Flight Risk

'Throw it away, throw it away': in Flight Risk, C. E. J. Simons uses lyric forms to explore the shocks and joys of middle age: past relationships, marriage, childbirth, fatherhood, and the consequences of a life devoted to poetry. 'Uxor' and 'Prayer for My Son' show domestic bliss flourishing in a world that also contains the power relations of 'Haggard' and the sexual exploitation of 'The Liberties, Kabukichō'. Half a dozen imitātiōnēs from poets ranging from Wyatt to Yeats show Simons coming to grips with the origins of his own voice. The book concludes with 'Exclusion Zone', a stunning four-part poem on Simons's photojournalism work for the ten-year anniversary of the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

C. E. J. Simons is Senior Associate Professor of Literature at International Christian University in Tokyo. He has held the Harper-Wood Studentship in Creative Writing at St John's College, Cambridge, and his criticism and poetry have appeared in numerous UK publications including the TLS. His most recent poetry books are Underground Facility (Isobar Press, 2018); One More Civil Gesture (Isobar Press, 2015), and No Distinguishing Features (wordwolf press, 2011).