Tongues of Fire
by Seán Hewitt
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-- **SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN POLLARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE 2021** -- A remarkable first collection by an important new poet In this collection, Seán Hewitt gives us poems of a rare musicality and grace. By turns searing and meditative, these are lyrics concerned with the matter of the world, its physicality, but also attuned to the proximity of each moment, each thing, to the spiritual. Here, there is sex, grief, and loss, but also a committed dedication to life, hope and show more renewal. Drawing on the religious, the sacred and the profane, this is a collection in which men meet in the woods, where matter is corrupted and remade. There are prayers, hymns, vespers, incantations, and longer poems which attempt to propel themselves towards the transcendent. In this book, there is always the sense of fragility allied with strength, a violence harnessed and unleashed. The collection ends with a series of elegies for the poet's father: in the face of despair, we are met with a fierce brightness, and a reclamation of the spiritual. 'This is when / we make God, and speak in his voice.' Paying close attention to altered states and the consolations and strangeness of the natural world, this is the first book from a major poet. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Great stuff!
Didn't realize Hewitt was queer until the phrase "another man" showed up for the second time in a poem about jerking off so that was fun.
Otherwise, really great poetry incorporating all my favorite things like nature imagery, people dying, and Irish mythology.
Didn't realize Hewitt was queer until the phrase "another man" showed up for the second time in a poem about jerking off so that was fun.
Otherwise, really great poetry incorporating all my favorite things like nature imagery, people dying, and Irish mythology.
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The Guardian Books of the Year 2020
126 works; 8 members
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9+ Works 515 Members
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