He says Hades, and I see Richard, wearing his welding mask
kneeling beside a stripped out Citroën, sparks from his torch
lighting one side of the garage wall. She says Zeus, and I see
Casey, framed against the sky, bloated and happy
carrying cement across a tiled roof

‘They speak of the gods’

Bevel is William Letford’s first book, but his poems have already earned him a large following thanks to his brilliant performances and through Carcanet’s New Poetries V anthology. Letford makes poems from the rhythms of speech and the stuff of daily life: work and love, seasons and cities, and his writing is alive with the wonder and comedy of the mundane. Bevel is filled with voices – ‘an he says / A love the summer / it’s hoat / ye kin wear yer shoarts...’ – and with the knowledge that becomes engrained in the body: ‘The weight of a drill. The texture of rust.’

Letford works as a roofer, a trade that gives him a particular perspective on life at ground level. ‘Be prepared,’ he writes: pay attention to the moment, know which way to fall. His poems are sure and strong, the words dance.
William Letford reads from his work at the launch of New Poetries V.

Waking for work in the winter
Becoming
For the journey
It’s aboot the labour
Be prepared
[coffee shop window]
Wit is it
By the time we met
We are
Elderly ladies and afternoon tea
This spring evening
Fusion expands
Worker
A bassline
Newsflash
Hollow words in the black dog days
Moths
Taking a headbutt
Working away
In the mountains of northern Italy
No holding back
Breakfast in Baiardo
No distractions
[it rains]
Outside the city
Sunburst
[T-shirt wrapped around my head]
The light and dark of Adeona
A bad day
Orchards
Helsinki, Finland
Mhari and Annika
Our life
Café culture
Don’t you think i know
Let’s just be
Sex poem number 1
Prowl: Sex poem number 2
Sex poem number 3
Impact theory
Thurs hunnurs a burds oan the roofs
They speak of the gods
For the spirit
Chimneys
The songs we love
Schrödinger
Sunday, with the television off
Winter in the world
A poem