Description
Book SynopsisRoddy Lumsden was one of Britain's liveliest and most inventive poets of recent times. From the formal, frenetic debut Yeah Yeah Yeah, through the playful wit and cynicism of The Book of Love, to the ‘magnificent song to himself’ of Roddy Lumsden is Dead, this retrospective of his earlier work shows how his poetic journey was eventful, fuelled by his fascination with the intrigues of men and women and the short steps from real life to folklore to the surreal. Mischief Night brought together the best work from Roddy Lumsden’s three previous collections, as well as a whole new collection, The Drowning Man. It also contains poems from his pamphlet The Bubble Bride and the previously uncollected sonnet sequence Cavoli Riscaldati. It was followed by four later collections. Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.
Trade ReviewSharp, bright and utterly heartbreaking, this collection by one of the most intriguing voices is alternatingly roguish, curmudgeonly, insecure, and tender. The speaker woos and teases, cajoles and repels, withdrawing before beginning again. Though the poems offer no utopian promise, no deliverance, they cut to the quick with the difficult truth of longing, need, and the "salt of hopelessness". -- Monique Tschofen * New Delta Review *
There are tremendous narrative poems, mysterious, lingering ones... and unforgettably realistic tales of melancholy sexual encounters... Lumsden is a brilliant vivisector and pathologist of the contemporary relationship... all we can ask for in poetry: contemplation, intelligence, stylistic beauty. Like a spreadsheet of a morality adventure, like perfectly articulated pain... a helpless celebration of Life's adventures. -- Alan Warner * Scotsman *
Table of ContentsTHE DROWNING MAN 14 The Tremendous Few 15 Charcoal Sketch 16 What Love Cannot Do 17 Miss Hollington’s Notes 18 Us 19 Q 20 Rain at Night 21 The Knack 22 The Waitresses 23 Sorry 24 Life Story 25 Moments of Terror 26 Fear of Music 28 Second Prayer 29 For Jesus 30 Letter From an Admirer 31 The Bath in Milk 32 The Drowning Man 33 Between Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night 34 The Deaths of Imaginary Friends 35 Moments of Pleasure 36 Still 37 Turning into Grizzly Street 38 From the Valentine Studio 41 Cover Versions 42 On the Cusp of Virgo and Libra 43 Specific Hunger 44 Perfumes of Scotland 45 Conspiracy Sketch 46 True Believers 47 Miss America 48 One Acre Yard from THE BUBBLE BRIDE (2003) 50 Sang o’ the Kittock’s Loddie 52 A Saltire 53 Hotel Showers of the World 54 The Kitchens: A Guided Tour 55 On the Boat-slope 56 The Bubble Bride 57 Spent 58 Lateral Vertigo 59 Overhead in a Scottish Larder 60 Lumsden Hotel 61 Little Fife 62 Evidence of Owls from RODDY LUMSDEN IS DEAD (2003) Roddy Lumsden Is Dead 65 My Pain 66 My Death 66 My Funeral 67 My Post-mortem 68 My Reptilian Existence 68 My True Love 69 My Allegory 69 My Early Years 70 My Hormones 71 My Dark Side 71 My Last Supper 72 My Complex 73 My Water 73 My National Stigma 74 My Limbo 75 My Face Not Fitting 75 My Half-life 76 My Sex Life 77 My Ascent 77 My Descent 78 My Superstition 79 My Luck 79 My Reflection 80 My Sickness 80 My Performance 81 My Realm of the Senses 81 My Plea 82 My Meeting with the Goddess 84 My Prayer 84 My Future 85 My Solitude 87 My Life 88 My Pennyworth 88 My Spring But Sweet 90 The Consolation 90 Weathergirl 91 Priapus 91 Higher Still 92 The Shortcut 92 Song 93 Song 93 Escher 94 The Wish 94 The Wager 95 One Thing I Do Know 95 Intramuros 96 Simpatika 96 The Drop of a Hat from THE BOOK OF LOVE (2000) 98 Incident in a Filing Cupboard 99 Because 100 An Older Woman 101 Love’s Young Dream 102 Piquant 103 Always 104 Marmalade 105 The Twelfth Kind 106 Lithium 107 Voyeur 108 For the Birds 109 Against Naturism 111 Troilism 112 Proof 113 Tricks for the Barmaid 114 from Subject Matter 116 The Beginning of the End 117 Acid 118 Scarlet 119 An Outlying Station 120 Athena 121 Bellyful 122 Solo 123 Pagan 124 Show and Tell 125 Hobbledehoy 126 The Man I Could Have Been 128 Lullaby Cavoli Riscaldati 131 St Andrews 131 Grief 132 Easter 132 Vena Cava 133 Heatwave 133 Reading the Suddenlys 134 Making a Mistake 134 Encraty 135 What Happened Next 135 Transfiguration 136 Square One 136 Making a Comeback 137 Digitalis 137 Making a Getaway 138 Abacus 138 Halfway Across 139 Compendium 139 Harm’s Way 140 Making a Scene 140 Elsewhere Perhaps Later 141 Life Means Life 141 Manila 142 Ether 142 What We Became from YEAH YEAH YEAH (1997) 144 Then 145 Sunday Morning 2.13 a.m. 146 St Patrick’s Day 149 Manners 150 Coming 151 364 152 Yeah Yeah Yeah 153 Prayer To Be with Mercurial Women 154 Trespass 155 On a Promise 156 Noyade 157 from St James Infirmly 159 After Entomology 160 Cardinal 161 Infighting 162 Noah 163 August (and Nothing After) 164 Rogation 165 The World’s End 166 Lines to a Missionary 167 Mercy 168 Beach Ceilidh 169 ITMA 170 The Boy 171 Roisin’s Wolves 172 The Ultimate Curve 173 Vanishing 174 The Answers
