Call for submissions: Magma 92, Ownership

The British artist Michael Landy once destroyed everything he owned – toothbrush, love letters, his dad’s old sheepskin coat, all 7,000 items he owned – as part of his performance artwork ‘Break Down’. Catharsis? Personal sacrifice? Or an examination of consumerism? He said it was like witnessing his own funeral. Could you part with your stuff, all of it? Where would it leave you and the ability to live your life? Or are there objects that determine or define who you are. The British Poet Adam Crothers has written a collection of poems called ‘The Culture of My Stuff’. What is your relationship to objects?

Ownership. Some of us own property and pets, others don’t. This might be due to financial circumstances, or out of choice. Owning a house is assumed to be the right thing to do – there is a pressure ‘to get on the ladder’. Supposedly. But are bricks and mortar all they’re cracked up to be? Maybe you aspire to own your own place, to have status, many bedrooms, a big garden – perhaps a flashy sports car – and if so, what, where and why? Or maybe you feel you own the area you inhabit anyway, regardless of a mortgage. Where are the intimate corners? Which stories of the place do you own? Do you ‘own’ an allotment and why?

Ownership once determined the right to vote, before universal suffrage was extended to those without property. But maybe today you don’t want the responsibility of upkeep, or perhaps you had a home once and gave it up voluntarily or owing to circumstance. Reneging on ownership might bring freedom, peace of mind. Does the desire to own things change over time or through loss. Are there things you once owned then disowned? Do we need less as we get older, things becoming superfluous? Or do you hoard? As Marie Kondo says, things need to ‘spark joy’. Have you audited your life’s belongings, done a spring clean, had a major cull?

Ownership also implies taking care of something, looking after it, maintaining its quality. But this might come at a cost. What does this imply and what demands does it make on the owner? We normally own property not people. But are we sometimes overly possessive of others, especially those we love? Are people owned by their psyche or ego, possessed by spirits? In some parts of the world, people are commodities, belonging to other people, enterprises, regimes. Ownership implies a power imbalance.

Ownership can apply to the non-tangible – to the ownership of ideas and beliefs, some of which might not be shared by others, or to a certain behaviour, demeanour, capacity for something, attitude, walk – hence the catwalk call ‘Own it!’. Does owning something also mean showing it off, standing behind it, working it? Equally ownership might be about accepting a diagnosis or illness and living with the conditions – an involuntarily ownership, even medical or genetic inheritance. What does this imply? What is the language of ownership, from banking and real estate to medicine and philosophy?

Ownership also enables and restricts the places we can go freely. Whether it’s the public-private urban spaces or river promenades that are owned by corporations and locked at night, or the country paths skirting and dissecting fields and farms. In some cases we need to stand up to fight against unlawful ownership, be it of weapons or dangerous dogs, or unpopular ownership, such as buildings that blight the landscape or second homes given their impact on small communities and local economies. What kind of emotions does ownership invoke – guilt, regret, anger, jealousy, disappointment, or else, joy, relief, peace of mind? How does ownership affect your life?

Who are your idols – poets, singers, painters, thinkers, novelists? To what extent do you own them, and they own you? Have you come to disown them and if so, when and why? In the case of poets, have you used their work in your own? Is this dialogue, inspiration, conversation or ownership? And on the subject of writing, of course, AI brings new challenges, questions and conundrums when It comes to authorship and ownership. Are you embracing AI in your writing, as are the poets published in the new AI Literary Review ?

Everything Michael Landy owned was ‘destroyed and granulated, bagged up and sent to landfill’. He was left with just one thing – debt. Destroying his possessions with the help of 10 people and an assembly line cost him £100,000.

We look forward to reading your poems!

Paul Stephenson
Kathy Pimlott
Danne Jobin

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We welcome poems that have not been previously published in print, online, or broadcast.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your submission or contact us if it is accepted for publication somewhere else first.
You may submit up to 4 previously unpublished poems: ONLINE via Submittable in a single Word or PDF document, OR BY POST to Magma 91 Submissions, 23 Pine Walk, Carshalton, SM5 4ES. Postal submissions are accepted from the UK and Ireland only. Postal submissions are not acknowledged until a decision is made.

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