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.

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


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


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