Wow
A Poetry Book Society Winter 2020 Recommendation. Bill Manhire's Wow opens with the voice of an extinct bird, a song from anciency, and takes us forward into the present and the darkening future of other extinctions. For Manhire, the reach of the lyric is long: it has the penetration of comedy, satire, the Jeremiad, but also the delicacy of minute detail and the rhythms of nature's comfort and hope, the promise of renewal. In the title poem the baby says 'Wow,' and the wonder is real at the world and at language. But the world will have the last word. Writing of Manhire, Teju Cole declared, 'Being the leading poet in New Zealand is like being the best DJ in Estonia, impressive enough on its own terms. But Bill Manhire is more than that: he's unquestionably world-class. As with Seamus Heaney, you get a sense of someone with a steady hand on the tiller, and both the will and the craft to take your breath away.' Bill Manhire was New Zealand's first poet laureate. He established and until recently directed the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. This is the ninth of his Carcanet books in 30 years.
1137844400
Wow
A Poetry Book Society Winter 2020 Recommendation. Bill Manhire's Wow opens with the voice of an extinct bird, a song from anciency, and takes us forward into the present and the darkening future of other extinctions. For Manhire, the reach of the lyric is long: it has the penetration of comedy, satire, the Jeremiad, but also the delicacy of minute detail and the rhythms of nature's comfort and hope, the promise of renewal. In the title poem the baby says 'Wow,' and the wonder is real at the world and at language. But the world will have the last word. Writing of Manhire, Teju Cole declared, 'Being the leading poet in New Zealand is like being the best DJ in Estonia, impressive enough on its own terms. But Bill Manhire is more than that: he's unquestionably world-class. As with Seamus Heaney, you get a sense of someone with a steady hand on the tiller, and both the will and the craft to take your breath away.' Bill Manhire was New Zealand's first poet laureate. He established and until recently directed the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. This is the ninth of his Carcanet books in 30 years.
16.99 In Stock
Wow

Wow

by Bill Manhire
Wow

Wow

by Bill Manhire

Paperback

$16.99 
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Overview

A Poetry Book Society Winter 2020 Recommendation. Bill Manhire's Wow opens with the voice of an extinct bird, a song from anciency, and takes us forward into the present and the darkening future of other extinctions. For Manhire, the reach of the lyric is long: it has the penetration of comedy, satire, the Jeremiad, but also the delicacy of minute detail and the rhythms of nature's comfort and hope, the promise of renewal. In the title poem the baby says 'Wow,' and the wonder is real at the world and at language. But the world will have the last word. Writing of Manhire, Teju Cole declared, 'Being the leading poet in New Zealand is like being the best DJ in Estonia, impressive enough on its own terms. But Bill Manhire is more than that: he's unquestionably world-class. As with Seamus Heaney, you get a sense of someone with a steady hand on the tiller, and both the will and the craft to take your breath away.' Bill Manhire was New Zealand's first poet laureate. He established and until recently directed the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. This is the ninth of his Carcanet books in 30 years.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781800170049
Publisher: Carcanet Press, Limited
Publication date: 12/17/2020
Pages: 88
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Bill Manhire was born in Invercargill, New Zealand in 1946. He was his country's inaugural Poet Laureate and has won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry four times. He holds a personal chair at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he directs the celebrated creative writing programme and the International Institute of Modern Letters. His volume of short fiction, South Pacific, was published by Carcanet in 1994. His poetry collections include Lifted (2007), and his Collected Poems (2001) and Selected Poems (2014).

Table of Contents

1

Huia 13

Untitled 14

Also 15

The Armchair Traveller 16

South 17

Side Trips 18

Names 19

A Really Nice Trip 20

Letter from the New Place 21

Sorrow 23

Woodwork 24

Someone Was Burning the Forest 25

Warm Ocean 26

Falling Asleep 32

The Terrible Singers 33

2

Noah 37

Angels 38

The Angry God 39

He Loved Her Lemonade Scones 40

Breakfast 41

The Mysterious Twin 42

The Kaffir Lime Is Having a Bad Day 43

Isolation Notes 44

Mean Neptune 46

To Be Concluded 47

Earthquake Practice 48

Conference Dinner 49

Lives of the Poets 50

Langholm 51

The Lazy Poet 52

The Deerculler's Wife 54

What I'm picking up when I'm out and about 55

Weather 57

3

Discontinued Product 61

After Lockdown 67

Incidental 68

Halls 69

Exhibition 70

The Sailor 72

Knots 74

Our Teacher 75

The Sky 76

Change Nothing 77

Like 78

The Smile 79

Wow 80

Polly 82

Reverse Ovid 83

After Surgery 84

Little Prayers 87

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