I was lucky enough to be included in this small and perfectly formed Valentine  collection from the brilliant Candlestick Press.  They picked my sonnet ‘Punctuation’ from ‘A Bench for Billie Holiday’ [Valley Press, 2018] and along with poets like Elizabeth Barret Browning and newcomer William Shakespeare [very promising],  I’m in great company.

Punctuation

Veteran Poet in a world of Nature [with some smut and bad language].

James Nash is happy and slightly apprehensive. The 75 year old, who spends his time between flats in Leeds and Bridlington, has a new collection of poetry coming out in the coming months.

‘Why do I do this to myself?’ he asks, ‘Each time I bring out a book I wonder if it might be my last. It’s such an emotional journey for the writer, from the writing, to submitting it to a publisher, going through the editorial process, and then waiting to see what people make of it’.

This will be Nash’s fifth book with publishers Valley Press [with one e-book] and he thanks publisher Jamie McGarry for continuing to believe in him.

‘I write sonnets, Shakespearian, not Petrarchan, they’re too difficult. I’ve written more sonnets than the master, but to be honest they’re just not as good. There’s something about a sonnet that can help you to get to the heart of the matter, they don’t offer solutions but they may bring some resolution’’.

He talks about his catching a clip of Judi Dench reading a Shakespearian sonnet on a chat show.

‘She made perfect sense of the poem, the little debate within it, and brought out all the beauty of language, thought and iambic pentameter’.

On the question of his occasional straying into bad language and taste in this new collection, James Nash responds robustly.

‘Yes I’m a poet but I relish the language and attitudes of the modern day. If something makes me snigger then there’s a good chance it’ll have the same effect on the reader. You can deliver a bomb in the final couplet of a sonnet. Perhaps a warning could be given out with certain poems, about not drinking tea when reading them’.

Nash looks at the natural world, urban and seaside life, comments on the society we live in and writes about what matters, and what might be remembered in future years. He can often be seen in the churchyard at the end of his road in Headingley, with his small dog, looking at gravestones and occasionally sitting to contemplate the peace to be found there.

The collection finishes with Three Sonnets from Kefalonia, where he celebrates Byron, Odysseus and by implication the great poet Homer.

‘We were in Kefalonia early in June, by chance in the village where Byron had a house, we then took a ferry to Ithaca [memories of the Cavafy poem] where there were statues of Odysseus and Homer. I got such a sense of the European poetic tradition. The seafood was good too’.

Three Sonnects From Kefalonia

"James openly shows his debts to the great poets and writers of previous generations, from Winifred Holtby to Philip Larkin, from Matthew Arnold to Dylan Thomas – and with this sparkling new collection, lays a fresh claim to be named among them. To borrow some of his own words, James’ gift is to be a “clear microscope” for our times, finding hope in the many “miracles of detail” that pass through his unwavering gaze; into verses that glow with warmth, insight and poignancy. He thinks his old English master would be quite proud."

Dog from Heartstones

"In his third volume of sonnets, James Nash examines urban and seaside environments in a Yorkshire he has known through fifty years living in the North. His sonnets soar over the land – from Leeds, a predominantly Victorian city, to the Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, walking and cycling into the natural world with a pen and paper never far from his hand."

Yorkshire Skies For Patricia from Heart Stones

Spring (They/them) by James Morgan Nash
www.jamesnash.co.uk

Spring (They/them)

Pride - James Nash - Valley Press
Vocals Recorded By Mik Davis

Cinema Stories

Before the Second World War, there were around seventy cinemas operating in Leeds. Now, though some remain open, most of these ‘forgotten temples’ have been repurposed or demolished.

Since 2014, Leeds-based poets James Nash and Matthew Hedley Stoppard have been visiting the sites of legendary picture-houses, and documenting their current status with two inimitable, unmistakable poetic voices – whilst also considering the remarkable shared (yet personal) experience that is cinema-going.

So sit down on a spring-loaded chair, grab some popcorn, and enjoy one of the most original, evocative poetry collections since the invention of technicolour...

Valley Press online: www.valleypressuk.com/book/3/cinema_stories

Pride

Rio Brava - James Nash - Valley Press
Vocals Recorded By Mik Davis

Cinema Stories

Before the Second World War, there were around seventy cinemas operating in Leeds. Now, though some remain open, most of these ‘forgotten temples’ have been repurposed or demolished.

Since 2014, Leeds-based poets James Nash and Matthew Hedley Stoppard have been visiting the sites of legendary picture-houses, and documenting their current status with two inimitable, unmistakable poetic voices – whilst also considering the remarkable shared (yet personal) experience that is cinema-going.

So sit down on a spring-loaded chair, grab some popcorn, and enjoy one of the most original, evocative poetry collections since the invention of technicolour...

Valley Press online: www.valleypressuk.com/book/3/cinema_stories

Rio Brava

October 2018 saw the arrival of A Bench for Billie Holiday: 70 Sonnets, continuing James' love-affair with the 14-line Shakespearean form, this time with a more obviously autobiographical edge to celebrate his 70th year of existence.

Concertina - James Nash

A Bench For Billie Holiday - James Nash

Burley Park - James Nash

I am a poet and a writer; my passions are friends and reading. I try not to garden.

James Morgan Nash

Popular tracks