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The Song Atlas

John Gallas

Cover Picture of The Song Atlas
Categories: Anthologies
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (242 pages)
(Pub. Sep 2002)
9781857546149
Out of Stock
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  • Night Roof

    The night roof is a right-round city,
    lightpricked with men and wild things:
    but, there, no man
    has ever killed a chook or goat,
    no bear has ever wiped its game:
    no crashes, no slips.
    Everything still-lives.

    Anonymous

    The Song Atlas is the world's first anthology of poetry from every country in the world. Five years in the making, the creation of such a book as almost as interesting as the poems contained therein.

    John Gallas is a poet from Aotearoa/NZ, born in Wellington in 1950 and presently living near Markfield, Leicestershire, in the UK. HE has published 31 books of poetry, mainly with Carcanet Press. Others include SLG Press Oxford, Dempsey & Windle, Indigo Dreams, Cerasus Publishing, Cold Hub NZ, Five Leaves Editions (Nottingham), ... read more
    Praise for John Gallas 'Gallas's restless imagination and exuberant vocabulary bounce us through a variety of locations, moods, landscapes and seasons, from the bush-clad South Island of New Zealand to some distinctly unpredictable spots in the English Midlands.'

    Fleur Adcock
    'So many places! John Gallas vagabonds his way through the wide, wide world, and is just about the most audacious poet I know. These are the poems Wordsworth would have written if he'd grown up in New Zealand, been a bit more mischievous, and got around England on a bicycle.'

    Bill Manhire
    'John Gallas is not merely a lyric master, but a master of meaning... The Extasie is a collection that I feel I will be coming back to frequently, not just to recapture the enjoyment I had when first reading it, but also to fully bathe in the complex understanding of love in all its forms, rendered so skilfully in poems that reward a second reading with subtle epiphanies.'

    Ed Bedford, Coffee Time Reviews

    'This is a book for contemplative reading to enjoy all its richness and subtleties. Quietly thought provoking and intelligent, these are poems that celebrate the messiness of life.'

    - Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon
     'An enticing and timely collection of translations.'
    - The Guardian


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