Poetry
Reviews
Poems of painterly clarity graced by flawless craftsmanship and beauty of language. Tender yet tenacious, they wondrously enfold the fragility of our lives and make the heart soar
Stewart Conn
'An exceptionally gifted poet
Scotsman
These poems are like handmade lace, detailed and accurate, carefully constructed with an unswerving eye for detail
The North
About the Book
This remarkable collection explores the complex ways in which people and things are held - both metaphorically and physically - in the world. Through motifs of vessels and containers, Elizabeth Burns' exquisite and energetic poetry investigates the relationships between presence and absence, resilience and fragility. As delicate as they are vivid, the poems in 'Held' resonate with breathtaking emotional power. Previously published as a pamphlet, the central section of the collection, 'The Shortest Days', was winner of the 2009 Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets.
The Author
Elizabeth Burns
Elizabeth Burns was born in 1957, and brought up in Edinburgh. She has lived most of her life in Scotland, until moving to Lancaster a few years ago. While writing has been her primary drive in life, she has worked in various jobs whilst writing, including as a bookseller and for publishers. Since 1994 she has been teaching creative writing, for the Open College of the Arts, the University of Central Lancashire, and the Department of Continuing Education at Lancaster University. She has had three solo collections published - 'Ophelia and other poems' (Polygon, 1991), which was shortlisted for a Saltire Award for First Book of the Year, 'The Gift of Light' (Diehard, 1999) and 'The Lantern Bearers' (Shoestring, 2007) - and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Several of her short stories have been published and a collection of these and others is under consideration. Scotland's language, landscape, culture are abiding influences.Related
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Paperback | Pub: 14 Nov 2014£9.99
This selected works of Sorley MacLean brings together published poetry from MacLean’s own edited volumes of Poetry. The poems will be given in their original Gaelic with English translations and introduced by Angus Peter Campbell and Aonghas...
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Paperback | Pub: 17 Nov 2006£12.99William McGonagall was born in Edinburgh in 1830. His father was a poor hand-loom weaver, and his work took his family to Glasgow, then to Dundee. William attended school for eighteen months before the age of seven, and received no further formal...
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Paperback | Pub: 26 Jun 2013£9.99From NHS overdose clinics to overrun gardens, talking Cambodian treehouses to the teenage perversion of a young Scot on a French Exchange, Pedersen’s poetry is a rich and fantastical feast of flavours, landscape and language. On the menu is...
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Paperback | Pub: 04 Apr 2011£12.99Alongside the mountain poems from Men on Ice, Order of the Day and Western Swing will be brand new material, facsimiles of previously unpublished material – including his first poem, written in 1972 – and illustrations and material from...
