Peal.

Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland:: Coracle,, 2017.. Edition of 399. 9.25 x 6.5"; 144 pages. Printed three-colour offset. Typography by Colin Sackett. Casebound with headbands. Coracle: "Syntax is to word order as melody is to note order. Peal explores the analogy of melody and syntax by applying the methods of bell change ringing to rows of words: poetic lines. Each individual poem begins with a line of four to nine nonrepeating words. That line is then permuted according to one of the methods, resulting in anywhere from 12 to 240 unique variations. By convention, the word corresponding to the heaviest working bell is coloured blue (the "blue line") and the word corresponding to the treble or highest-pitched bell is coloured red. The starting lines-all quotations-form the cento that opens the book, where their inflections evoke thematic relationships. Their permutations create distinctive visual patterns as well as frequent semantic surprises. The methods have been chosen with an eye to the associations created by juxtaposing their names with the corresponding starting lines." ww.randallcouch.com: "He is a regular panelist on the podcast series PoemTalk sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, PennSound, and Kelly Writers House. … He has published essays and book chapters on Susan Stewart, Harryette Mullen, Gabriela Mistral, Constantine Cavafy, Ezra Pound, and on ethics and reception in poetry translation. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Best New Poets and The Hide-and-Seek Muse. In 2000 and 2008 he was awarded poetry fellowships by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.