NEW IN THE SERIES
A MASS CHOIR OF LITTLE THINGS
Vallum Chapbook Series No. 39
Ockert Greeff
A Mass Choir of Little Things seems sculpted by decay. Poet and percussionist Ockert Greeff examines physical evidence of impending disaster and recent loss, from leftover clothes to leathery faces. Bodies and landscapes bear wounds of time and the promise of finality. In one poem, his mother giggles like a girl; in the next, she cannot recognize him. But Greeff’s sparse, vivid language also finds life within endings. He imagines his elderly mom as a baby turtle wading into the water; he chronicles organisms that persist. An orange pickup truck in the desert, a swimmer lifting his arms to the sky. Greeff’s preoccupation with “the dark mass that is taking us all” reveals a gentle attention to existence — the rhythms of a haircut, the silences of a funeral — figuring death as one part of the story.
– Rosie Long Decter
Author’s Bio
Ockert Greeff is a South African Canadian poet and percussionist inspired by the early traditions of storytelling and drumming. He uses language and chorus as a thin membrane to connect to scenes and tellings, often stripped down to archetype and rooted in his Afrikaans mother tongue. In some sense, his work is Afrikaans but written in English. Born in Namibia and raised in a small town in the Kalahari Desert, he earned his BA Hons. in Afrikaans Literature before settling in Johannesburg, where he was co-founder and drummer of the Afrikaans cult band Die Brixton Moord en Roof Orkes. In Montreal, Canada, he has recorded with underground bands such as Light Bulb Alley, Sawtooth, and Death Drive. His poetry drumming work can be found online and has been shown at various poetry film festivals, including the Raleigh Film & Art Festival and the Small File Media Festival at Simon Fraser University. His poems have placed with honors among the Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards and as a finalist with New Ohio Review and Vallum Poetry Awards. His poetry can also be read in New Ohio Review, Literary Review of Canada (forthcoming), Ons Klyntji (South Africa), South Florida Poetry Journal, Permafrost, Thimble Literary Magazine, and others.
VALLUM CHAPBOOK SERIES
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39 | Ockert Greeff | A Mass Choir of Little Things
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38 | Jami Macarty | The Whole Catastrophe
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37 | Karen Solie | Wellwater
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36 | Maya Clubine | Life cycle of a Mayfly
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35 | Scott Cecchin | House
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34 | George Elliott Clarke | War Canticles
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33 | Heather White | DES MONSTERAS
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32 | Erín Moure | Retooling for a Figurative Life
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31 | Joe Neubert | DC Poems
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30 | Matthew James Weigel | It Was Treaty / It Was Me
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29 | Paul Muldoon | The Bannisters
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28 | Sina Queyras | Swelles
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27 | Alexei Perry Cox | Finding Places to Make Places
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26 | A. F. Moritz | Art of Surgery
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25 | Thurston Moore and John Kinsella | from The Weave: A Work In Progress
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18 | Don McKay | Larix
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15 | Nicole Brossard | A Tilt in the Wondering
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14 | John Kinsella | Globe Hotel and Inner City Poems
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13 | Rules for Sadness | Jason Camlot
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12 | little pink book | Claire Huot & Robert Majzel
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11 | Franz Wright | Recurring Awakening
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10 | Points of Departure | Julian Gobert
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1 | Tramp | Fanny Howe
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