Verbal Narcotics was first published in 1989 and has been totally revised for the Kindle edition.

Many of the poems had been previously published in magazines such as Moonstone, First Time, The Morpo Review and New Hope International. Some had also appeared in Songs of the Skin, a series of 13 poems published by Salford Pocketbooks. A handfull of the poems were so firmly rooted in the 1980’s however that they required editing and in some cases replacing. New additions include Going to Callanish, which has been read at a number of writers events, This Solstice Anniversary and William Gibson in Birmingham:

WILLIAM GIBSON IN BIRMINGHAM

The roadways are trying
To behave
As if bored cyber cowboys

Were hot-wiring Ford Mavericks
Loaded with shiny
New Shinjunku hardware.

Even the wide open glass fronts
Of half empty cafes
Are waiting

For some Bladerunner lovely
To shatter their facade.

And me,
I have a small stack of books

20th century antiques
That the master
Inscribes

Slowly.

I can see weeks of humility
In his gentle calligraphy

No laser pen, no geostationary download
Of chip encased personality maps

No

Just a black biro.

And now I know
William Gibson in Birmingham
Its the same

As Count Zero`s brain scan,
As the tight knit plan of Tokyo,
As a man harbouring the secrets of fame.