Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Rare and Vacant Hour
    A Rare and Vacant Hour
    A Rare and Vacant Hour
    Ebook71 pages30 minutes

    A Rare and Vacant Hour

    By Ivan Rehorek

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Introduced by Friendly Street Poets collective veteran Dr. Graham Rowlands, A Rare & Vacant Hour is the first collection of poetry from experimental "beat" street performer and avant-garde poet Ivan Rehorek, aka Avaanche. The first Australian poet from this collective to bring his poetry to the digital age with this pioneering ebook, Rehorek here collects his much-loved series of poetic meditations of famous people's cats. In the process, he too - in the true beat tradition - proves himself a genuine cool cat.

    But the cat poems are just the first section in Rehorek's first anthology. Springboarding from his editorial duties at Adelaide's famous Friendly Street collective, Rehorek here shreds the formality and stagnation of the poetry establishment to bring to ebook a fresh and contemporary re-validation of poetry as a vital and poignant art form. Anyone who thought poetry was a dead art and the domain of stale English lit courses has never read the work of Ivan Rehorek.

    Or, as Australian veteran poet Dr. Graham Rowlands put it: "Romanticism permeates Ivan’s love lyrics, music lyrics and love-music lyrics. Even so, intense feeling is sometimes qualified by a kind of surrealism and by the use of striking puns which are paradoxically part of the lyricism. Whatever Romanticism remains in Ivan’s other poems is sorely tested by his travels to arid regions and his portraits of unknown, well-known and too well-known characters. Václav Havel and Adolf Hitler share pages with ‘Attila the Glum’ and the deluded individual who could have been Beethoven—or perhaps Beethoven’s cat."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Cettl
    Release dateJan 30, 2011
    ISBN9781465847799
    A Rare and Vacant Hour
    Author

    Ivan Rehorek

    “I am Avalanche since I am big and white and knock things over and go whoooosh a lot and cover a lot of ground with much roaring and gusto and wheeling and spinning. By definition: a mountain getting its rocks off.”(Ivan Gabriel Rehorek)Ivan Rehorek (aka Avalanche) is a former editor for Adelaide's famous Friendly Street Poetry collective and the first poet from there to make the transition into digital publishing. A former teacher, he was active in community theatre movements in the 1970s and is one of Adelaide's most accomplished and distinguished solo spoken word performers, his recitals often accompanied by his trustworthy saxophone. With his distinctive style, Rehorek brings to contemporary Australian poetry the distinctiveness of the "beat" generation whilst maintaining his individuality and uniqueness."I now live in a house with my beautiful wife and two more or less grown-up children ( aka the Leopard Lad and the Bandit Princess ) a small dog and numerous instruments, paintings, puppets, books and other presences. The moon comes to visit regularly, and towards morning, we can hear lions roaring. My saxophones seem to be breeding lately." (Ivan Gabriel Rehorek)

    Related to A Rare and Vacant Hour

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      FELINE Fascinated

      Sep 2, 2021

      FELINE Fascinated
      3 min read

    • Article

      Jan Morris

      Jun 15, 2018

      I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int

      17 min read

    • Article

      Swansongs And Southern Discomfort

      Oct 27, 2022

      THE BORDERLAND BETWEEN popular fiction and literary fiction is now fertile territory. Once upon a time it was easy to tell them apart. Popular and genre fiction were in small format paper-backs, literary fiction larger: now all have been promoted to

      6 min read

    • Article

      Think Outside The Fox

      Dec 13, 2023

      Think Outside The Fox
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Very Short Book For Camilla

      Mar 6, 2024

      There is a dear little exhibition in the London Library at the moment. Tiny books are displayed in a glass case – dolls’-size Bibles printed in the 16th century, minuscule books illustrated by Kate Greenaway, etc. This comes at a time when Queen Mary

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Zoo

      Dec 9, 2021

      A Literary Zoo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Jun 2, 2021

      IN COMPETITION No 267, you were invited to write a poem as a cat’s view of a famous (named) person. It proved a successful device. Jennifer Willis gave Mitsou’s view of Marilyn Monroe: ‘My mistress has big eyes of blue/But not so blue as mine./My mis

      2 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      Hair-raising Holidays

      Jul 31, 2022

      Hair-raising Holidays
      2 min read

    • Article

      Bookshelf

      Mar 2, 2020

      There are simply some books that you inadvertently read out loud to whoever is closest—cat or human. I found myself having a giant laugh and then being unable to resist sharing long passages of Carla Funk’s memoir. Though I worried that the religious

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Right Time

      Oct 14, 2019

      The Right Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      A House Guest Too Far

      Jul 26, 2023

      IT’S so quiet,’ said the house guest from London, pushing back his chair, ‘and relaxed. The countryside is’—he searched for the mot juste—‘tranquil.’ It was after lunch, one of those rare, long, languid, outdoor, perfect-summer-day lunches that occur

      2 min read

    • Article

      Breathing And Interested

      Jul 1, 2019

      I want to tell you a story about my daughter Jane Bell. Not long ago, she was nearly five at the time, we were walking to get the mail. Our driveway is long—about two-fifths of a mile from the house to the mailbox—so it is a substantial hike for some

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      Mountain Companions

      Sep 11, 2020

      Mountain Companions
      7 min read

    • Article

      Wild Blue Yonder

      Jan 1, 2022

      I am a birder, not a bird. Nevertheless, I write poems. And it is a kind of singing though every birder knows that for an offspring via lust, or for territory, it’s mainly male birds (save the fair-minded Cardinals, Grosbeaks, perhaps a few others) t

      8 min read

    • Article

      Flights Of Fantasy

      Dec 9, 2020

      Flights Of Fantasy
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Rare and Vacant Hour

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Rare and Vacant Hour - Ivan Rehorek

      A Rare and Vacant Hour

      (Smashwords Edition)

      by Ivan Rehorek

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      © 2010 Transgressor

      cover image (c) Benjamin Haas

      Dedicated to my mother: for the songs and the stories.

      Many thanks to Raphael, whose idea this was, Graham for the patience, and among many others, Gail, Khail, Kalicharan, MCM and Maggie.

      IGR

      "...the swallows aren’t still.

      For a rare and vacant hour

      they play through my thoughts.

      They’re as close as

      anything could be

      to being my thoughts.

      A penny for my swallows."

      (Graham Rowlands)

      PREFACE

      The cats in Ivan’s poems bear strong resemblance to their owners – in fact, often seem to BE their owners. These stylish works of art are zany, quirky, cutting, sad, funny, frisky, boisterous, even at times reverential. They convey vast amounts of biographical information in easy to read bite-size pieces.

      Romanticism permeates Ivan’s love lyrics, music lyrics and love-music lyrics. Even so, intense feeling is sometimes qualified by a kind of surrealism and by the use of striking puns which are paradoxically part of the lyricism. Whatever Romanticism remains in Ivan’s other poems is sorely tested by his travels to arid regions and his portraits of unknown, well-known and too well-known characters. Václav Havel and Adolf Hitler share pages with ‘Attila the Glum’ and the deluded individual who could have been Beethoven—or perhaps Beethoven’s cat.

      Graham Rowlands

      Adelaide

      July 2009

      Contents

      1 Cat Poems

      2 Meeting Entropy

      3 Todays Grumble

      4 Come Back, Beethoven

      1 Cat Poems

      Beethoven’s cat

      Beethoven’s cat

      was stone deaf

      and liked to sleep

      inside the piano

      he covered at least

      four octaves

      his aging owner

      never

      noticed.

      Billie Holiday’s cat

      Billie Holiday’s cat

      was abandoned

      far too young

      picked up some

      very bad

      habits—

      but bless the

      child that’s

      got his own,

      loved her

      man but

      was always

      trav’lin’ alone

      became fast friends

      with the

      Prez

      evonce

      contrary to legend

      did not die

      surrounded

      by police

      and never did

      taste Strange

      Fruit—

      felines do

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1