The Book of Demons

Barry MacSweeney wrote his first poem 42 years ago at the age of seven. He has been an alcoholic since he was 16; two years ago his hard drinking almost cost him his life. After a series of life-threatening fits and convulsions, which culminated with his being hooked up to life support in a hospital, MacSweeney underwent rehabilitation through detoxification in several hospitals and an addiction clinic. The Book of Demons records his fierce fight against addiction, the demonic visions that arose, and still arise, and the great love of those who helped save his life. Between times of ravaging, though, MacSweeney wrote the sequence Pearl, included here as a prelude to The Book of Demons. While Demons is a book of hard relentless experience, Pearl is pure lyrical innocence, a poetic sequence of harmlessness before harm set in. Pearl is an ode to the mute Northumbrian girl of the same name, whom MacSweeney taught to read and write on a slate in the rain, his first love.

Angel Showing Lead Shot Damage
Anne Sexton Blues
Blizzard: So Much Bad Fortune
Buying Christmas Wrapping Paper On January 12
Cavalry At Calvary
Daddy Wants To Murder Me
Dark Was The Night And Cold Was The Ground
Dead Man's Handle
Demons In My Pocket
Demons Swarm Upon Our Man And Tell The World He's Lost
Fever
Free Pet With Every Cage
From The Land Of Tumblestones
Himself Bright Starre Northern Within
Hooray Demons Salute The Forever Lost Parliament Of Barry
The Horror
In With The Stasi
John Bunyan To Johnny Rotten
Looking Down From The West Window
Lost Pearl
Mony Ryal Ray
Nil By Mouth: The Tongue Poem
No Buses To Damascus
No Such Thing
Nothing Are These Times
Ode To Beauty Strength And Joy And In Memory Of The Demons
Pasolini Demon Memo
Pearl Against The Barbed Wire
Pearl Alone
Pearl And Barry Pick Rosehips For The Good Of The Country
Pearl At 4am
Pearl Says
Pearl Suddenly Awake
Pearl's Final Say-so
Pearl's Poem Of Joy And Treasure
Pearl's Utter Brilliance
The Shells Her Auburn Hair Did Show
Shreds Of Mercy/the Merest Shame
Strap Down In Snowville
Sweeno, Sweeno
Sweet Jesus: Pearl's Prayer
Those Sandmartin Tails
Tom In The Market Swuare Outside Boots
Up A Height And Raining
We Offer You One Third Off Plenitude
When The Candles Were Lit
Woe, Woe, Woe
Your Love Is A Swarm And An Unbeguiled Swanne
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®