A Rare and Vacant Hour
By Ivan Rehorek
()
About this ebook
Introduced by Friendly Street Poets collective veteran Dr. Graham Rowlands, A Rare & Vacant Hour is the first collection of poetry from experimental "beat" street performer and avant-garde poet Ivan Rehorek, aka Avaanche. The first Australian poet from this collective to bring his poetry to the digital age with this pioneering ebook, Rehorek here collects his much-loved series of poetic meditations of famous people's cats. In the process, he too - in the true beat tradition - proves himself a genuine cool cat.
But the cat poems are just the first section in Rehorek's first anthology. Springboarding from his editorial duties at Adelaide's famous Friendly Street collective, Rehorek here shreds the formality and stagnation of the poetry establishment to bring to ebook a fresh and contemporary re-validation of poetry as a vital and poignant art form. Anyone who thought poetry was a dead art and the domain of stale English lit courses has never read the work of Ivan Rehorek.
Or, as Australian veteran poet Dr. Graham Rowlands put it: "Romanticism permeates Ivan’s love lyrics, music lyrics and love-music lyrics. Even so, intense feeling is sometimes qualified by a kind of surrealism and by the use of striking puns which are paradoxically part of the lyricism. Whatever Romanticism remains in Ivan’s other poems is sorely tested by his travels to arid regions and his portraits of unknown, well-known and too well-known characters. Václav Havel and Adolf Hitler share pages with ‘Attila the Glum’ and the deluded individual who could have been Beethoven—or perhaps Beethoven’s cat."
Ivan Rehorek
“I am Avalanche since I am big and white and knock things over and go whoooosh a lot and cover a lot of ground with much roaring and gusto and wheeling and spinning. By definition: a mountain getting its rocks off.”(Ivan Gabriel Rehorek)Ivan Rehorek (aka Avalanche) is a former editor for Adelaide's famous Friendly Street Poetry collective and the first poet from there to make the transition into digital publishing. A former teacher, he was active in community theatre movements in the 1970s and is one of Adelaide's most accomplished and distinguished solo spoken word performers, his recitals often accompanied by his trustworthy saxophone. With his distinctive style, Rehorek brings to contemporary Australian poetry the distinctiveness of the "beat" generation whilst maintaining his individuality and uniqueness."I now live in a house with my beautiful wife and two more or less grown-up children ( aka the Leopard Lad and the Bandit Princess ) a small dog and numerous instruments, paintings, puppets, books and other presences. The moon comes to visit regularly, and towards morning, we can hear lions roaring. My saxophones seem to be breeding lately." (Ivan Gabriel Rehorek)
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A Rare and Vacant Hour - Ivan Rehorek
A Rare and Vacant Hour
(Smashwords Edition)
by Ivan Rehorek
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
© 2010 Transgressor
cover image (c) Benjamin Haas
Dedicated to my mother: for the songs and the stories.
Many thanks to Raphael, whose idea this was, Graham for the patience, and among many others, Gail, Khail, Kalicharan, MCM and Maggie.
IGR
"...the swallows aren’t still.
For a rare and vacant hour
they play through my thoughts.
They’re as close as
anything could be
to being my thoughts.
A penny for my swallows."
(Graham Rowlands)
PREFACE
The cats in Ivan’s poems bear strong resemblance to their owners – in fact, often seem to BE their owners. These stylish works of art are zany, quirky, cutting, sad, funny, frisky, boisterous, even at times reverential. They convey vast amounts of biographical information in easy to read bite-size pieces.
Romanticism permeates Ivan’s love lyrics, music lyrics and love-music lyrics. Even so, intense feeling is sometimes qualified by a kind of surrealism and by the use of striking puns which are paradoxically part of the lyricism. Whatever Romanticism remains in Ivan’s other poems is sorely tested by his travels to arid regions and his portraits of unknown, well-known and too well-known characters. Václav Havel and Adolf Hitler share pages with ‘Attila the Glum’ and the deluded individual who could have been Beethoven—or perhaps Beethoven’s cat.
Graham Rowlands
Adelaide
July 2009
Contents
1 Cat Poems
2 Meeting Entropy
3 Todays Grumble
4 Come Back, Beethoven
1 Cat Poems
Beethoven’s cat
Beethoven’s cat
was stone deaf
and liked to sleep
inside the piano
he covered at least
four octaves
his aging owner
never
noticed.
Billie Holiday’s cat
Billie Holiday’s cat
was abandoned
far too young
picked up some
very bad
habits—
but bless the
child that’s
got his own,
loved her
man but
was always
trav’lin’ alone
became fast friends
with the
Prez
evonce
contrary to legend
did not die
surrounded
by police
and never did
taste Strange
Fruit—
felines do