The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper

by Andrew Taylor



Endanger Fencing



A blinding division walk the Brecon Beacons
amongst pale horses at Easter

creatures caught in traps shot in the back
of the head a countryside of carnage

from the beginning hotels near Heathrow
twenty four hour rolling news

a chance to study war how I’d have liked you
to walk with me around cities at night

drinking whiskey and listening to shock
radio like a bad mistake I ponder

anonymous scream pilots descend
at half mile intervals in a seated night

I was unaware that you would wait for me
like the ghost ration of a slow light I isolate



About The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper

Turn for Home, the first collection stems from a three year residency at Liverpool Architecture and Design Trust (LADT) as does the latest collection Make Some Noise some six years later. A lot of poems were written during those three years. Cathedral Poems from 2005, is the result from a two month residency at Liverpool Cathedral. Poetry and Skin Cream is a more personal and reflective collection written after Andrew Taylor's estranged wife passed away. Another residency at a Liverpool artist led gallery space, produced the poetry of Temporary Residence. And the Weary Are at Rest (Sunnyoutside Press, 2008) can be seen as a companion piece to Poetry and Skin Cream. The poetry is personal and reflective and spans the residencies and gathers material from Taylor's doctoral thesis. With The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper, Taylor has gathered further material written outside of the residencies and taken influence from the vagaries of life.

Andrew Taylor



Encomiums forThe Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper

Forging an inside-out syntax that stretches emotion and organizes content
according to each poem, Andrew Taylor in The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian
Supper wields concretes like Nordic axes hacking their way through the
numbing malaise of impossible relationships amidst a spiritually bankrupt
culture. The result is arresting...often thrilling. His unique subconscious
stream ignites the concrete world of “pilots,” “echo guitar,” “relics,”
“kettle,” and “wood smoke” along the way, thereby fuelling our intelligent
senses.

Alan Britt,
Poet
author of Vegetable Love (2009)




With simple ingredients Andrew Taylor builds a complex palette. Although it is a rich palette it never overshadows those simple ingredients, but instead showcases them. The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper, is a meal that should be savored.(and if you want to find out what those ingredients are i recommend you read it)

James Darman,
Poet
author of Getting Fat on Thin Lines and The Silence of Sunday




Andrew Taylor's latest collection is a perfect example of how to write more avant garde poetry. You should do so, as Taylor does, without losing touch with the faculty for observation and unconventional phrasing that is one of the hearts of poetry, and, most important, you must, absolutely, do so without losing touch with your heart and your common humanity. So this book is a gem, Taylor is one of the few christians who doesn't piss me off.

David McLean
Poet
http://mourningabortion.blogspot.com




Andrew Taylor's lines are singular and evocative. No word is out of place but in the crafting of the poems immediacy and vitality is not sacrificed. Andrew Taylor's clear voice rises beautifully above the cacophony of cliched mediocrity that passes for poetry in the 21st century.

Misti Rainwater-Lites
Poet
http://ebulliencepress.blogspot.com




In the age of internet instant fame, perhaps the most valuable asset to a contemporary poet is having a truly a unique voice. Metaphysical, whimsical yet, when need be, searing, Andrew Taylor is unique, indeed. His most recent eBook The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper (Differentia Press) is a quintessential illustration of such rarity. In Endanger Fencing we contemplate:

anonymous scream pilots descend
at half mile intervals in a seated night
I was unaware that you would wait for me
like the ghost ration of a slow light I isolate

Then move to Strummer Telecaster a seeming techno-rip poem that seizes with an ending that seizes: my country/ will you ever recover? /my heart.

We move on this misted surreal journey to the realm of Lost: I hear the planet crying such Teen Angst/ withdraw from use… and we are left in the miasma of an elusive dancing vision.

There is a wonderful dry wit that toys with the reader throughout but the reader is taken into confidence as we see in Been Listening to the Pailies have you?

the pound is worthless against the dollar
they are stripping the Chelsea Hotel
of its history in an effort to make more money
room 211 is partly demolished

How clever

The reader is guaranteed to be pushed out of comfortable closets of perception, engaged, entertained and enlightened. To say a ‘must-read’ has become quite jejune, thus it should be used sparingly. The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper ~ a must-read.

Constance Stadler
Poet and editor
author of Paper Cuts (2009)
http://conniestadler.blogspot.com/




Andrew Taylor’s The Metaphysics of a Vegetarian Supper transcends the typical meatless dinner and subtly touches the senses. I especially like the juxtaposition of spirit and nature against a sensual landscape, as in the opening poem, She Strokes Bees,”and, later, In Heels she feels closer to God, in which “pink flowers emit…the smell of death,” and “green-haired girls compare tattoos…and share their drugs.” Color, sou nd, music, food, drink rush through the collection, grounding us with the final lines (“Pitching Camp’):
She feels as though her heart is
walking around in front of her

whereas I feel as though mine is melting
A lovely collection, full of grace.

Puma Perl, poet,
author of Belinda and Her Friends



I’m in love with this book…

Lara Konesky, poet,
author of Next to Guns




Andrew Taylor is a Liverpool poet and co-editor and publisher of erbacce and erbacce-press. He has a PhD in Poetry and Poetics which he gained under the supervision of Robert Sheppard. He supports Everton Football Club and sometimes blogs HERE.



Other books from Andrew Taylor

Make Some Noise, (Maryport: Original Plus, 2009)

And the Weary Are at Rest, (Boston: Sunnyoutside Press, 2008)

Temporary Residence, (Liverpool: erbacce Press, 2007)

Poetry & Skin Cream [2nd Edition] (Liverpool: erbacce Press, 2007)

Cathedral Poems, (Poole: Paula Brown Publishing, 2005)

Poetry & Skin Cream, (Liverpool: erbacce Press, 2004)

Turn For Home, (Liverpool & Bristol: The Brodie Press, 2003)