Powerless Rangers

“There is such an open-hearted charm, an immediacy and pleasure of recognition to these poems that it takes a moment to realise how they’re working on you. The forensic attention to nostalgia, popular culture as a natural and built environment; what surrounded us and moulded us and exerts invisible influence over us to this day. McGowan is a master of engaging humour and subtle melancholy. I dislike the word ‘relatable’, but I expect that’s the easiest term people will reach for, even as the poems themselves unpick our complex relations to our world.”
Luke Kennard

“The poems in Powerless Rangers enchant through their spoken power. They are clear-eyed about what makes us who we are and show true strength through their openness, compassion, and self-knowledge. The humour, language, and energy will win over readers and audiences alike.”
David Morley 

“McGowan’s poems are loud, with their energetic wit and playful meanderings, but they disguise a romantic, nostalgic centre and when it surfaces the audience or reader are encouraged to switch from one emotion to another in a second – which is a delight.”
Ruth Stacey

Powerless Rangers is very nostalgic, and very nineties.   

ISBN:  978-1-7398838-3-6   

34 pages

R.R.P. £6.50

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

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Powerless Rangers (with p&p options)

Powerless Rangers (with p&p for UK delivery) £7.99 GBP Powerless Rangers (with p&p for Rest of the World delivery) £17.00 GBP

We watched the box set of Friends until we weren’t

Our love abandoned us before we did.
Hot coals anticipate cold glimmers 
like once fond notes sketched into 
the sweat on shared mirrors.
But boardgames became box sets, 
watching the things that stitched us scatter.
Like that summer we chased
rainbows in your old Toyota,
trying to find an end. Either. 
It didn’t matter.

REVIEWS

"And given that ‘catchphrases’ have always been around, there’s some mileage in the idea that this is because people like Jack McGowan have an ear for them, and are noticeably good at generating their own. [...]McGowan really does catch the ear with his phrases: ‘small as a thumbnail, big as a future’."

E. T. Michie, OPOI, Sphinx, full review here.