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A fresh selection of the finest poems-some previously uncollected-by one of our finest English-language poets
Why write poetry? For the weird unemployment.
For the painless headaches, that must be tapped to strike
down along your writing arm at the accumulated moment.
For the adjustments after, aligning facets in a verb
before the trance leaves you. For working always beyond
your own intelligence.
-from "The Instrument"
New Selected Poems contains Les Murray's own gathering from the full range of his poetry-from the 1960s through Taller When Prone (2004) and including previously uncollected work.
One of the finest poets writing today, Murray reinvents himself with each new collection. Whether writing about the indignities of childhood or the depths of depression, or evoking the rhythms of the natural world; whether writing in a sharply rendered Australian vernacular or a perfectly pitched King's English, his versatility and vitality are a constant. New Selected Poems is the poet's choice of his essential works: an indispensable collection for readers who already love his poetry, and an ideal introduction for those who are new to it.
Why write poetry? For the weird unemployment.
For the painless headaches, that must be tapped to strike
down along your writing arm at the accumulated moment.
For the adjustments after, aligning facets in a verb
before the trance leaves you. For working always beyond
your own intelligence.
-from "The Instrument"
New Selected Poems contains Les Murray's own gathering from the full range of his poetry-from the 1960s through Taller When Prone (2004) and including previously uncollected work.
One of the finest poets writing today, Murray reinvents himself with each new collection. Whether writing about the indignities of childhood or the depths of depression, or evoking the rhythms of the natural world; whether writing in a sharply rendered Australian vernacular or a perfectly pitched King's English, his versatility and vitality are a constant. New Selected Poems is the poet's choice of his essential works: an indispensable collection for readers who already love his poetry, and an ideal introduction for those who are new to it.
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Reviews
"Les Murray has written some of the most astounding poems of our era. The opening words of several - 'All me are standing on feed' or 'Eye-and-eye eye an eye' or 'Sleeping-bagged in a duplex wing' - announce a talent for reconfiguring the English language. In a lesser writer this would be mannerism, but Murray combines relentless technical adroitness with the courage to draw deeply on aspects of h
Robert Crawford, London Review of Books
"Would somebody please, please give this guy his Nobel Prize? Les Murray is 75, a farmer, an Australian, an outspoken conservative Catholic, and one of the planet's best poets writing in English . . . New Selected Poems is Murray's first such career survey since 2000. It's a bracing read; Murray always is. He's a cultivated roughneck, cultivating awkwardness and brute English to create unsuspected
John Timpane, The Philadelphia Inquirer