{"product_id":"down-to-earth-9781844715527","title":"Down to Earth","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Wilkinson’s \u003cem\u003eDown to Earth\u003c\/em\u003e is his darkest work to date: a disturbing road poem of the American mid-West, an epic of migration, an examination of now-ubiquitous borders, and a meteorological tour of our growing energy crises. Global and internal flows of capital, consumer products, waste, labour and body parts all shape its contorted map of the 21st century. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNarrative poems echoing traditional forms, are intercut with damaged and damaging lyrics; these various styles have their analogues in the sculpture several passages praise and deprecate. In addition, \u003cem\u003eDown to Earth\u003c\/em\u003e incorporates an extended homage to Artemis of Ephasus. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWilkinson’s book forms one single thematically-interrelated poem, and although its materials are bleak, the book’s caesura-driven prosody honours the hopes and courage of the people involved in mass migration and local struggles. Like every book by John Wilkinson,\u003cem\u003e Down to Earth\u003c\/em\u003e knows no limit to poetry’s ambition, dodging every border post, down every highway, like the ocelot running through its narratives, and struggling to create a sheltering place in often pitiless landscapes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Wilkinson’s Effigies Against the Light for its sheer verbal inventiveness and unheard-of melodies made much contemporary poetry seem straightforwardly pedestrian.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Adam Phillips * The Observer *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eProud Flesh\u003c\/em\u003e introduced us to the unexpected fluencies, the strange dramas and practicalities of John Wilkinson’s poetry. Reminding us that poetry also needs to be pitted against conventional forms of intelligibility – the finding of a ‘voice’, the satisfactions of narrative – Wilkinson was already writing a haunting, unheard of lyric poetry against the grain of the taught traditions. A startling and eerily accomplished book, \u003cem\u003eProud Flesh\u003c\/em\u003e has become a great contemporary text.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Adam Phillips\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Wilkinson's taut, precise poems, in which lyric grace and ethical urgency move together but never comfortably mix, amount to one of the most significant bodies of work in contemporary poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Patrick McGuinness\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe speed of this writing, its kinetic movement “like a run-time virus”, derives from the extraordinary scope of its inclusions. This is not the low-risk inclusiveness of semiotic playtime, but the propagation of strings of significance among the resistant data of moment and location. Difficult of access, but no less difficult of egress, the poetry in this volume makes unflinching demands on the reader, demands that repay slowly but in abundance. Reader, I was crushed and exhilarated.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Jeremy Green * Chicago Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Wilkinson’s a powerful and intent poet whose language is densely charged with energy-traces: it’s rich with verbs, the sense of happenings, deeds, potentialities, necessities, results.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Roy Fisher\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLike Substances\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn Tempo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIntervention\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePresent Company Excepted\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStamp of Origin\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOversight\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext to Nothing\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber One\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExcuse Me\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCollaboration\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCondensation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Indiana Toll\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBack of Beyond\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel Plaza\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStopover\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRust Belt\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll Those Gates\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Confronter\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCrumple Zone\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLike by David Smith\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHarlem Air Shaft\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLike Feeling\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRavenous At Noon\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHunter At Dusk\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLying In Late\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrifting Out\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Defeat of Artemis\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBound South\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSouth Unbound\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Salt Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51771556692311,"sku":"9781844715527","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781844715527.jpg?v=1758728260","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/down-to-earth-9781844715527","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}