Description
Book SynopsisThe poems in Tony Curtis's new collection are woven out of his fascination with the everyday, the quirky, and the downright extraordinary.
These are poems wrapped up in love and death, friendship and memory, madness and music – from the blind man singing in a field, to his three Cistercian uncles singing plainchant. There are people at the heart of everything he writes. Curtis is a born storyteller, and these are poems crafted by a poet with a wonderful ability to express great depth of feeling with deceptive simplicity.
"Curtis lives on the borderline between our world and the world of the Spirits."
The Irish Times
"His humour and charm, and ability to turn a poem with the seemingly simplest of images, and that understanding of how words will play over the listener's ear, are hallmarks which are pleasingly brought to the fore on the page in this hefty new collection. His greatest skill is to make readers go "yes, of course"; he reminds us of what we've known all along though perhaps not recognised, and reading his poems is therefore an uplifting experience."
The Warwick Review
Tony Curtis was born in Dublin in 1955. He studied Literature at Essex University and Trinity College, Dublin. An award-winning poet, Curtis has published six warmly received collections, the most recent of which was The Well in the Rain: New & Selected Poems (Arc, 2006). In 2003 he was awarded the Varuna House Exchange Fellowship to Australia. He is a member of Aosdána, and a recipient of the Irish National Poetry Prize.
Trade ReviewThis is a true poet with an ear for phrase and form, as well as the playful ability to think (a better word is 'dance') inside a metaphor. His sense of delight is inescapable - absolutely alive - too deliciously odd for words.A" Helena Nelson, Ambit Curtis lives on the borderline between our world and the world of the Spirits.A" The Irish Times
Table of ContentsFolk / 13 I Bench / 17 When I Lay my Hand / 19 In Praise of Grass / 20 The Pilgrim / 22 Two Poems in Memory of Michael Hartnett The Garden Flat / 23 The Flock / 23 The Heartbroken Window / 26 A Writer's Room / 28 Thrift / 29 Trespass / 31 On First Looking onto the Samuel Beckett Bridge / 32 Envoi / 34 The Birch Tree / 35 The Traveller / 36 The Curious Hare / 37 Invention No. 65 / 38 from Sixty Poems for Ciaran / 39 Mulrooney / 42 Two Pages from They / 45 December / 47 Christmas Eve / 48 The View / 49 Family / 50 Hand / 51 Three Poems from the Asylum The Naming / 53 The Gate / 56 Christmas Eve in the Asylum / 57 Unspeakable / 58 Two Faces by a Window / 59 The Maiden's Collar / 60 Scissors / 62 On Being in a Poetry Band / 63 Tending the Dead / 65 Painting the Flood / 66 Sahoko / 67 Watercress / 69 Dog's Bay / 73 Errislanan / 74 Seven Watercolours / 76 Yeats, January 1939 / 78 Sea Folk / 81 New Year's Eve / 83 II Buffalo / 85 Opus in F Major / 87 Two Poems in Memory of Elizabeth Bishop Of Thee I Sing / 89 Leaving St. Elizabeth's / 90 Emigrant Tune / 93 Jazz / 94 Harmonica / 96 Cash / 99 The Scarecrow The Scarecrow's Brain / 100 The Scarecrow's Heart / 102 The Scarecrow's Eyes / 104 The Scarecrows' Gaze / 105 The Skagit Valley Beekeeper / 106 Our Fathers' Sons / 107 Cutting Logs with Samuel / 108 Like the Buffalo / 109 The Amish Woman / 110 For Poetry, This / 112 Words for Poets / 113 Walt Whitman's Grave / 119 In Camden, Where the Poet Was / 121 Company / 123 Biographical Note / 125
