Versus: Last Poems

A new book of poetry by Alan Loney - and his last. Early in 2022, at the age of 81, Alan Loney came to the decision that a separate discipline titled 'poetry' was no longer able to contain the writerly concerns that nevertheless still pressed him. This book, unfinished and unfinishable, registers that decision, that breach in a life previously devoted to the poem and to a self-identification as a poet. Recent work around the figure of the ancient Greek phi­los­opher Herakleitos has required him to refocus his attention to the poetic nature of all language, all thought, all modes of writing. In this sense, Versus is not only an endpoint, but also a starting point of a major shift in his writing life. 

Versus is an exceptional book with its striking ‘splinters’ of thought and dazzling flashes of perception.  - Roger Horrocks