Rain

About this book

In this his first volume of original verse since the award-winning Landing Light Don Paterson is found writing at his most memorable and direct. In an assembly of masterful lyrics and monologues he conjures a series of fables and charms that serve both to expose us to the unsettling forces within the world and to offer some protection against them. Whether outwardly elemental in their address or more personal in their direction these poemsaddressed to the rain and the sea to his young sons or beloved friendsnever shy from their inquiry into truth and lie embracing everything in scope from the rangy narrative to the tiny renku. Rain which includes the winner of this years Forward Prize for the Best Individual Poem and an extended elegy for the poet Michael Donaghy is Patersons most intimate and manifest collection to date.