Erasure4Rum

Delighted with my copy of Bold Arts Zine from Broken Spine Arts which is an edgy and diverse anthology of poetry & prose exploring the complexities and challenges of contemporary masculinity! My poem ‘Woodwork’ is featured alongside work by many wondrous poet pals.

More deets at…

So thankful for the first appearance of these poems at Ice Floe Press last year - Subsequently, I'm so happy to say that some have gone on to become published in print in my recent book releases with the poems 'Endings' and 'Zero Hour, Zero-Hour Labour' appearing in my collection 'Cul-de-Sacrilege!' from Polari Press and 'Strike!' in the pocket sized pamphlet 'Geopoliticus, Pupsy!' from the red ceilings press





The muscle liniment,
eucalyptoid twingey,
tweezing nodes!

The works footie team
pic scanned too blurry
to discern the gloss on
the crouched crotches
of the short shorts;
nylon, sateen or wet?

Lucky launderer!

Long service employee;
tarmac laying machine
and roller. We’d known
asphalt and asbestos: got
engraved plated watches
after x years o’bondage –

I worked the concrete division,
loved the smell of hot asphalt
tho’, when driven ‘cross the
weigh-bridge on its way to a job
twizzling its glisten of intent
thru’ sprung air to be laid/rolled

Inhaling deeply still
at the hallowed sight
of freshly lain tarmac;
I was the aggregates
gang-hand apprentice
force-fucked by a fisty
f-f-f-f-foreman….

Kill Clapcott!



a smulch of sobs in the ears of eternity don’t mean shit, luv!
a thin grin, ground out of a militarised zone;
your eyes, the kalashnikov-ed watchtowers
with bullets cracknelled into souffléd resolve.

the puffety pink accepting flesh,
the pistol-whipped bones atone.
don’t snitch, your cadre compadres are dead already;
be asbestos, be hard and killing,
let them stroganoff you,
be mannequin.

hemmed in, let ‘em lick ’n’ nip
your anthrax dusted mascu-bits
and launch an exocet from the slick slipway gliss
of your privatest privacy;

change your signage from ‘no entry’ to ‘way in’ to ‘dead end’.
we’ve only seconds now,
only seconds.

Tomorrow, Sunday 16th April from 4pm there’s a FREE de facto MINI POETRY FESTIVAL!! Amongst a diverse range of 7 poets, I’ll be reading a 15min set at The Betsey Trotwood, in London’s Farringdon district, from my Polari Press book ‘Cul-de-Sacrilege!’ in support of the London launch of poet pals Andy Breckenridge & Mark Coverdale’s new Flight Of The Dragonflies Press poetry books! It’d be great to see you! Yes, 7 poets…. just like it’s a FREE mini poetry fest! X

This Sunday evening, 2nd July, I’ll be reading from my latest poetry collection ‘Cul-de-Sacrilege!’ (from Polari Press) and singing from the ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ poetry/pop songbook at the Poetry Performance event at the Adelaide Pub, 57 Park Rd, Teddington TW11 0AU. The event runs from 6pm to 8pm! Nearby Teddington railway station!

Pughie wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 11:12 am This Sunday evening, 2nd July, I’ll be reading from my latest poetry collection ‘Cul-de-Sacrilege!’ (from Polari Press) and singing from the ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ poetry/pop songbook at the Poetry Performance event at the Adelaide Pub, 57 Park Rd, Teddington TW11 0AU. The event runs from 6pm to 8pm! Nearby Teddington railway station!

Photo Heather Moulson




Barney sang two Torsten songs,Tell Me The Story Of Your Poverty & The Boy From The Sauna.

Barney Ashton-Bullock reads his poem 'Endings'


César

Beau, beau sadisto! - Barney Ashton-Bullock

Friends! My new poetry pamphlet! 'Beau, Beau Sadisto!' Only 50 copies! Pre-orders open now! Only £5! The short promo film and the poetry evoke the disconnected, dissonant sensual/sexual overstimulation of a broken nation, seemingly, in terminal decline.



"These poems work in the queer legacies of ecstasy, bringing to mind the bombast and yearning of Gerard Manley Hopkins; the swagger and confession of Walt Whitman." (Sarah Fletcher, Poet, 2023)

"Bawdy! Satirical! Outrageous! Through the pamphlet runs a florid torrent of disgust and delight, the poems mocking the inanities of existence, the vulgarities of our contemporary consumerist society. In a world that has lost its mind, the poet channels babbling voices of the asylum." (Dino Mahoney, Poet, 2023)

https://backroompoetry.sumupstore.com/p ... on-bullock

Barney Ashton-Bullock: Beau, Beau Sadisto! (Promo Film #2)


César

Dear London based friends! Please consider supporting me at this upcoming poetry soirée where I'll be performing a one-off special 15 minute set of songs and poetry in support of my current poetry collection 'Cul-de-Sacrilege!' from Polari Press. It is the story in verse of specific memories and instances from the life of the archetypal Smalltown Boy from a bucolic rural childhood through the promissory promiscuities of the distant city, compromised relationships, crappy first jobs, first loves, eventual bliss before the coming of a personal and/or societal armageddon forces a revisionist view of the memories that really mattered in a life that is ebbing away. I do hope some of you will be able to join me on Thursday 28th September, it will mean so much to see you there! I'll be one of three performers at one of the most beautiful, diverse and inspirational poetry soirées London has to offer! Barney x x