Colin Herd - A treasure trove of razzle-dazzle stylings, superfine wit, charismatic discretion, and a vacuuming tenderness

Colin Herd, too ok, BlazeVOX, 2011.

"Colin Herd is invincible in lemon, wants to be famous in two years—à la Charles Henri Ford—and his dad dresses like Roland Barthes. He’s not scared to introduce Simple Minds to Schopenhauer, nod to Oulipian lists, or throw in ‘old .at’ puns with real ones: ‘4 Lorne Street.’ That’s not a joke. Colin’s words, not mine (the poems are so engaging, and rooted in the poet’s life, that you feel able to use his forename). This playful first collection is a faux-real wide-eyed stare at the normal and the uncanny in everyday life. Herd evokes Brautigan when he writes ‘crumple this.’ Don’t. At least, read it first." — nick-e melville

"Colin Herd's 'too ok' is a treasure trove of razzle-dazzle stylings, superfine wit, charismatic discretion, and a vacuuming tenderness. Herd's gift for words is exquisite and adventurous and armed to the teeth, and these poems are its perfect measurements.' — Dennis Cooper

Colin Herd, Like, Knives Forks and Spoons Press, 2011.


"• I LIKE the way found-texts are written which aren’t quite found-texts
• I LIKE the voice
• I LIKE the alleviated status of the trash written about without that puke-ingusting feeling that you are ‘viewing everyday objects in an extraordinary way’
• I LIKE the condemnation of capitalism
• I LIKE the grotesque & squiggy imagery; esp the mushyness of George Bush Sr. Do sculptures at Madame Tussaud’s get melted down like the Wicked Witch of the West or do they go into storage at the Tate Gallery?
• I LIKE the way the art criticism is done here
• I LIKE the juxtaposition of magik and humanism: see Franz Kline poem
• I LIKE Franz Kline any day of the week
• I am sorry Denise Levertov was so mean to Colin Herd but kinda glad also
• I enLIKED to hear him growl. Thank you so much for teaching me how to growl
• There is this woman I LIKE a bit (she’s so naff), who I’ve seen advertising non-aging cream, but I had never heard of Jane Rafter before but I am GLAD that I have done now
• Just LIKE Colin Herd I enjoy watching crap TV sometimes and I LIKE to satirise it. Crap TV is one of many things that needs to be satirised and is evidence enough to agree with Adorno’s threadlike arguments
• I LIKE Colin Herd’s poem about Eva Longoria even though I don’t know who the hell she is: I’m not going to google her but will no doubt get told who she is subsequent to this review
• I LIKE to laugh; laughter is both the happiness and sadness of the people, our escapism and our warning
• I LIKE the way Colin Herd does détournement
• I LIKE to start my day with Nescafe (LIKE hell I do)
• I LIKE ‘LIKE’" - James Davies


read my lips

i’m such a fan of madame tussauds
that i have a favourite wax-sculptor

and could recognize his work in a
tv-style police lineup. i think i might

anyway. his name’s paul bainbridge
and he did ringo and george but not

paul or john. the way mrs t works, it’s
a team-project, but paul’s input is
distinctive. if the person is shifty, he
sure as anything makes them look

shifty. you should see his al gore.
his princess juliana of the netherlands
is excellent too but his masterwork is

george bush sr and i would rate it
as one of the finest works of political

art, the way the lip slides up at the right
as if he’s saying, like you just did:
my throat’s now closing up, fantastic.


Colin's blog