Mythopoetic

By Ben Brinkburn

Mythopoetic is a collection of poetry and prose charting the antics of an adventurous young British actor, artist and wannabe fairground roustabout trying to make sense of life and love in North America- with some diversions in London, Paris and, strangely, Dalmatia.

Along the way love and money is lost, gained and hoped for in a maelstrom of desert heat, city rain, amateur drug dealing, dodgy designer swimwear selling and porn star egos.

The included works vary in length from short to not so short to the brink of epic and back again. The style is contemporary, conversational, confessional free verse with some wry humour deep in the mix.

So why not step inside and share tales of...

Angst in the US mid-west when a numbed dalliance with amateur drug running leads to the death of a potential lover...

Being down and out in Brooklyn making ends meet hustling and carousing and dreaming of a move down the coast to where the wild horse run...

Working and drinking in London’s plush West End whilst living seedily south of the river-selling art in the hurricane’s eye of pretension and trying to think with your head rather than loins but- of course- failing spectacularly...

Providing remedies for inflated egos in the southern California sun and finding out the hard way [again] love cannot be found in artifice...

Trying to make mescaline-sense and shape of reality whilst careering through the Nevada desert with two fellow, similarly confused narconauts...

Nursing the wreckage of a relationship in the unknowing tranquillity of the Balkans before war breaks out...

Dancing through the back streets of Paris where New Worlders meet the Old World in a collision of cultural confusion where musings on love lost glow with tarnished hope and the aching wonder of whether it may be found again, perhaps just down that Parisian street...

This collection is ideal for a jolt of lively prose and humour, shot through with a world-weariness earned well before it’s time. See the world through the jaded eyes of someone trying to survive and find fun and love without compromise in lands well outside of any emotional comfort zone. An ideal accompaniment to an Americano and Danish in any coffee shop of your choice.

Ben Brinkburn is a British writer and poet and this is one of three poetry collections currently available. Check out his Author Central profile to find links to his website and blog. Find out more about this particular book at www.mythopoetic.benbrinkburn.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ben Brinkburn
• Release date: May 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310468872

Ben Brinkburn

BRINKERS....the lowdownBemused poet, dog-eared liberal, aspiring literary critic, azalea cultivator, duck whisperer, old before young, young despite being old, age as a state of mind, State of Mind: unstable. Pie eater lemonade drinker erudite talker impatient listener deep space viewer aspirant spaceman...Ben is a writer, poet and artist originally from the North East of England but after much traipsing across this and another continent he is now based in Lancashire, between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester.Ben currently has three poetry collections available. An omnibus printed edition collecting all three volumes in one neat and tidy place will also soon be available.In 2009 Ben’s novel ‘Do Not Fear The World, Fear Yourself’ was shortlisted for Liverpool’s Writing On The Wall Pulp Fiction prize. His work has featured recently in ‘Tales from a New Town’ [Beacon Press] and his poem ‘Subbie’ won the ‘Skelmersdale: Fifty Years as a New Town’ competition in 2012.Ben is also working on a couple of novels and a set of pulp thrillers which will emerge later this year. Find out more about Ben if you dare, in the Smashwords interview below!

Book preview

MYTHOPOETIC

Ben Brinkburn

Copyright © 2014

All Rights Reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. This book is for your personal use. Neither ebook nor print edition may be re-sold and no portion of these materials may be reproduced in any manner without the consent of the publisher, except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non commercial uses.

For permission requests contact the author below.

[e-mail]

Smashwords Edition

Find out more and read sample poems at

mythopoetic.benbrinkburn.com

Cover Design by L’Épouvantail

Table of Contents

Intro

A Jester of Goodwill

Dirty Old Town

Toxic Waste Management Deal

Sexual Architecture

SALT

The Catalog of Disappointments

This City

Days of Sparrow, Nights of Hawk

The Long Boulevard

Did You Find Success Over There Through The Rain, And Did It Agree?

The Elevated Constant

Slam Ships

Take It to the Stars

Rust Belt

Lima Is the Capital of Peru

Pump It (red bucket of sand)

Medical Services, Hermosa Beach CA.

Keep The Fire Burning

Did You Make It Through The Rain?

Miniaturization

The Cartography of All Our Anxieties

Dalmatia and Other Localities before the War

From St. James’s Street to Burgess Park

When The City Spoke [and I finally got it]

Thousand Mile Wide Smile

We Live Here in Hell [happily]

Galaxy City, Amusement Park

About the Author

A Message from Ben

Intro...

The world, not so much as the author's oyster, but more like his knarled and bitten

pearl...

This is a collection of poems charting his life and times from London to Paris to Dalmatia to the US where he worked hard at giving a whole new dimension to the concept of anglo-trash.

Other Books by the Author

How To Be A Spaceman

Kitchen Conversations

Brinkverse the printed compendium of this and the two eBooks above, is also available.

Find out more about the author and his other works at the end of this book and at

benbrinkburn.com

Or on

Facebook

A Jester of Goodwill

Many addicts came out of the jungle

where the word atrocity was neutered

became a way of life

shine the silver globe

walk the streets of this city

score down by the quay where once

clippers berthed and later

freighters shed their

fruit and spices and

even slaves but it’s now a marina

with cinemas and fast food outlets

and bright rain-soaked lights

and maybe it is possible to

make it to Assateaugue Beach

give it one more go

photograph the

wild horses camp out

in a glade

take plenty of insect repellent but

be careful not to sniff too much of it

hey

Yoxall, remember him? Blew himself up

his tent went up in a ball of flames

how Roxy had laughed

how the forest

had frowned

how the surf had crashed where love

had faltered mainly for personal

reasons

then the thought had occurred

to drink-drown in the Atlantic

Lightning had crackled on the horizon all night

it seemed romantic a Grand Gesture

but no one would notice the only impact

one less customer for Ronnie outside the

Old Dime Friday nights a busy time and

Roxy had laughed again she said she had

been refunded some cash on eBay even though

there was nothing wrong with her purchase

[two grand’s worth of porcelain elephant

she’d ordered for no other reason

than being extraordinarily drunk]

and the seller had

wrote her they would do it this time

just this time as

a one off

as a jester of goodwill

now then isn’t that what we