VEHICLES ON FIRE

New and Selected Poems by Jane Ormerod

"Her poems rely on association and a bit of magic. Step into one of them and step into a whitewater of language. Or to switch metaphors midstream, her poems continually jump the tracks to rush us through a language of wild invention."

*

Patrick Cahill, Ambush Review

"Her's is not just poetry to mull over. On the page or in live performance, it is what happens when language is taken by surprise. Jane Ormerod is a member of that venerable assembly of wordshakers that first made their appearance in the paleolithic caves and who still carry on in our day."

- Alex Caldiero, Sonosopher & Artist in Residence at Utah Valley University

*

"Jane Ormerod's magnificent work belongs in a grand poetry museum on a heavily-populated space station -- outside Earth's predictability. One of the most imaginative, persistent poetry visionaries, she breathes fresh perspective into the ears of every lifeform she comes across in the universe. Her signature style is beyond belief -- moving lightspeed with an astoundingly unique beat and the ability to communicate with complete command of language."

- Daniel Yaryan, Producer of the San Francisco poetry series "Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts." 

*

"Cutting her teeth performing in London's flourishing 90s artworld, Jane Ormerod brings an idiosyncratic sensibility to her poems. Acutely aware of both her literary and artistic forebears, her riveting spoken-word performances sublimely acknowledge the entwined traditions of Dada and early modernist poetry, the gendered and transgressive literary punk of Kathy Acker and Patti Smith, and low-fi dub rant."

- Daniel Sturgis, artist, London

*

"...On the page a rich linguistic chaos comes to the surface, filled with humor, wordplay, exhuberant riffs that hurry us along:                                                                   

Conmen comets comments cormorants condiments

Electrical magnetical surges of birds

in formation down Broadway

...These are poems for the twenty-first century, filled with wit, disruption, bad news, and song."

 - Patrick Cahill, Ambush Review     

Full Review  

"Reading through Ormerod’s poems prompts the question again and again: How does one read these poems? What becomes increasingly obvious as the book progresses is that choosing any one way to read the poems is setting oneself up for imminent failure. Each poem requires being read in every possible way: out loud, in one’s head, in front of a microphone at a coffeeshop, on a YouTube video. This is re-reading in a unique sense. Not re-reading in one mode of reading again and again, to improve upon an explication, but re-reading in a contemporary sense that involves a multiplicity of media and forms. To read fully, Ormerod’s work argues, is not to understand some elusive singular meaning of the words; to read fully is to experience the work viscerally in every form possible."

Full Review

-Andrew Wessel, The Quarterly Conversation

*

"Her work falls in the delicious no one's land between 'poetry' and 'spoken word.' 

I was four when she died, five at her resurrection
It is often an error to stare into the eyes
of travelers and discover a love of dirty dishes

Our disconcerting fears and affections are woven into those lines and many of Ormerod's poems, as is that weird sense of aloneness in the midst of company. The listener or reader is not allowed to let any of this pass by without forming an opinion, without interacting with poet and performer."

Full Review

- Sarah Sarai, My 3,000 Loving Arms

Publisher's description

Recreational Vehicles on Fire by Jane Ormerod is an extraordinary first full-length collection of poetry by a completely original modern voice. Daring and innovative, yet remarkably accessible, Ormerod explores the psyche and reduced position of humanity in a world increasingly overtaken by corporate greed and faceless machines. She invites the reader to examine with her how--of if--basic human emotions such as grief, joy and love fit into the present, and ponders their place in relation to past and future. Each poem is a stunning example of language and thought, delivered in a variety of unique forms. Ormerod is indeed a force to be reckoned with.

Three Rooms Press

$15       ISBN: 978-0984070015

 available from

and  Barnes & Noble

Also in Canada at amazon.ca

In the UK at amazon.co.uk 

In Germany at amazon.de

In Portugal at wook.pt

In Japan at amazon.co.jp

In Australia at booktopia.com.au

In India at flipkart.comand  Friends Of Books