Free Ireland shipping on orders over €25 | Free Worldwide shipping on orders over €45
0

How to Bake a Planet / Pete Mullineaux

How to Bake a Planet

By: Pete Mullineaux

€12.00 €10.00
From the Garden of Eden to the pavement of romance, outer space to bubble wrap, endangered species to climate change, Pete Mullineaux’s vivid and wide-ranging fourth collection explores personal-societal themes of loneliness, isolation, connection and dislocation; our ambivalent relationship with the natural world; ecological and environmental concerns; our confusions regarding science and religion; the elusive element of ...
ISBN 978-1-910669-54-9
Pub Date Friday, September 16, 2016
Cover Image Jessie Lendennie, photography. Design: Siobhan Hutson
Page Count 74
Share on
From the Garden of Eden to the pavement of romance, outer space to bubble wrap, endangered species to climate change, Pete Mullineaux’s vivid and wide-ranging fourth collection explores personal-societal themes of loneliness, isolation, connection and dislocation; our ambivalent relationship with the natural world; ecological and environmental concerns; our confusions regarding science and religion; the elusive element of time. Philosophical, inventive, playful and fanciful at times, but always accessible and earthed by reality.

‘Mullineaux “bends an ear towards the earth” and creates a beautiful and whimsical music that tracks the connections and disconnects in our relationships with each other and with our planet. A wandering minstrel who captures the atmosphere of bus rides, cafés, city streets and scrapyards in tones that recall the poems of Roger McGough or the songs of Pete Seeger. He takes us into art galleries and walks us around music festivals, responding to all he sees and hears with imagination and kindness.’ 
Catherine Ann Cullen

‘Poignant love poems and family poems, poems inspired by art, music & the business of living and, perhaps most significant of all, poems arising out of compassion for those who “wear the uniform of poverty” or cannot speak for themselves – these are the ingredients of Pete Mullineaux’s intriguingly titled How to Bake a Planet, a book that voices many of the anxieties of contemporary life and, in the venerable tradition of the protest song, to considerable effect wears its political heart on its sleeve.’ 
Pat Boran

‘One of the warmest poets rocking around this little island of ours.’  
Alvy Carragher, Headstuff.org 

Pete Mullineaux

PETE MULLINEAUX grew up in Bristol, UK – his first published poem, ‘Harvest Festival’, written aged 13, was included in a Macmillan anthology, Poetry & Song, and recorded on ARGO Records with music by Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger. Living in London in the 1970-80s he was part of the original Apples and Snakes poetry collective and played with the left-wing punk band The Resisters, before going solo as Pete Zero. His anti-nuclear song ‘Disposable Tissues’ won the City of London Poetry/Song contest and was made into a single record, with proceeds going to the Greenham Common women’s peace camp. Living in Galway, Ireland, since 1991, he teaches global issues in schools through drama and creative writing. His five poetry collections are: Zen Traffic Lights (Lapwing 2005), A Father’s Day (Salmon 2008), Session (Salmon 2011),  How to Bake a Planet (Salmon 2016) and We are the Walrus (Salmon 2022). His work has been read and discussed on RTE’s Arena and featured on the Poetry Programme podcast Words Lightly Spoken. He was selected for Poetry Ireland Review’s special 100th issue (edited by Paul Muldoon). A number of stageplays have been produced and three dramas for RTE radio. Two non-poetry books were published in 2021: Interdependence Day – Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals through Drama for All Ages (Afri/Action from Ireland) and a debut novel, Jules and Rom – Sci-fi meets Shakespeare (Matador UK).


Review: How to Bake a Planet listed in World Literature Today, March 2017

British-born and Irish transplanted poet Pete Mullineaux returns with this approachable collection that draws his concerns about human isolation from the natural world together with his inventive and thoughtful wordplay. Mullineaux demonstrates a poet’s precision with words yet leaves a place for more casual readers of poetry in his work.



Review: How to Bake a Planet reviewed by Brianne Alphonso for 2Jacket

How to Bake a Planet combines the somber with the comedic while confronting us with the reality that time decays — and sometimes, too many times, we are alone. Solitude is not the key theme of this book so much as the danger of distraction in an ever-expanding world. How can a person form connections when the human shelf-life is so short and no one can be bothered to veer out of his own lane? The singular voice of this poetry — one part sarcasm, one part irony, two parts morbid bluntness — poignantly conveys the feeling of “seeking something firm / to anchor the uncertainty / or perhaps contemplating / the ripple effect she could make / by gently rocking the boat.” Mullineaux draws on anxieties about a poisoned planet, strangled relationships, and the ever-present ticking of time in an attempt to uncover the smothered sentiments we all keep locked away.

Other Titles from Pete Mullineaux

Contact us

Salmon Poetry / The Salmon Bookshop
& Literary Centre,
Main Street,
Ennistymon,
County Clare,
V95 XD35,
Ireland

Newsletter
Arts Council
Credit Cards