Like John Donne and Geoffrey Hill, Ira Lightman is very concerned with the humour of mishearing language, with wonderment, and logic taken to extremes.

One poem examines how two sentences can be used as two propositions in a syllogism or a quadratic equation, and then tries to resolve them with a perverse logic. Another takes the phrase ‘mustard tart as lemon’ and explores whether mustard is tart, and lemon is tart, so they might be interchangeable and one might go to a bakery and be served a mustard tart instead of a lemon one.

“A restless spirit, who likes to play with definitions of what writing and performance can be…”
Ian McMillan

Ira Lightman is a conceptual poet, as surreal as Vic n’ Bob, according to Kate Fox. He regularly appears on Radio 3’s The Verb with Ian McMillan. He makes award-winning public art throughout the North East – including bringing a Hollywood-style sign to Spennymoor, County Durham – and lately in Willenhall in the West Midlands. His most recent poetry collection is Duetcetera, published by Shearsman in 2008.