I'll Howl Before You Bury Me

I'd rather read the tags in Lucy's underwear
Than all this bloodless syntax
That leaves my senses in another place.

‘Sir Richard returns my presents and lectures me about poetry’

Sir Richard should not be disappointed. I'll Howl Before You Bury Me, Liam Guilar's second collection of poetry is rich with a sensuality and love of language that invests both myth and the modern day with vibrancy and beauty. The vivid descriptions, the evocative allusions, the ever-present musicality in the lines, the continual laughter, the self-deprecatory chuckles as Sir Richard ‘scribbles in the margins of tradition’ trying to write his great erotic poem.

he wants silk but silk, he knows, is clichéd and. what's worse,
is really not that smooth and thigh sounds too much like
a piece of chicken,

and his easy connection with the natural world, are a continual delight. As Guilar writes at the end of “Kemp's Jig”:

Let him take you
beyond the city walls, to places you have never been.
No passports are required. You'll need no phrasebook
for the welcome by the fire at journey's end.

— Peter McFarlane

Winner, IP Picks 2003, Best Poetry (Qld)

A hauntingly lyrical collection of poetry that invests both myth and the modern day with vibrancy and beauty.

The poet interprets Celtic mythology and legend using vivid descriptions, evocative allusions and continual humour to address wider contemporary themes, as well as more traditional ones.

The poet is at one with the natural world, writing of the moon and tides in musically rhythmic verses offering the reader a rich sensory experience.

Recently, Liam, who also plays guitar and lute, teamed up with composer/musician Chen Yang to produce the latest CD in IP Digital’s Audio + Text Series. Guilar’s poetry freely ranges from the classical modes dating back to the Renaissance to contemporary forms and subjects. The audio anthology is an intriguing mix of classical and world music with poetry, including some of Yang’s original compositions and arrangements.

Check out the Samples page to hear two cuts from the CD.

LiamG

Born in Coventry, England, 1960. Liam Guilar studied Medieval Literature and History at Birmingham University, and moved to Australia in 1986. He has a Masters Degree in Medieval Literature from the University of Queensland. He now lives on the Gold Coast, where a version of himself is Head of English at a private girls school, a fact he often finds incomprehensible.

In a desperate attempt to appear windswept and interesting he can claim to be the only lute playing, kayaking medievalist to have been smuggled across the Kazak border in an apple truck and arrested and deported from Samarkand. All this occurred in 1993 during the first Australian kayaking expedition to enter what was then Soviet Central Asia. Since then Liam has also organised four journeys to Indonesia to explore rivers there.

In somewhat calmer waters, his poems have appeared in various places, and a chapbook, The Poet’s Confession was published by Ginninderra Press in January, 2000.

I'll Howl Before You Bury Me won the 2003 IP Picks Award for Poetry by a Queensland author.

Guilar_Yang

Chen Yang is a classically trained violinist, conductor and educator with interests in a broad range of music. He is Concert Master and Conductor with The Sinfonia of St Andrews Orchestra and Conductor of the Queensland Youth Orchestra.

Interview with Liam

iTunes Store samples

Watch a video sample on YouTube