Alan Morrison (b. 18 July 1974, Brighton) is a British poet. July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... For other places with the same name, see Brighton (disambiguation). ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ...

Overview of works

Morrison's work is non-partisan stylistically, belonging to no particular school, but owes some debt to fairly unconventional (and largely Scottish) influences such as John Davidson and Harold Monro. Generally, convention means coming together. ... Scottish can refer to: Look up Scottish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (as an adjective) things to do with Scotland (see also Scots and Scotch) (as a noun) the Scottish people. ... John Davidson is also the name of a former ice hockey player. ... ...

His work is often characterised by a strongly social and polemical tone, as epitomised in two of his long poems: Clocking-in for the Witching Hour (written 2001, published 2004), which charts the thought processes of his father on a night shift as a security officer, through themes of ancestry and self-perceived failure; and the Blakeian Keir Hardie Street (2006), in which a fictitious, turn-of-the-century, working-class poet discovers a Socialist Utopia off the dreamt-up Sea-Green Line of the London Underground. 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A night shift is either a group of workers who work during the night, or the period in which they work. ... A Security Guard or Security Officer is usually a privately-employed person who is paid (directly or through a security firm) to protect property and/or people. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Left panel (The Earthly Paradise, Garden of Eden), from Hieronymus Boschs The Garden of Earthly Delights. ... The London Underground is an all-electric railway system that covers much of Greater London and some neighbouring areas. ...

Morrison’s work can also demonstrate an acute empathy for mental suffering, as in his openly confessional piece Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever (2004), in which he traces the possible origins of his own obsessive preoccupations to a childhood subtly punctuated by Catholicism. For the fictional character, see Empath (comics). ... For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... Childhood (song) Childhood is a broad term usually applied to the phase of development in humans between infancy and adulthood. ...

Morrison’s most acclaimed work so far is Picaresque, a play for voices based on his experiences working at an all-male night shelter in Brighton, in which he juxtaposes the homeless "residents" with piratical alter-egos. The piece has been performed several times between 2000 and 2006, at venues including The Poetry Café and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre, RADA. Comparisons have been drawn with Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood – (DADA South and Samuel French Ltd.). For other places with the same name, see Brighton (disambiguation). ... Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Rada is the term for council or assembly borrowed by Polish from Middle High German Rat (council) and later passed into Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages. ... Dylan Marlais Thomas (October 27, 1914 – November 9, 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer. ...

His recent collection, The Mansion Gardens, was nominated for the 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize by publisher Paula Brown. The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a British literary award. ...

He worked for over a year as editor and designer of Poetry Express, journal of Survivors’ Poetry, (a mental health literary charity); a position in which he was able to promote the writing of other survivors of mental distress, most notably, David Kessel, whose collected poems, O the Windows of the Bookshop Must Be Broken, he edited, designed and prefaced. An Editor is a person who prepares text—typically language, but also images and sounds—for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it. ... Designer is a broad term for a person who designs any of a variety of things. ... Mental states redirects here. ... A charitable organization (also known as a charity) is a trust, company or unincorporated association established for charitable purposes only. ...

Morrison’s poetry has been published in over thirty journals including Aesthetica, Airings, Illuminations (US), The London Magazine, Pennine Platform, The Penniless Press, Poetry Salzburg Review and The Yellow Crane; and online at Great Works, Strix Varia and Snakeskin. Arthur Rimbauds 1874 Illuminations include some autobiographical allusions to his voyant (visionary) period, which began in 1869; but Illuminations is neither a confession nor an apology. ...

Publications

• Alan Morrison - Poems, Don't Think of Tigers - The Do Not Press, 2001
• Giving Light - Waterloo Press, 2003
• Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever - Sixties Press, 2004
• Clocking-in for the Witching Hour - Sixties Press, 2004
• Picaresque, a play for voices - Survivors’ Press, 2005
• "Storming Heaven in a Book", a preface to O the Windows of the Bookshop Must Be Broken - the Collected Poems of David Kessel (ed.) - Survivors’ Press, 2005
• The Mansion Gardens - Paula Brown, 2006
• Saints with Cluttered Brows - Waterloo Press, 2007 (forthcoming)

External links

• Paula Brown Publishing
• Survivors’ Poetry
• Sixties Press
• The Do Not Press
• DADA South
• Samuel French Ltd.
• Alan Morrison website
• Poems, Don't Think of Tigers at The Do Not Press
• Snakeskin
• Great Works
• Poetry Library
• Waterloo Press
• Strix Varia
• Article on Survivors Poetry in The Guardian