Same Difference

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Friday Poem – ‘This Year’ by Ben Wilkinson

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘This Year’ by Ben Wilkinson from his collection Same Difference.

This cover shows an abstract painting made up of dark blues and greys with a face-like smudge in the centre. A splash of red, green and yellow flecks go up the left hand side. The text reads: Same Difference. Ben Wilkinson.

Carefully crafted, and charged with contemporary language, the poems in Same Difference play with poetic voice and the dramatic monologue, keeping us on our toes and asking just who is doing the talking. Throughout, Ben Wilkinson ‘steps into the shoes’ of French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine (1844-96), reframing his voice for modern readers. Brimming with everyone from cage fighters and boy racers to cancer patients and whales in captivity, Same Difference is gritty, darkly ironic and often moving – a collection for our times.

This Year If we could gift each other moments I’d wrap up that bauble sun we felt warm our backs to the tip of Mam Tor. I’d box the two hours spent tracing the tinselled reservoir, no two miles the same as we ran and ran, trails deserted, no sound but our own good hearts and honest footfall. I’d ribbon that first jog up Ringinglow, this city held as if the snow globe we’d shake. And I’d nestle under the tree those loops of a floodlit track, a reminder that what’s done is done, and of dark-bright moments still to come.

Same Difference is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy direct from us.

Watch Ben Wilkinson reading ‘This Year’ on our Youtube channel:

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Friday Poem – ‘A Late Aubade’ by Ben Wilkinson

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘A Late Aubade’ by Ben Wilkinson from his collection Same Difference. You can hear Ben chatting about the book on the The Seren Poetry Podcast which is available now on all podcast platforms.

This cover shows an abstract painting made up of dark blues and greys. There is a face-like smudge in the centre and splashes of red, yellow and green on the left hand side. The text reads: Same Difference, Ben Wilkinson.

Same Difference is the formally acute second collection by Ben Wilkinson. Carefully crafted, and charged with contemporary language, the poems play with poetic voice and the dramatic monologue, keeping us on our toes and asking just who is doing the talking. Throughout, he ‘steps into the shoes’ of French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine (1844-96), reframing his voice for modern readers. Brimming with everyone from cage fighters and boy racers to cancer patients and whales in captivity, Same Difference is gritty, darkly ironic and often moving – a collection for our times.

A Late Aubade after Verlaine How long since we last lolled here all morning, the house quiet and still, snow falling beyond our bedroom’s window and warmth? Now we’ve time to uncover each other after what seems like months apart – losing ourselves in that same tender art to open one thought onto another – even this grim half-light has a charm of sorts. Times like these grant us leave from the world – those claims it makes of everyone – and the constant doing that comes to nothing; the snow still falls and the streets are frozen. Instead, let this moment be perfectly held: return us to something we hadn’t thought missing.

The Seren Poetry Podcast is a new series of in-depth interviews with Seren poets. Episode 6 with Ben Wilkinson is available to listen to now.

Simply search ‘The Seren Poetry Podcast’ in your favourite podcast app and follow or subscribe to have all future editions delivered straight to your podcast feed. Available on all platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Don’t forget to leave us a review if you like what you hear.

Same Difference is available on the Seren website for £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy direct from us.

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Friday Poem – ‘Portrait of the Artist Asleep’ by Ben Wilkinson

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Portrait of the Artist Asleep’ by Ben Wilkinson from his collection Same Difference which was published earlier this week.

This covers shows an abstract painting made up of blues and grey. There are splashed of red and green down the left hand side and a face-like smudge in the centre. The text reads: Same Difference, Ben Wilkinson "Formally dextrous... likes to keep the reader on their toes." The Poetry Review

Same Difference is the formally acute second collection by Ben Wilkinson. Carefully crafted, and charged with contemporary language, the poems play with poetic voice and the dramatic monologue, keeping us on our toes and asking just who is doing the talking. Throughout, he ‘steps into the shoes’ of French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine (1844-96), reframing his voice for modern readers. Brimming with everyone from cage fighters and boy racers to cancer patients and whales in captivity, Same Difference is gritty, darkly ironic and often moving – a collection for our times.

Portrait of the Artist Asleep after Verlaine She looks for all the world like some deadbeat angel, foetal but hopeful, an inch of light haloing her temple. She’s restless, sure, half mumbling to herself as the door rocks gently in its frame, stirred by a breeze the way her waking thoughts follow whatever her eyes light on, even you. Truth is, she’ll be up and gone before you know, back among the world and brilliant with it, and you, friend, won’t even make a painting or poem, whichever she turns her hand to next. You’re no more her muse than the lamp distilled in the mirror she’ll fix her face in before she leaves.

Same Difference is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book your buy from us direct.

Catch Ben reading from Same Difference in person at Bolton Central Library on Tuesday 8th March. Visit boltonenglish.com for more details.