing and graphics, and thankful for his lively and illuminating presence among the British fogs. Long ago I spent some years in the East, and I recall that in a certain establishment in a back street in Singapore a motto used to hang over the bar: ‘As a martini demands gin, so British verse requires Tom Raworth.’ I am delighted to be able to bring these quirky and poetically various contributions to the Internet.
— John Tranter, Editor, Jacket magazine
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