Description
"Polder" begins with extinction. The dust that existed from the first instant of creation is the dust to which in the end all creation will return, 'sinking under its weight'. The prose-poem 'Dust' was written when the poet was being treated for alcoholism and began the process of recovery. The collection ends with poems addressed to Torquatus, friend of the Roman poet Horace, a dialogue across centuries that defies the dust and looks back with mixed feelings to the drinking days of ambition, pride, and failure - and celebrates the poet's fiftieth birthday. In between are other conversations. In 2000 McCully moved to Amsterdam and began to explore the Dutch landscapes, dialects and culture that animate the second section of Polder with faces and voices past and present. In the third, 'Masterpieces', works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other artists displayed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, are engaged in dialogues that range from the quizzical to the confrontational. The poet tries to find firm ground in a fragile landscape reclaimed from the hungry sea, a home in a place that is not yet home.
About the Author
Chris McCully has published three collections of poetry with Carcanet (Time Signatures 1993; Not Only I 1996; The Country of Perhaps 2003) as well as the best-selling Fly-fishing: A Book of Words (1992) and the edited collection of essays The Poet's Voice and Craft (1994). Chris is one of the directors of the Modern Literary Archives programme in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, and is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts, University of Manchester. He is married, and lives in Amstelveen with a garden and a black labrador, Tess.
Reviews
"a keen fly-fisher, a translator of Old English poetry and an expert prosodist... these skills have miraculously combined so that almost every poem alights on the surface of the reader's mind with absolute integrity, judgment, and profound allure The Observer"
Book Information
ISBN 9781847770172
Author Chris McCully
Format Paperback
Page Count 100
Imprint Carcanet Press Ltd
Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
About the Author
Chris McCully has published three collections of poetry with Carcanet (Time Signatures 1993; Not Only I 1996; The Country of Perhaps 2003) as well as the best-selling Fly-fishing: A Book of Words (1992) and the edited collection of essays The Poet's Voice and Craft (1994). Chris is one of the directors of the Modern Literary Archives programme in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, and is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts, University of Manchester. He is married, and lives in Amstelveen with a garden and a black labrador, Tess.
Reviews
"a keen fly-fisher, a translator of Old English poetry and an expert prosodist... these skills have miraculously combined so that almost every poem alights on the surface of the reader's mind with absolute integrity, judgment, and profound allure The Observer"
Book Information
ISBN 9781847770172
Author Chris McCully
Format Paperback
Page Count 100
Imprint Carcanet Press Ltd
Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
