Description
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE SEAMUS FIRST COLLECTION POETRY PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN POLLARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE
''Who knew that writing with this degree of care and pain and tact was still possible? For my money it''s the best first volume in decades, I would say since Tom Paulin''s A State of Justice (1977): no dead weight, foot-perfect and engaging.'' Michael Hofmann, Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year
Crisis Actor chronicles various failures and farewells. It is peopled by faded heroes and deferential devotees; a hanged donkey, a bloated rat; solitary bachelors and disillusioned youths these are the watchers, not the players. The poems are awash with rueful self-accusation and laconic scepticism. There are touching elegies, reportage and bruised, wary replayings. A blistering sequence about boxers and their fates weaves through the collection. The overwhelming sense is of life going on elsewher
