Ordinary Guy (Reviews)

Poetic excerpt from Ordinary Guy


Publisher's Review
Newly formed UK based independent Publishing House 'Fore-Word Press Ltd' has published this long awaited spin off from the teachings of contemporary poetic masters - Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poet's.

Mark T. Watson's debut collection of poetry entitled "Ordinary Guy" charts the life of an extraordinary young man in search of truth, who by twist of fate, has the good fortune to not only meet these revolutionary poets, but to befriend them, work with them and study his art under their very tuition. This remarkable collection spans a period of 10 years and takes the reader on an epic journey around the world, seeking always to unravel the mysteries of life, nature and the schemes and plots that often ensnare the unsuspecting masses, through a combination of moving poetry and explanatory prose.

From the Author
"The journey started with Mark's meeting the infamous political poet and performer "Gil Scott Heron" who took Mark under his wing and schooled him in life. Mark travelled - on and off - with Gil and his band from 1984 to the present day, touring the UK, Europe and the USA".

"During these tours, Gil took it upon himself to mentor Mark and encouraged him to become productive, creative and educated. This mentoring, combined with close study of Gil Scott Heron's published work had a dramatic effect on Mark, fostering a real sense of social responsibility and a desire to both change himself and bring about positive changes in the world".

This collection of poetry and explanatory prose spans a 10 year period when Mark was touring with Gil Scott Heron and travelling the world as a seamen in between tours "and is a tribute to Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets for their selfless pursuit of truth and their unwavering stance for justice in the face of adversity but moreover, for their compassion and spiritual guidance for someone like Mark, who was after all, just an Ordinary Guy".

From the Back Cover
"Exhilarating!
This must read collection, is a black Liverpudlians odyssey to find his ‘truth' expressed in beautiful but always hard hitting poetry". Eddie Amoo (The Real Thing).

"Mark Watson has spent years touring and hanging out with ‘Gil Scott Heron' and ‘The Last Poets'. Check out the foreword of his book. This has been some life".
Pete Wylie (The Mighty WAH).

"As a white man living in Liverpool, I felt privileged to read these powerful poems, which give some insight into the emotions and history of the black people of this city. These aren't poems about ‘daffodils' they're about human beings and their lives. Mark is no ‘ordinary guy' but he gives voice to all the ordinary lives of black people in this city." Roger Phillips (BBC Radio Merseyside).

About the Author
Mark T Watson was born in Liverpool UK in the mid sixties to mixed parents. His mother a Welsh woman raised him after the tragic paralysis of his Guyanese father when he was just a boy.

Mark has been a dish washer, a toilet cleaner, a milkman, a labourer, a potato bagger, a salesman, a merchant seaman, an advertising manager, a marketing co-ordinator, a tour manager, a roadie, a sales and marketing manager, a researcher, a research project manager, a business advisor, the director of Merseyside Refugee Support Network, a director of Hornby Housing, a director of a housing CO-OP, an author and a publisher.

He holds a BA Hons. in Geography & Sociology, a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Social Research and is an Associate of The Institute of Business Advisors.

Excerpted from Ordinary Guy by Mark T. Watson. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.


"Poets"

"I sit and think of poets dead.
Of others living and what they've said.

I ponder curiously through their odes.
Their varied dialects confuse my thoughts.

My mind - the home of fantasies.
Imagination nurtured into verse
and words on paper to converse
with those who might just seek my view
and those who may remember you.

But view I must, also the verse
of those called "great" like Wordsworth
and Shakespeare, Shelley, Chaucer, Keats and
Robert Browning; school-work's sick!

So sick their talk of war and rape and gallant men
whose souls abase - the moral fibre of my life,
rammed down my throat by teachers' spite.

Yet school room text of men called "great"
in my existence can't relate.
Nor in my book they dare to lie
with sickened minds to fantasise.

And great by definition to me
is not what schoolbook text would be.
For I, a man whose simple life
and coloured morals born of strife
would simply not live up to those
of dear old England's 'sicko' poets..."

Customer Reviews from Amazon.co.uk

A new perspective for contemporary poetry lovers , November 20, 2004

Reviewer: A reader from London

This is page after page of challenging and thought provoking contemporary poetry. True to the teachings of his Master the legendary Gil Scott Heron, Mark T. Watson emerges as one of a new generation of young black poets wanting to take the struggle to the next level.

Born in Liverpool, brought up by the care system, straddling two worlds, that of a white Mother and a black Father, or a seaman writing about he world he sees and a student of Gil Scott Heron travelling the world with his poetic mentor writing as he goes along, Mark masterfully weaves all of these strands together to afford the reader something one could only describe as a totally new approach to contemporary poetry.

His yearning to get back to Africa, his distaste for so-called democracy which denies him the basic freedoms it purports to defend, his aversion to war mongers and his love of the beauty of creation all flow in a rhythmic cascade of poetic expression that would surely make his mentor proud. A must read collection.

Tribute to Gil Scott Heron & a foreword from The Last Poets , November 18, 2004

Reviewer: from Manchester UK

Any fans of Gil Scott Heron are going to love this. Mark T Watson is definitely Gil's very own protégé. His poems are reminiscent of the classic Gil Scott Heron politicised polemic, but don't get me wrong, this work has a distinct stamp of individuality which will define the author in a category by himself.

Mark writes from two angles, that of a young black man touring the globe with his poet extraordinaire and as a seaman, in-between tours, sailing the globe and absorbing all that he sees in both nature and the political situation in the mysterious and magnificent places that he finds himself in when the ship docks.

Works about sunset in the Mediterranean are contrasted with fleets of warships lingering about causing an unwelcome disturbance to the poet as he writes. Also a moving tribute to Stevie Wonder "Inner Vision" considers how a blind man can see whilst the seeing world can be so blind. "The Ships Cook" exposes corruption in the workplace whilst "Freedom is a Funny Thing! Challenges the contemporary notions of democracy. This work is truly original and will one day surely take its place among the masters of this literary art.

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