Reading his machine shop poems by Fred Voss

FRED VOSS

doesnt just write about factory life, he lives it. For the past 30 years he has worked as a machinist in various factories in California, transmuting his experiences into three books of poetry published by Bloodaxe Books: GOODSTONE (1991), CARNEGIE HALL WITH TIN WALLS (1998) and HAMMERS AND HEARTS OF THE GODS (2009). The backdrop of much of his work is the Goodstone Aircraft Company, an oily amalgam of all the places where he has sweated it out on the shopfloor, where each man has to be a virtuoso able to temper brute force with hairs-breadth delicacy. Pamela Robertson-Pearce filmed him during his visit to Ledbury Poetry Festival in July 2008. He reads and introduces four poems: ‘Making America Strong’, ‘Hammers and Hearts of the Gods’, ‘Blood and Poetry’ and ‘Teatime at the OK Corral’. For more details, see: BloodAxeBooks

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