Selected Poems

Poetry Book Society Autumn 2026 Special Commendation

Over the two decades since his award-winning debut, The Brink, Jacob Polley has earned a reputation as one of the major poetic talents to come out of the north of England. Rooted in the folkloric inheritance of Reiver country – in its rhymes and spells, its work and weather – his poems conduct the electricity of the English lyric tradition into modern vessels and remastered forms.

Metamorphosis is central to his perception: with the lightes...