New Chapbook: Noise & Sound Reflections by James Lawless

http://www.amazon.com/Noise-Sound-Reflections-James-Lawless/dp/1511674547/ref=la_B001JOXD96_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432643797&sr=1-23

I have just published a small booklet titled Noise and Sound Reflections prompted by my living most of my life in an urban environment. Noise is a pollutant which I feel needs to be addressed more seriously in our society. The book is available in local bookshops and on Amazon for 5 euro and on Kindle for 2.99 euro.

The blurb reads:

What is noise? What happens when it gets inside your head? In his hilarious story marked with pathos Sound Reflections James Lawless sends up in his typical humorous fashion some of the effects of sounds on contemporary society, and this is followed by his unremittingly dark poem Noise which explores the devastation uncontrolled cacophony can inflict on sensitive individuals.

Extract and part review from Amazon:

I can rail against the machine of noise
but there are no weapons to attack it
as more and more machines
throb uphill
their voices reaching
a screaming pitch
as they pass the apex
where my house is
its foundations rocking.

…
Noise is a loud logic
silencing the spontaneous
immobilising the free
the random
it is a megaphone
commanding us to the shower rooms
attracting to itself
the freewill
of all who hear
and we go meekly
believing the promise.

‘Reading James Lawless is at all times refreshing, entertaining, engrossing and thought provoking – like having a very wise friend next door who simply makes the world make sense.’ Grady Harp, May 15

Commendations on cover:

‘Lawless has a lyric gift.’ The Australian Journal of Irish Studies.

‘Lawless is a natural philosopher and a writer passionately convinced of the spiritual value of poetry.’

Brendan Kennelly, poet.

‘In reconnecting us with our buried selves, Lawless invents a new way of seeing the world.’

Declan Kiberd, Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at University College Dublin.

‘The best of poetry has no agenda, and offers an avenue of resistance to society’s push to conform. Lawless’ work is a holistic act of self-preservation in a disjointed world.’

Katie Donovan, poet.