Recorded on 24^th of March 2011 at Resonance 104.4FM,  London SE1.

Robert Yates is a contemporary poet and translator from French, German and Ancient Egyptian, based in London. The poems read on this wax cylinder are taken from his book “Appendices to Life”.

On An Unwritten Novel

It scares me more than failure
It scares me more than bees and wasps,
dentists, loneliness, cities, God
it scares me like the dead time
the unpronounceable myth
Mychaela, Pavis, anarchies of peace
It scares me like a dream
It scares me like the powerless ones
a guillotined voice
It scares me more than science,
Feminism, Thatcherism, modernism
It scares me more than The Guardian
It scares me more than The Thirty Years War
Samuel Beckett, Adolf Hitler, Chris Evans
It scares me like a screaming child
an oncoming haemorrhage
1985,
It scares me more than Scousers
It scares me like a word.

Homeless

you’re not a full-time poet then?
no, just drifting,can I borrow a pen?
well, we do have one, but we need it, for keeping score,
did you want it
for a long time
or a short time?
I don’t know.

Recording Notes

This was one of several wax cylinder recordings made by a group of poets in the studio of Resonance104.4 FM. With thanks to John Page.