{"product_id":"afterburn","title":"Afterburn","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Lucid, tender and humane . . . One of the most formally agile and compassionate poets of our age' Fiona Benson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eHere you are, on the balcony,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ethe sea serenading you,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ethe sun with its armful of light.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eAfterburn\u003c\/i\u003e, Blake Morrison returns to poetry, his first calling, to offers scenes from his own life and the lives of others. In psychology, 'afterburn' refers to the time before a past event is assimilated - an idea that resonates through these poems (which themselves linger after reading) about memory and our attempts to articulate, shape or contain it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Throughout the collection, not least in two extraordinary sequences - one about his sister, the other about Elizabeth Bishop - the poet sees with new eyes the turning points in a life's accidental course. What holds his wise, touching, melancholy yet joyful poems together are the small intimacies that bind us to others, under time's lengthening shadow- 'you moved too fast for me to catch you \/ and so did the years.'\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePlayful and charming, sometimes rakishly so, \u003ci\u003eAfterburn\u003c\/i\u003e nevertheless reveals an open, and vulnerable, heart.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e ***\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'Distils the insights of a seasoned memoirist into images that linger long after the final page' Julia Copus\u003cbr\u003e 'A master of the sonnet . . . I'm taking \u003ci\u003eAfterburn\u003c\/i\u003e to my desert island' Hugo Williams\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Unity Books","offers":[{"title":"Afterburn","offer_id":45747108249797,"sku":null,"price":38.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/6679\/3413\/files\/978-1-78474-603-2.jpg?v=1770153608","url":"https:\/\/unitybooks.myshopify.com\/products\/afterburn","provider":"Unity Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}