- 431 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Winner of the Costa Book of the Year for her final collection, Inside the Wave, Helen Dunmore was as spellbinding a storyteller in her poetry as in her prose. Many of her haunting narratives draw us into darkness, engaging our fears and hopes in poetry of rare luminosity, while all her poetry also casts a bright, revealing light on the living world, by land and sea, on love, longing and loss. Counting Backwards is a retrospective covering ten collections written over four decades, bringing together all the poems she included in her earlier selection, Out of the Blue (2001), with all those from her three later collections, Glad of These Times (2007), The Malarkey (2012) and Inside the Wave (2017), along with a number of additional poems from her earlier collections.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Counting Backwards by Helen Dunmore in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literatura & Poesía europea. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Inside the Wave
(2017)
Counting Backwards
Untroubled, the anaesthetist
Potters with his cannula
As the waterfall in the ante-room
Grows steadily louder,
All of them are cool with it
And just keep on working
No wonder they wear Wellingtons –
I want to ask them
But it seems stupid, naive,
Even attention-seeking.
Basalt, I think, the rock
Where the white stream leaps.
Imagine living at such volume
Next door to a waterfall,
Stepping in and out of the noise
In their funny clothes.
But you can get used to anything
Like the anaesthetist
Counting to himself
Backwards, all wrong.
The Underworld
And besides, we might play cards:
Those slapdash games you once taught me
Which any fool can remember
Or from the fabric which has been tied
With string, wrapped in brown paper
Put away in the highest cupboard
Since the time the children were young
And everyone’s children were young
I might make new curtains
And hem them all by hand.
I used to be so afraid of failing
To grasp the moment, the undertone,
To look foolish in the eyes of anyone
But now I like the patter of cards
The lazy sandwich that falls open
Halfway to the mouth,
The refills in a thumbed glass
The way people get up, yawn,
Go stiff-legged to the window, wondering
That it isn’t yet tomorrow
It’s a long way from here to the river:
I like to see the fish come in
But the game is still on.
From the way the cards are falling
I’d say you will win.
I used to think it was a narrow road
From here to the underworld
But it’s as broad as the sun.
I say to you: I have more acquaintance
Among the dead than the living
And I am not pretending.
It’s pure fact, like this sandwich
Which hasn’t quite tempted anyone.
Shutting the Gate
A barefoot girl hugs the wall
On tiptoe, her instep
Arched like a cat’s back.
Nearby a car revs.
She looks at me and smiles
Like a...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Description
- Title Page
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Inside the Wave (2017)
- The Malarkey (2012)
- Glad of These Times (2007)
- Out of the Blue (2001)
- FROM Bestiary (1997)
- FROM Recovering a Body (1994)
- FROM Secrets (1994)
- FROM Short Days, Long Nights (1991)
- FROM The Raw Garden (1988)
- FROM The Sea Skater (1986)
- FROM The Apple Fall (1983)
- Index of Titles and First Lines
- About the Author
- Copyright