Complete Poems 1965-2020

Across Michael Butterworth's work elements are reiterated but endlessly transfigured - hitchhiking girlfriends elm trees the moon astronauts the space race collage artists misophonia marriage divorce beached whales clifftops the sea the seasons mental block ale houses the chemical laboratory ambition madness pain death and impermanence silver birch trees suicide Zazen riots train seating indicators camping the Welfare State crows and seagulls the racist English and Canada geese... are some of his subjects. The subjects of destruction - war the consumer society 'progress' humanity's inhumanity the doings of men (and the necessity of a new woman) galactic war drug wars hunting - are never far away hopefully countered by the tone of optimism found in his later poems inspired by Buddhist philosophy. The effect is at once familiar and yet profound in language that has the confessional qualities and simplicity of early influences such as Sylvia Plath and the Beats and the later influence of Zen poets such as Ry?kan. Occasionally the writing is startlingly radical - a reminder of the poet's beginnings in the New Wave. A collection such as this one from Space Cowboy Books is overdue and Complete Poems: 1965-2020 brings to more deserving attention a less heard voice in modern poetry.