Since his debut, Nil Nil, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 1993, Don Paterson has lit up the poetry scene in the U.K. His dazzling, intensely lyric and luminous verse has delighted readers ever since, and won many awards along the way. God's Gift Women took the T.S. Eliot Prize in 1997, Landing Light won it again in 2003 and the Whitbread Award besides, and Rain (2009), his most recent collection, won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
This selection, drawn from twenty years of work, is made by the author himself and includes not only those poems from his four single volumes, but his thrilling and original adaptations of the poems of Antonio Machado and Rainer Maria Rilke. For any readers unfamiliar with Don Paterson's work, this Selected Poems offers the perfect introduction to this most captivating of writers; and for fans, an essential gathering from a master craftsman.
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[About to sit down with my half-pint of Guinness / I was magnetized by a remote phosphorescence / and draw, like a moth, to the darkened back room / where a pool-table hummed to itself in the corner (THE FERRYMAN'S ARMS)]***
(Faber & Faber, 15 May 2012, ebook, 192 pages, borrowed from my library)
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I really enjoyed this collection of poems.
I always find it hard to review poetry collections. What makes a good poem is very personal and can differ from person to person, more-so than fiction or any other type of literature. Some people love nature poetry while others prefer love poems or narrative poetry.
There are things I seek for in a poem. I want to be told a story, taken out of my comfort zone and shown a familiar world that has been slightly skewed. I hate nature poetry. Love poems are okay as long as they are dark and don't have a happy ending.
Selected Poems was stuffed with the kind of poems I enjoy the most. There is just enough light and dark to keep me entertained. I enjoyed every line.
I especially liked The Ferryman's Arms, Nil Nil, The End, God's Gift to Women, Nothing, The Reading, The Dead and Rain.
