Carcanet Press - Winter Moorings

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Lafan

Already your long low tide draws me down

And your trompe l’oeil of sailing through sand

Runs my loss against those mussel banks

At the mouth between island and mainland.

At mere memory of your name I drown

And all that sails in me looks to the lifeboat

Whether Tillie, Annie, Isabella or Lilly –

And What-Ho! herself and the Menai Light.

From the saintly life of the headland I

Take spare comfort, grateful for small mercy,

The life of the head and the brain-cell

Flashing intermittent signal blindly.

Blind as in faith, on the sea of language,

The eighth sea with its own ports of call,

A mirror world in the world’s image.

Here I come again by Lafan to make landfall.

Andrew McNeillie’s sixth collection returns to the sea and its immensity as a metaphor for fate. It also revisits the British and Irish archipelago (‘For which read a figure for my heart. / For which too read a figure for time’s hurt’), following a north-western trajectory from the Aran Islands to the Hebrides. The natural world is seen here in both its beauty and its indifference to human beings (‘There’s many a thing more lasting than a person’). From a version of ‘The Seafarer’ to an elegiac play ‘for sounds and voices’ retelling the story of an English airman drowned off Aran in World War II, these poems speak of lives and deaths across the reaches of history.

Winter Moorings
Block: A Pulley Used in Running Rigging
Strong Lines
In the Wake of ‘The Seafarer’
Words at Sea
Quay
Old Salt’s Prayer
Trouvé: Rigg Bay
Machars: War & Peace
Laver Weed
Lafan
Island Hopping
By Ferry, Foot, and Fate
Lighthouse at Daybreak
Nightwatch
Critique of Judgement
On Looking into an Old Photograph
An English Airman’s Death Recalled
‘The sea goes all the way round the island’
On the Rocks Road
Cormorant
Port Sheánia Revisited
Harbour Inn
On Not Sailing to St Kilda
A Return of the Native
Blind
Requiem
Insomnia
Round About a Great Estate
Shore Leave
At the Landfill Site

Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For many years he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus Professor. He is the ... read more

'There is some extraordinary virtuosity here â in one poem, he finds 33 half-rhymes for 'envy'.
John Greening, Country Life
Praise for Andrew McNeillie 'A living poetic language flows, easy and slangyâ¦the occasional poems which punctuate the later part of the collection are vitalized and real, among them elegies that remember mourning his fatherâs death, and other deaths, which ring true, urged into being by poetry itself.'
Gillian Clarke 'The finest poems here are witty and elegiac, comforting and cajoling and speak of pervading human concerns with a rare lyrical ease and quiet authority. McNeillieâs special gift is for providing the pleasure that comes from recognition: we can see ourselves in his poems. The book carries an epigram from Wordsworth, and there is a Wordsworthian sense of audience and connection in this collection.'

Times Literary Supplement

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Winter Moorings Andrew McNeillie RRP: GBP 9.95 Discount: 10% You Save: GBP 0.99 Price: GBP 8.96 Available Paperback ISBN: 978 1 847772 48 0 Categories: 21st Century, Scottish Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Published: February 2014 210 x 137 x 8 mm 72 pages Publisher: Carcanet Press Also available in: eBook (Kindle), eBook (EPUB) Digital access available through Exact Editions Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews Lafan Already your long low tide draws me down And your trompe l’oeil of sailing through sand Runs my loss against those mussel banks At the mouth between island and mainland. At mere memory of your name I drown And all that sails in me looks to the lifeboat Whether Tillie, Annie, Isabella or Lilly – And What-Ho! herself and the Menai Light. From the saintly life of the headland I Take spare comfort, grateful for small mercy, The life of the head and the brain-cell Flashing intermittent signal blindly. Blind as in faith, on the sea of language, The eighth sea with its own ports of call, A mirror world in the world’s image. Here I come again by Lafan to make landfall. Andrew McNeillie’s sixth collection returns to the sea and its immensity as a metaphor for fate. It also revisits the British and Irish archipelago (‘For which read a figure for my heart. / For which too read a figure for time’s hurt’), following a north-western trajectory from the Aran Islands to the Hebrides. The natural world is seen here in both its beauty and its indifference to human beings (‘There’s many a thing more lasting than a person’). From a version of ‘The Seafarer’ to an elegiac play ‘for sounds and voices’ retelling the story of an English airman drowned off Aran in World War II, these poems speak of lives and deaths across the reaches of history. Winter Moorings Block: A Pulley Used in Running Rigging Strong Lines In the Wake of ‘The Seafarer’ Words at Sea Quay Old Salt’s Prayer Trouvé: Rigg Bay Machars: War & Peace Laver Weed Lafan Island Hopping By Ferry, Foot, and Fate Lighthouse at Daybreak Nightwatch Critique of Judgement On Looking into an Old Photograph An English Airman’s Death Recalled ‘The sea goes all the way round the island’ On the Rocks Road Cormorant Port Sheánia Revisited Harbour Inn On Not Sailing to St Kilda A Return of the Native Blind Requiem Insomnia Round About a Great Estate Shore Leave At the Landfill Site Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For many years he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus Professor. He is the ... read more 'There is some extraordinary virtuosity here â in one poem, he finds 33 half-rhymes for 'envy'. John Greening, Country Life Praise for Andrew McNeillie 'A living poetic language flows, easy and slangyâ¦the occasional poems which punctuate the later part of the collection are vitalized and real, among them elegies that remember mourning his fatherâs death, and other deaths, which ring true, urged into being by poetry itself.' Gillian Clarke 'The finest poems here are witty and elegiac, comforting and cajoling and speak of pervading human concerns with a rare lyrical ease and quiet authority. McNeillieâs special gift is for providing the pleasure that comes from recognition: we can see ourselves in his poems. The book carries an epigram from Wordsworth, and there is a Wordsworthian sense of audience and connection in this collection.' Times Literary Supplement You might also be interested in: Leaf Graffiti Lucy Burnett All The Poems Muriel Spark	Share this... Quick Links Anvil Press Poetry Aspects of Portugal Audio Books Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog Setting Sally's Songs read more Nina Bogin: 'Thousandfold' read more "I may be startled by loud noises outside your body" - Richard Price thinks aloud about Advent Calendars and 'calibrating joy' read more The Thawing of Spirits: Merry Christmas! read more 'In the Mind's Own Sun': Editing Charles Tomlinson read more Sasha Dugdale on WS Graham read more
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