I found my old copy of Children of Albion because I wanted to read some poems by Anselm Hollo, the Finnish poet who lived most of his life in the USA. He died a few days ago on 29th January. I first read his poems in the anthology in 1969 and I liked them a lot. Around that time I bought a copy of Maya, a collection of his poems from 1959 -1969 (published by Cape Goliard Press). Although I've culled my poetry books many times in the last few decades I have kept these two books. And of course, through the years, I've continued to read Anselm Hollo's work.
WELL IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE ENGLAND
Well it has been a great old
Party the first one said starting
On down the stairs a
Great gettogether the second
One joining in all the others
Pushing out into the stair-
Case following them
On down talking and
Singing and laughing like
Mad supporting each
Other stopping to pick up
This and that on the way
Down the stairs a great
Great long party winding on
Down a merry old dragon of
Chinamen retelling itself
What jokes writing them
Down on the walls for those
Who came after stumbling
And hopping on down so pleased
No one noticed they must've
Been going on down for at
Least a month and well
below
street-
level
(Anselm Hollo from & it is a song, Migrant Press, 1965)
Inside Children of Albion I found a bookmark - an entry ticket to a psychedelic theatre revue in Brisbane called High On A Hot Banana. As the back of the ticket indicates, I went to the performance on August 5th at 8pm. This was in 1967. For a moment, that teenage era came back to me quite vividly.
VALE ANSELM HOLLO 1934 - 2013
