Fresh Failure: New Poems

by John Tottenham

The eagerly anticipated new volume of poetry by acclaimed author and artist John Tottenham. Tottenham's previous collections— The Hate Poems ; Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment ; The Inertia Variations (a multi-media interpretation of which was released by Matt Johnson, otherwise known as The The, in 2017)—established him as this day’s leading contemporary poet maudit. Fresh Failure features a deepening and broadening of Tottenham’s trademark Magical Cynicism and Magnanimous Misanthropy. With hilariously ruthless ruminations on the artistic ego and the romantic id, Tottenham gives voice to the kind of thoughts most people prefer not to express but will automatically relate to and be entertained by.  It's the kind of poetry that is accessible to people who don't read poetry (i.e., everybody). Fresh Failure is ultimately a Triumph of Failure, and proves, as Jean-Luc Godard said, that poetry really is “a game of loser take all.”

112 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2024

Reviews

[Alison Kennedy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Self important and self pitying. He wants nothing more than to escape loneliness but hates women. He feels like a martyr for not having a partner, but who cares? Feeling unfulfilled isn’t a reason to give up on life. Therapy goes a long way instead of writing pages and pages of bitching.