Bio
Gary Bills was born at Wordsley, near Stourbridge, UK. He took his first degree at Durham University, where he studied English, and he has subsequently worked as a journalist. He is fiction editor for Poetry on the Lake. Gary gained his MA in Creative Writing at Birmingham City University, with a distinction. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize, including for his post-modernist epic poem, "Bredbeddle's Well". Gary's poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including The Guardian, Magma, HQ, Outposts, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Pomegranate and New Lyre, and he has had three full collections published, namely - "The Echo and the Breath" (Peterloo Poets, 2001); "The Ridiculous Nests of the Heart" (bluechrome, 2003); and "Laws for Honey" (erbacce 2020). In 2005, he edited "The Review of Contemporary Poetry", for bluechrome. His work has been translated in to German, Romanian and Italian. Translations of his work appeared last year in the prestigious Romanian journal, Vatra.
Gary Bills
Fashion in the Afterlife
In life - in death, we choose the springing days;
myself, with flying boots and James Dean stare,
chosen from the Bedlam din of days;
my parrot pose - with auburn blown-back hair.
Ridiculously lithe and horny-nifty,
I'm up for all, and all that's coming after;
and though I ache on earth (far north of fifty)
I'll strut that path, towards eternal laughter -
The cherubim might giggle as I sing
but what has age or death to do with song? -
when music is the pulse of - everything,
and all of us are destined to be young.