A short note about a wonderful poet and artist, Rupert Loydell, who teaches at University College Falmouth and who edits Stride Magazine and whose work has been published by Shearsman Books, among other places. Rupert and I crossed paths–digitally–several years ago, and have maintained a trans-Atlantic snail-mail exchange, with poems, chapbooks, film strips and other small paper-based experiments flying back and forth across the cold Atlantic. His writing is tender and tough and deeply humanistic in the best possible way. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, I strongly recommend it. Here is the opening stanza to his poem “Under the Radar”:

Although it seemed right at the time,
we later decided it would have been
more tactful if we hadn’t. Meanwhile
the door lock became a swipe card
and the whole marking system changed.
The journey toward summer is more
convoluted and confused, no slipping
out under the radar this time it seems.

The scan below is from Without, by Loydell and Peter Gillies.