“Olds writes “poetry more faithful to the felt truth of reality than any prose could be.” – Richard Wakefield.

I was a long bodice partly sewn to a skirt, a hem picking / up everything

Strands of autobiography, a deeply sensuous ecology of place, historical narratives; the inner world of imagination and the often difficult realities of the postcolonial nation are interwoven in McWatt's bold but carefully worked out architecture. Peepal Tree

Who wants to know / a story's end, or where a road will go? - Sheenagh Pugh, 'What If This Road'

Our response to the world is essentially one of wonder, of confronting the mysterious with a sense, not of being small, or insignificant, but of being part of a rich and complex narrative. From 'Strong Words', John Burnside

My poems are the product of a relationship between a side of my mind which is conscious, alert, educated and manipulative, and a side which is as murky as a primaeval swamp. - Andrew Motion