Rag Argonauts by Alan Morrison

As we voyage through the uncharted waters of the post-Covid 2020s to the scourge of war again on the European continent, and in the Middle East, a ‘cost of living’ (or ‘greed’) crisis of capitalism, a climate and refugee emergency, and an ever-increasing worldwide gap between the super rich and the super poor, we are in a period of ever scarcer resources, a ‘ragtime’ of a very different timbre to the syncopated rhythms popular during the hedonistic ‘roaring’ decade of a century ago. 

In Alan Morrison’s twelfth volume of poetry, disparate and desperate characters across various time periods, classical to modern, real—ancient Greek orator Demosthenes, 20th c. Ukrainian clairvoyant Helena Blavatsky, Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint, pioneering Slovakian psychiatrist Viktor Tausk, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, trans-Atlantic poets T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden—and less real—Harpies-persecuted Phineus of Greek mythology transposed as a benefit claimant preyed upon by the Department for Work and Pensions, demure contemporary spinster and budgerigar-keeper Regina Green, death-tempted poet Parry Amphlett, and a Stochastic Parrot (AI large language model program) capable of sentient thought—navigate passages through ragged waters as randomly gathered ‘rag argonauts’.

‘These are poems that demand our full attention and necessitate careful reading. There is more than one poem in this collection concerning literary history that would easily warrant a scholarly essay of its own. In all, Rag Argonauts is an outstanding achievement that is every bit as ambitious in scope and purpose as it is accomplished in its artistry.’ Paul Laughlin, The Morning Star

He has the skill, and the habit, of making every phrase count, stripping out flabby words and turns of speech that we might use in conversation, leaving only the high-octane stuff; but the marvel is, his poetry still reads as the ordinary language of ordinary folk, as old Wordsworth and his chum Coleridge recommended, only heightened, and thus rendered extraordinary. David Betteridge

Rag Argonauts is … a plangent work of symphonic scope, in which music, beauty, nature, compassion and spirituality provide a stirring counterpoint to the predominant themes of entrapment and despair… Naomi Foyle, London Grip

…a poet to be reckoned with, both in terms of his unfashionable socialist viewpoint and his mix of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernism’ in relation to form and approach. Steve Spence, Litter Magazine

This is the most personal and up-to-date of all the collections of Morrison’s that I’ve read. Although Rag Argonauts deals with societal corruption and injustice as always, the constant, lifelong misunderstandings and persecution related to his autism are a departure. Christopher Moncrieff

www.alanmorrison.co.uk/rag-argonauts

www.therecusant.org.uk/caparison-books

For information on an upcoming event related to the book please visit: 

www.chi.ac.uk/event/alan-morrison-poet-publisher-critic-in-conversation-with-naomi-foyle/