Poet in Residence: Peter Devonald - "Outsider Art"
Outsider art is defined as "art made by self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds."
The term outsider art was coined in 1972 in the title of a book by art critic Roger Cardinal as an English equivalent for art brut (French: "raw art" or "rough art"), a label created in the 1940s by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Dubuffet focused particularly on art by those on the outside of the art establishment. He cited examples such as psychiatric hospital patients, hermits and spiritualists.
So where does this leave poetry?
So much poetry is written by M.A holding poets for M.A. holding readers. The work becomes beguiling clipped cryptic crossword puzzles using a syntax and strategy of poetry that is often off-kilter to the general public. There are so many exceptions - but it often remains a bar to the ordinary writer.
So how do any of us write outside poetry?
I return to the term Art Brut: 'Raw' as in not been through the academic 'cooking' process: i.e. the world of M.A's, workshops, schools and galleries. Jean Dubuffet's definition was stricter - created by the autodidactic - self-taught, learning without a teacher; being from the shunned fringes of society.
There is an opportunity here to create something truly unique, different and 'other'.
Is this even possible when modern poetry is so self-referential?
Are we not all part of a culture that trains us every day?
When I returned to poetry after a break of 20 odd years (and they were odd) I wrote long sprawling poems that aimed at the epic. The market/ industry/ audience had changed completely since when I was writing poetry and getting published. The mood and moment of poetry is now far more clipped, brief, a moment caught in a glance. In the West 14 14-line poems/ sonnets are all the rage; it is a bit different in other countries and traditions, which tends to be poetry with more scope and freedom -- but here in the West less is very much more. Are we not all cultural constructs?
How to create outsider poetry when we are so conditioned? Because if we are not then our poetry is massively unlikely to be published or seen --- let alone winning awards and be published in book form. We are all products of a culture that is increasingly narrower and defined. So what follows are my few experiments…
Poet in Residence: Peter Devonald
Latest News December 2024
Awards
· 2024 Mesmerising Biophony winner Best Poem Loft Books Issue VI. Huge thanks to Claire E Cronin – the excellent editor – and all at Loft Books. https://loftbooks.square.site/
· 2024 Eulogy For A Dream Honourable Mention Dark Poets Prize
· 2024 Winter Has a Wish For You second Prize Shelley Memorial Project Poetry competition
We Need To Talk About Summer highly commended.
https://www.shelleymemorialproject.co.uk/competition-2024
Anthologies / Publications
· 2024 Unfinished - Reels: Cinematic Poetry Anthology Broken Spine.
Massive thanks to the wonderful editor, Alan Parry.
· 2024 Red Earth Returning - Last Light: Apocalypse Poetry Anthology from The Broken Spine. Massive thanks to the wonderful editor, Alan Parry. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DMSPRGF7?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
· 2024 Tiny Butterfly Effect – SkySurfing, a children’s poetry anthology. Huge thanks to the wonderful Editor Jonathan Humble – who has created the amazing children’s poetry space at Dirigible Balloon – December release in bookshops. Profits go to Juvenile Arthritis Research if you purchase at (instead of Amazon): https://dirigibleballoon.org/
https://www.waterstones.com/book/sky-surfing/jonathan-humble/9781838322748
· 2024 Music is Moonlight and Winter Solstice Lapidus magazine Issue Five. Huge thanks to the editors. Alison Cable & Kate Poll https://lapidus.org.uk/news/
· 2024 Mesmerising Biophony Loft Books Issue VI. https://loftbooks.square.site/
· 2024 Winter Has a Wish For You and We Need to Talk about Summer – both printed in the Shelley Memorial Project Poetry anthology – If Winter Comes.
· 2024 some other life & we wonder: Tanka chosen for Cold Moon Journal November
It's a fantastic site, with amazing haiku, I highly recommend it. Huge thanks to Roberta Beach Jacobson
https://coldmoonjournal.blogspot.com/
· 2024 Sign of the Times Cosmic Daffodil Journal. Editor in chief: Madisen Bellon
https://cosmic-daffodil.squarespace.com/
· 2024 Parasite Hearth & Coffin V4 “Gossip Horror” https://www.hearthandcoffincom/
Direct link to my poem: https://www.hearthandcoffin.com/post/parasite
· 2024 Monthly Poetry Corner and Culture Supplement - Manchester Post and Stockport Post.
Interview with Linda Mosley Cosgriff, article about SkySurfing and Haiku published
https://communitynewsgm.co.uk/stockport-post-newspapers/
COMING SOON
· 2024 Manic Street Preacher 4Ever Cicada Song Press edited by the excellent Mona Mehas. https://www.cicadasongpress.com/lost-at-27
· 2024 The Magical Portal and Vinyl Sings a Song For You feature in the 'Poetic Maps' anthology as part of the Southwark Libraries Festival of Words week.
· 2024 Nostalgia Songs published in Buzzin Bards 2024 Poetry Anthology book ed. Maddie McGivney
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/buzzin-bards-poetry-anthology.html
· 2024 Unknown Poems published in Poietics of error. Huge thanks to Marie Molins.
· 2024 Ella (Mary Beth Ella Gertrude) - 20th February 2025
Living Fairy Tales - 27th February 2025
Tomorrow I Cease to be Human - 6th March 2025
Huge thanks to the editor Beth O’Brien – amazing site:
https://www.disabledtales.co.uk/poetry
· 2024 Blue Water Serenade publication Tiny Seed Literary Journal’s Water issue. 4/11/2025