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A to B

Gerry McGrath

A to B
10% off eBook (EPUB)
Categories: 21st Century, First Collections, Scottish
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE!
(Pub. Aug 2011)
9781847777997
£9.95 £8.96
Paperback (80 pages)
(Pub. May 2008)
9781857548778
£9.95 £8.96
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  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Contents
  • Shadows creep and shrink. The air’s browned like an apple.
    The forest is a city without weight, the path is a trampoline.
    In the depths of oil and ore the bones of the earth spring back
    under our shallow, pointing feet.

                                                        from ‘Forest Path’

    A to B began as a poem about a journey: it became a journey in itself, a collection that travels through emotions and places, unfolding to the rhythms of discovery and memory. Places and people reveal their secrets; fragile bonds of love link past to present.

    In the book’s first part, an elusive pattern is glimpsed in fragments: a plane climbs into a clear evening sky, the year turns to spring, a father’s voice is remembered after his death. The second part is marked by meticulous observation. A man watches daylight creep across a room. And the concluding section celebrates a quality of silence in which imagination grows.

    Gerry McGrath extends our understanding of what it is to travel through the world.
    I
    Higher
    No End of Exile
    Magpie
    Steady
    Sycamores
    Weight
    A Question
    Sleep Alights
    Baby Spuds
    Early Flowers
    Overnight
    In No Time
    Only Life
    A Man Unable

    II

    Pointing North
    The Colour of Water
    Dry Flood
    Phenomenon
    True Air
    Midsummer
    Busy
    Secrets
    Old Masters
    Gift
    Limits
    Whispers
    Anstruther
    Dead House
    Same Bird
    Shape of a Chair
    Anklet
    No Forgetting
    Still
    Particles
    Soft Tissue
    Among the Blue
    Calling
    Baci
    The Language of Pines
    The Water, the Shore
    Invisible
    Brief Season
    Watching Primrose
    Dishwater
    A Sense of Occasion
    Promise

    III

    The Middle Distance
    Small Fires
    A Milky Sunlight
    Two Friends
    Mint Tea
    Blue Light
    Basics
    Morning
    Forest Path
    Bright Walkway
    The Painter
    Island
    Currency
    Yellow Ticket
    First Detail
    Introductions
    A to B
    Powder Blue
    Imaginable Longing
    Small Hand
    First Love
    Lately
    Tilleul
    Around the Edge
    Cities
    White Rain
    In Loving Memory
    Younger
    Green Shallows
    Gerry McGrath was born and raised in Helensburgh, Scotland. He is a graduate of Strathclyde University and worked for several years as a teacher of modern languages. His first collection of poetry A to B (Carcanet) was published in 2008. In 2004 he was a winner of the Robert Louis Stevenson ... read more
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