Collaborations

Author: Bob Cobbing & Robert Sheppard

Publisher: Veer Books (2021)

Reprints of two collaborations between sympathetic but rather different disturbers of the poetic peace. As detailed in Sheppard’s illuminating Introduction, the first – "Codes and Diodes" - started with his poem for Cobbing’s 67th birthday; after another a year later Cobbing’s reworked response followed within days. Occasional exchanges continued till Christmas 1990 in the form of “flick-book ekphrasis,” cut-up and collage. 

Ten years on, over three months, a second, more intensive set of exchanges – "Blatent blather / virulent whoops" - was effected by post; a loose three-line form accommodated homophonic strings, associative leaps, puns, pure sound and even plain statement; printed and handwritten text, diagram, score and image being interrupted by a shaggy dog story of meetings repeatedly foiled by missed calls.