Durable goods from 2012 with Subhankar Das and others

Durable Goods was (is still?) a micro poetry journal published in the US. Issue 65 contained poems by Rajarshi Chattopadhyay, Sharmy Pandey (who also did the cover art), the late Subhankar Das and yours truly.

Subhankar Das published two collections of mine - Sky Dreaming in 2011 and Somewhere else in 2024.

 

Goodies received from Kolkata

Proud to have received the latest edition of Graffiti, which is dedicated to the late Kolkata poet and publishr Subhankas Das, and contains my tribute to Sub. Sub had published two collections of mine - Sky dreaming in 2011, and Somewhere else in 2024. It was truly an honour to be published by him. 

I was also delighted to have received my copy of Santanu Roy's new journal Barnaperon, which means Chromatic Abberation in English. The journal contains three poems of mine.

Sabina, Subhankar Das's widow, at the Small Magazine Fair in Kolkata

 

Sabina, the widow of poet and publisher Subhankar Das, at the Graffiti stand of the Small Magazine Fair in Kolkata. At the front centre is a book of Subhankar with a painting by Pascal Ulrich on the cover.

Graffiti published my latest collection of poems, Somewhere else, in 2024, as well as an earlier collection, Sky dreaming, in 2011. 

I recently conducted an interview with poet and publisher Robert Roman about the life and work of artist and poet Pascal Ulrich.

Two of my collections published by Subhankar Das' Graffiti Kolkata

 

Two of my poetry collections published by Subhankar Das of Graffiti Kolkata, India. Sky dreaming was published in 2011 (cover design by Jenny Kellerman Pillay) and Somewhere else in 2024 (cover art and design by Paul Warren). It was an honour to be published by Subhankar. RIP my friend. 

Hambe kahle Subhankar Das

I am devastated by the news that Kolkata poet, publisher and friend Subhankar Das has passed. He was 61. He was rushed to hospital on Sunday night with a heart attack and passed on today, 22 May 2024.

He recently published my new collection of poems, Somewhere else, and had also published my collection Sky Dreaming in 2011. He has also published poems of mine in various journals and used my artwork on covers of his poetry journal Graffiti.

The above photo shows a joyous Subhankar holding an original artwork by Pascal Ulrich, in January 2023. Photo courtesy of Robert Roman.

A bootleg translation of Sky Dreaming

It seems a bootleg Bengali translation of my 2011 chapbook Sky Dreaming has appeared in India. The cover photograph is by Arja Salafranca.  I am honoured by the translation, but just wish I had known about it and some acknowledgements had been made. Arja also did not know that her photograph had been used.

Sky Dreaming was originally published by Graffiti Kolkata.

Sky dreaming: a photomontage by Paul Warren

 

A photomontage by British artist Paul Warren, inspired by the title of my poetry collection Sky Dreaming, published by Graffiti Kolkata in 2012.

Paul Warren selects 'In chains' by Gary Cummiskey for National Poetry Day

UK artist Paul Warren selected the poem 'In chains' by Gary Cummiskey for National Poetry Day and posted the poem on Facebook.

The poem is as follows:

In chains

I leap down from the building

into the fire.

They women stand

with their breasts in chains.

I can't get to collect my curry supper.

The owl is going insane.

This a night of anxiety.

I'm on a flying island.

I'm singing, singing, but nobody hears.

A glove is stuck in my throat.

'In chains' was published in the collection Sky Dreaming, published by Graffiti Kolkata, India, 2011.

'Immortal' in Bangla

 

My poem 'Immortal' translated into Bangla, by Mouni Mondal. 'Immortal' was published in Sky Dreaming, published by Graffiti Kolkata in 2011.

Two poems and a collage by Gary Cummiskey, on Hash n Pumpkins

Read two poems from Sky Dreaming published on Hash n Pumpkins.

A review of Gary Cummiskey's Sky Dreaming, by Aleathia Drehmer

It isn’t often that I am taken by surprise with a chap in the small press…especially one that I didn’t seek out myself. Subhankar Das, editor of Graffiti Kolkata, recently sent me Gary Cummiskey’s Sky Dreaming. I had never heard of Gary prior to this and I set to reading it [in] short bursts rather than put it on the pile to read which is ever growing...Read more here.

Immortal, by Gary Cummiskey

An art and poetry card produced by Graffiti Kolkata. Art by Sharmy Pandey. The poem 'Immortal' appeared in my chapbook Sky Dreaming, published by Graffiti Kolkata in 2011.

Sky Dreaming on Peony Moon

I am searching for André Gide and have been told he is staying with Sinclair Beiles, so I go to Sinclair’s house in Raleigh Street, Yeoville. It’s been years since I have been out this way, but even so, after I knock on the door, Sinclair answers quite friendly and says, ‘Gide doesn’t live here anymore. I think he’s staying at a flophouse – he went loony, you know’...Read more here

Review of Gary Cummiskey's Sky Dreaming - Aryan Kaganof

gary cummiskey was born after a short stint in london in 2009. in that same year he co-opted with sinclair beiles? a collection of titles about the beat poet. it’s intriguing that gary notes high levels of supermarkets in hillbrow as well as his death in 2000 (9 years before the so-called re-birth). gary cummiskey, a midget staring into space, moves on with his legs inspread. he leaps down from buildings into the fire but nobody hears his singing so he drags the terrified, whimpering sinclair beiles? through the hall up to andré gide’s lecture stand where he knocks a glass of papers all over the water. that’s when the cops surround him...read more here

Gary Cummiskey, author of Sky Dreaming, in conversation with Janet van Eeden

Sky Dreaming is Gary Cummiskey’s most accomplished work so far. In this volume his work takes a more introspective turn with the unifying theme of a profound existential questioning of life. This kind of depth comes, I believe, from suffering through difficult times. There’s a world-weariness to this collection which takes it into universal territory... Read more here

Sky Dreaming on display at the Graffiti Kolkata stand at the Buffalo Small Press Fair 2011

Photo: Jasmine Riehl

Sky Dreaming: a review by Aleathia Drehmer

It isn’t often that I am taken by surprise with a chapbook in the small press … especially one that I didn’t seek out myself.

Subhankar Das, editor of Graffiti Kolkata, recently sent me Gary Cummiskey’s Sky Dreaming. I had never heard of Gary prior to this and I set to reading it in short bursts rather than put it on the pile to read which is ever growing.

Sky Dreaming is a healthy mix of touching observations scattered between prose poem pieces that leave you wonder exactly where you have been, or maybe better, where the author has been.

They aren’t so bizarre you cannot relate, yet they make you feel like an uncomfortable watcher.

The poems that grab the most are sparse of word, but heavy on feeling and meaning.

The opening poem “Immortal” sets you up for the entire collection, as an opening poem should, by gripping you with a sense of infinity and finality at the same time:

Last night, feeling suicidal,
I leapt over the balcony
and landed flat on my back
in the garden below.
Lying there, I looked up
at the sky and saw how empty
it was, apart from a few
insignificant stars.
Now I know I am immortal.

Gary touches on other subjects like the juxtaposition of science and religion in poems “Animals” and “I telephoned God”. He explores a visceral strangeness in “Alien” and the ragged endings to an old nurse in “Moon woman”:

She has thin, pointed breasts and a rose in her hair, as the crescent moon slides into her mouth like a hard cock.
Cummiskey dabbles in his own brand of love and sexuality in poems like “Afterwards”, “Intimate Lives”, and “You Lead Me”. This last poem feels like an enticement to a lover ... a calling to bring them back by telling them all that they have given or shown him:

You lead me
Through letters smeared with caresses and sperm
Through the music of lonely politicians’ pipes
Through a landscape where you and I are alone

I want you to touch me
I want you to feel me.

If the bizarre and surreal are your cups of tea, then be sure to check out the poems “Alien”, “Summoned”, “A day at the races”, “Meat” and “In chains”. Gary Cummiskey also makes comment on the life of African-American Beat Poet Bob Kaufman in the poems “Between floors” and “Sinclair and the Great Dane”.

The poem that touched me the most and really drew me in was a prose poem titled “Takeover” and it was one of those works that makes you sad and frightened and angry at the same time…the emotions swirled together in a subversive way that leaves you unsure of how we survive the disparity of our humanity:

Takeover

Five years old. The parents take him to the hospital. He doesn’t know what hospital is. The parents leave. He watches a child in another ward get an injection in the head. Both scream simultaneously. A nurse calms the new arrival and gives him ice cream and comics. The next morning they take him to the operating theatre. He wakes up sick, without tonsils. There’s blue vomit in the basin. The parents are not around. Something else has taken over.

Sky Dreaming by Gary Cummiskey has a little bit of everything for whatever your tastes. You can purchase a copy from Graffiti Kolkata, based in India. Check out this title and others at: http://www.graffiti-kolkata-chaps.blogspot.com/

Take a leap on this one. You won’t be sorry.

Aleathia Drehmer

Sky Dreaming by Gary Cummiskey

My latest chapbook, Sky Dreaming, consisting of 24 poems, published by Graffiti Kolkata, India

Coming soon from Graffiti Kolkata: Sky Dreaming by Gary Cummiskey

Coming soon from Graffiti Kolkata: Sky Dreaming by Gary Cummiskey

Sky Dreaming, a new chapbook of poetry by Gary Cummiskey, to be published by Graffiti Kolkata in January 2011.