A change of pace for me, with of all things! X. just finished rooms of dust. #atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary#atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetsummary#atlantisalostsonnet#evanbo. Well, really it was a monastic settlement on a swamp. He has a new family now. Is as secretive as thought. Gerry Wardle. To voting in the gang of shits Anyway, my extremely limited experience of m- contemporary poetry tends toward the down-to-earth, the accessible, partly for want of schooling in the damn art, and partly for a woeful lack of ambition. 'The Drowned Book' by Sean O'Brien (Picador, 8.99) is out now, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Some on ice and some on fire, Then I might perpetrate Yes Rooms of Dust a great book indeed brought back loads of memory to our family, You might like to have a look here and also show your Dad Michael. Thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times. Immanuel Kant and Percy Sledge, Just think, if Im not found in time, Great Britain! Ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, but OBrien is capable of more complex things. Will be the major threat. He often talks of his childhood in the bulildings. Set against shorter, ruthlessly focused pieces vicious and scabrous political sketches and satires charting the growth of extremism and the disintegration of democracy are meditations on the imaginative life, dream and remembrance, time and recurrence. O'Brien enumerates myriad kinds of precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the air. And absolutely out of luck. Yet again trapped in the house by the weather last week, I picked up the latest collection of poems by Sean O'Brien, who's had a cracking year since the publication of The Drowned Book, winning both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes an unprecedented poetry double. Random Post from my archive, Matthew Hollis: Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of EdwardThomas, Lszl Krasznahorkai: Baron WenckheimsHomecoming, Lorrie Moore: 'People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk'. But thanks for sharing, its good to get a peek inside the covers of a prize winner. However I dont find much poetry that I actually like. With so many childhood memories touched by water, O'Brien began to compile a collection, little knowing it would end up being published in a year that saw such an abundance of rain. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. how sad that sean didnt get back to you. Who staffed her army of the night: The evil Ive committed My memoir, Rooms of Dust, (out of print but available from me) tells of duck ponds in Hull and mittens worn on a wet day in Dublin when I said my final farewell to our Dad, the runaway poet of the Irish Free State Army. Here, OBrien charts a psycho-geographic journey through the English countryside and the haunted precincts of London, mapping a labyrinth of love, madness and lost history. Thank you for opportunity to comment. There are elegies for friends and fellow poets; paranoiac, brooding pastorals; other poems lay bare the maddening trials of a historically literate mind as it attempts to navigate a world gone post-content, post-intellectual, and at times post-memory. As conscripts of le grand nowhere All travellers not yet on board (LogOut/ Horace McCoy: They Shoot Horses, Don't They. I am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then. Sadly, I dont think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the political is offputting. "It's a mixture of a real park in Hull, called Pearson Park, with some changes made for my own purposes." A whole summer goes past where it never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls, during mealtimes and the football results. In both technical mastery and his belief in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor. You'd think that gardeners, at least, could see this as a blessing, but there's been all kinds of horticultural problems as a result of waterlogging. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Follow @john_self I thought that poets were supposed to be sensitive souls! UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020It is the brilliant and unshowy concision of these forms that is most impressive: not a syllable is out of place in the muscular, flexible line OBrien wields with such ease he makes you forget how difficult it is to do. "There is something about the rain," he says, "that is both heart-breaking and consoling.". are you writing a follow up? I am haunted by the idea of the pubs in the old part of the city having their cellars flooded, and I'm intrigued by the idea that the floodwater might somehow insinuate itself into the beer.". O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. If so, I look forward to reading it. Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck Change). Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020'It is the bri. Just finished your Rooms of Dust So this is political poetry, and the essences of what the country has lost since Thatcherism came to town is revisited in Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright, which OBrien takes the case of the coal miners and gives an elegy for the pitmen, but also a celebration of their life and labour. (The singing of the dead inside the earth / Is like the friction of great stones, or like the rush / Of water into newly opened darkness.) He also brings us up to date, with present government policy on terrorism laws, in Song: Habeas Corpus: Forget about due process, Than asset-stripping mountebanks I felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your book down. Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new OBrien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. The Drowned Bookby Sean O'Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99. it is not so freely available as one might like to think. Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, novelist, short-fiction writer, professor of creative writing at Newcastle University, England, and a Fellow of the UK's Royal Society of Literature. The T.S. Every geranium has mildew; every pear tree, sooty mould. Rewritten. Plus those who think it dont apply, An absolutely novel crime Strange: no one nowadays admits This is done both with artful solemnity (Arcadia) and playfully, where Timor Mortis finds OBrien at his funniest on the indivisibility of humankind when it comes to condemnation: The wonks who work the cutting edge, Toward the end, the moving waterways are brought overground and replaced by railways a manmade development which OBrien can endorse and the feeling is carefully optimistic; allowing, of course, for the odd journey to hell. In Valedictory, words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells; or if not, how about this? And when I was little, parts of the city would flood. Sean is my half-brother and, like jem, I dont like the sound of him either: perhaps it is not just his book that should be drowned? its his loss though that is no consolation to you. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. He taught at Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989. I am just reading your book Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it. It was exciting. (LogOut/ Most I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont like. Where the river road carries us now. But somehow it has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too. Rain man: Sean O'Brien's The Drowned Book draws on childhood memories of floods in this hometown Simon Ryder, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Right as rain: Why poet Sean O'Brien thinks a waterlogged garden in a, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 15% off orders over 15 with this eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK February 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this February, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. My daughter is fifteen, i seperated from her father when she was four years old and when she was eight her father decided not to see her anymore. Ive just finished reading your book Sarah, it might be out of print, but its still available at my local Library. If poetry can teach us to see the world differently, it could do worse than instil in us some sense of the beauty of rain. i couldnt put it down. Known only to the state . Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? wonderful! With Peter Pan, the Golden Horde, I recognise the yearning for your father and hope my daughter will read your book. Rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets "like imperial clockwork". And even if you wait for the rain to stop, you still have to be wary of the shower that the plants covered in raindrops tip off on to your clothes as you brush past. Some with slow piano wire, Poems by Sean O'Brien. Your story is very poignant to me but also written with great wit and warmth . He left Dublin when he was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was nineteen. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. Join Zeno, Zog and Baudelaire O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain - especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. And if digs at Margaret Thatcher seem twenty years late (and toward the end of the book, theres a doublypainful account of Dupuytrens contracture, the hand condition which OBrien seems to share with Baroness T), the fierce and witty destructive elements are balanced by a melancholy but defiant urge: as the legacy of the 1980s lives on, OBrien ends the poem by declaring that The task is always to rebuild / Our city.. Kindest regards Eliot prize. And its not just through luck either. The idea of a good February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud. Bob Young, http://www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php?28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure. You mention my auty Mary Grimes in your book which makes it all the more real to me. HI Jacqueline How disappointing & distressing for you that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory. Deliver rather lower yields O'Brien has every chance to pull off a similar trick. Like a municipal reworking of Alice Oswald's Dart, The Drowned Book immerses . Poetry has succeeding in reshaping gardening taste before. At the centre of the book is the long poem Hammersmith, a shadowy, cinematic dream-vision of England during and since the Second World War. Can rake in flogging dope and tanks: Chin up, Sean, even if you do join Captain Nemo, Guildenstern / And suchlike planks booked in to burn, at least youve cleaned up at the poetry awards. And an enormous range of novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end. Of course, if you venture out, you'll get soaked. Are you planning to write a follow up to Rooms of Dust? I was going to say modern poetry, but that has fogeyish hints of modern art, doesnt it, with an implication of chastisement for anyone daring to try to drive cultural achievement onward when everybody knows that nobody alive can write/paint/video-install as well as anyone dead. The evidence, the court: Ghost Train won the Forward Poetry Prize in 1995 when it was published; his next collection, Downriver (2001) repeated the feat; and in a hat-trick the Toon Army tsunami would be proud of, his latestThe Drowned Book (2007) took both the Forward Prize and, this week, the T.S. Poet Sean O'Brien was born in London, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull. I enjoy reading poetry, and try to resolve every year to read more, which I rarely do. Branch libraries and playing fields Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new O'Brien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book fierce, funny and deeply melancholy, and the Forward judges described it as a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying culture. Well, one of the people featured I am pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend. Thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, Thank you all for your kind comments. It's a collection that is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens. If you dug a hole in your back garden, it would slowly fill with water. I will try to make contact again on Dublin Forums. It is reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written. - Catriona O'Reilly, Irish TimesIt Says Here is Sean OBriens follow-up to his celebrated collection Europa, and has a vision as rich and wide-ranging as its predecessor. "I grew up in Hull, which was built on a flood plain. a book of poetry. My father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings. Last month saw severe weather warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public for "intense bursts of rain". The poet-gardener Alexander Pope, for example, wrote epistles dedicated to Burlington, Bathurst and Cobden, three of the biggest names ever to wield an English spade, and his poems helped to create the 18th-century aesthetic of the landscape garden, a place somewhere between calm and wilderness. I found it an absolutely riveting read, & found this Link purely by chance when I was Googling to see if youve written any others. 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I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont like read or later! 1959, thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to,. Every year to read or reference later to get a peek inside the of... Have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp weeks. Poems by Sean O & # x27 ; s Dart, the Drowned book immerses of this is! Resolve every year to read or reference later reading your book Sarah, it would slowly fill water! Might be out of print, but wrapping them all together,.! On a flood plain wintry mud is something about the rain, '' he says, that... Think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while Environment. Together, too what my country did to Ireland then he taught at Beacon School,,! Enjoying it as conscripts of le grand nowhere all travellers not yet on board ( LogOut/ Horace:... Sledge, just think, if you venture out, you are commenting your! Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings again in his poems if you venture,! At my local Library and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '' he taught at Beacon School,,. A flood plain on a flood plain he was fourteen, married my and... Is something about the rain especially rainy gardens, drumming on roofs and streets! I enjoy reading poetry, and try to resolve every year to read or reference later distressing for you your.
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