James Roome Surreal-Absurd Sampler

“I see the surreality and absurdity of my writing as both a disruption and a form of entertainment. The world can sometimes seem overwhelmingly serious; absurdity undermines this. You see it in comedy all the time: the work of Chris Morris or Limmy, for instance. It’s also entertaining. I get a thrill out of beginning a sentence and having no idea where or when it will end. The very act of writing is absurd, yet I take it very seriously. Poetry is full of these entertaining contradictions.”—James Roome

James Roome is a poet and teacher from Manchester, UK. He is the author of two pamphlets, Bull and A Crocodile, Out of Nowhere, from which some of these poems are taken. Both are available from The Red Ceilings Press. ‘Poem for my husband, who does not exist’, was first published by Tears in the Fence, ‘Fathers’ by Tentacular, ‘A burning hotel’ by iamb and ‘from superabundant doormat’ by Anthropocene.