Description
Book SynopsisWith its flighty parables and skewed morality tales, The Wilderness Party is an unforgettable record of turbulent times. These are poems of finely-wrought musicality, bristling energy and playful excess. From cream cakes on Shetland to Camberwick Green, from Lyuba the Siberian mammoth to the madness of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, A.B. Jackson approaches personal and historical events with a mixture of wit and wonder. Included in the opening section of individual lyrics is 'Treasure Island', winner of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition. The series 'Natural History' takes a spirited linguistic tour through Pliny the Elder in Elizabethan translation to uncover the myths, mysteries, and uncanny familiarities of animal behaviour. In the twenty-one short fictions of 'Apocrypha', high ideals cavort with low befuddlement as re-cast Biblical characters attempt to make sense of the modern world. The Wilderness Party is Jackson's long-awaited follow-up to his Forward Prize-winning first collection Fire Stations. Poetry Book Society Recommendation. .
Trade ReviewAt A.B. Jackson's Wilderness Party you never know quite what will happen at the next inventive and fantastical turn of thought – always elegantly dressed and poised, working with beautiful musical control, Jackson's poems in this collection are wired for unpredictable play and fancy. Wryly volatile and resistant, his language is open at every step to the high-energy transformations that spark from the metrical and harmonic patternings of his phrasing. -- ohn Burnside & Jane Draycott * PBS Bulletin *
The Wilderness Party is about the dangerous power of words - as law, as lies, as holy writ - but also brims with love of language. Jackson creates an irresistible poetry of resistance which brings disillusion and delight in equal measure. -- Clare Pollard
A.B. Jackson's poems are a model of precision, displaying an intensity of craftsmanship and care that is as rare amongst contemporary poetry as the originality of his imaginative range. Combined with comic panache and a perfect ear, his work - its ethical weight and aesthetic rigour - seems to me to be essential reading for anybody interested in the potential of poetic language. -- Ahren Warner
Table of ContentsACTS 13 Acts 14 A Modified Earthquake Scale 16 Heatwave Three Messerschmidt Heads 17 The Incapable Bassoonist 18 The Difficult Secret 19 The Artist as he Imagined Himself Laughing 20 Treasure Island 22 Romantic Interlude 23 Easter Monday 26 Foxes 27 The Godwit 28 Saint Brigid of Blackwaterfoot 29 An Enquiry Concerning Mouse Brightness 31 Time 32 The Find 34 'Camberwick Green' NATURAL HISTORY 39 Of Elephants 40 Of Lions 41 Of the Crocodile 42 Of Bees 43 How creatures find Physicall remedie 44 Of Swine 45 Of Mice and Rats APOCRYPHA 49 I 'Ruth at sunrise' 50 II 'The Apocalypse of Judas' 51 III 'Bed-head Lazarus' 52 IV 'Judith' 53 V 'Gasps, cries' 54 VI 'Adam's jaw' 55 VII 'Adam lay miraculous' 56 VIII 'Abraham' 57 IX 'Barabbas' 58 X 'High noon' 59 XI 'Moses' 60 XII 'Daniel's ear' 61 XIII 'Flame-throwing Seraph' 62 XIV 'A waterfall' 63 XV 'Sarah' 64 XVI 'Close, these two' 65 XVII 'Pigs in spring' 66 XVIII 'Jezebel' 67 XIX 'Borders closed' 68 XX 'Balding young Noah' 69 XXI 'Gethsemane' 71 NOTES
