Eclectica Canticorum

Eclectica Canticorum is a collection that marks a closing stage in James Wilson's experiment with a form of prose poetry, musical in its origins, that he has dubbed the divertissement. Short brooding texts, composed under the influence of selected songs, and taking no longer to read than the inspiring song's duration, are accompanied by photographic images that are themselves a response to the mysterious writing. Spanning a number of years, the pieces in this volume chart an evolution of an original form, at the same time obliquely documenting a turbulent period of a life punctuated by joy, love, loss and grief.

Praise for James Wilson

'A writer perfectly attuned to the music of disappointment and the emptiness of crowded places'
-John Muckle, Tears in the Fence

'The poet in Wilson is evident'
-Leslie Raith, Curled up with A Good Book

'a sequence of searches...for what vanishes, for the transient and evanescent, the indeterminate and enigmatic'
-Mike Freeman, The Literary London Journal

'Private and mysterious...the pieces read like moments snatched
from dreams'
-Terry Pitts, Vertigo
show more