Words From the Wall

The collection "Words from the Wall" explores the boundaries between outer and inner, known and unknown, and between what is familiar and other, featuring poems about the killing fields of Agincourt, Flanders, Vietnam, and the 2015 Bataclan attack.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 11 April 2019
Publisher: Vintage Publishing

These remarkable poems are despatches from the edges of experience:

From the remote coast of northern Iceland, where tree trunks and dead whales lie beached, to the furthest outposts of the Roman empire in the title poem, 'From the very limit of the world,/Flavius sends you greetings, my lord.' The collection is concerned with borders and brinks - the liminal spaces where distinctions blur between outer and inner, known and unknown, between what is familiar and what is other. This is the terrain of the displaced and deracinated, but also the shimmering space where all is volatile, mutable, in flux - and it is also, of course, the thin, transparent veil between waking and sleep, between life and death.

Shadowed by mortality, lit by lyrical grace, Words from the Wall includes poems about the killing fields of Agincourt, Flanders, Vietnam, and a memorial poem to the victims of the 2015 Bataclan attack, where the dead are 'stations of flame, and it begins and ends at the boundaries of the Roman territory, at the edge of life: 'The girls I laughed with once/in the baths atrium/are withered and wattle-necked./I love them still...'

These poems offer a powerful exploration of the human condition, capturing the complexities of life, death, and the spaces in between. Through their vivid imagery and evocative language, they invite us to reflect on the boundaries we cross, the connections we make, and the ways in which we navigate the uncertain terrain of existence.

Weight: 100g
Dimension: 131 x 197 x 6 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787330993