Conscious and Verbal: Poems - Softcover

Murray, Les

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374528608 ISBN 13: 9780374528607

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002

Synopsis

A wonderful new collection by a wizard of contemporary poetry

Everything widens with distance, in this perspective.
The dog's paws, trotting, rotate his end of infinity
and dam water feels a shiver few willow drapes share.
Bright leaks through their wigwam re-purple the skinny beans
then rapidly the light tops treetops and is shortened
into a day. Everywhere stands pat beside its shadow
for the great bald radiance never seen in dreams.
-from "Aurora Prone"

In July 1996, the Australian press reported that after three weeks in a coma, the country's greatest poet, Les Murray, was again "conscious and verbal." Shortly thereafter, Murray resumed his work in words, and over the next four years he wrote these sixty-five poems, which, in their different ways, literally or sensually, replay that dreamy announcement of the perpetually waking world. Conscious and Verbal is one of the legendary poet's richest, fullest, and most imaginative books to date.

About this title

About the Author

Les Murray is the author of eight books, including the novel in verse, Fredy Neptune (FSG, 1999) and Learning Human: New and Selected Poems (FSG, 2000). He lives on a farm on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374528608
• ISBN 13: 9780374528607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128