Returns

<p>John Welch's new book his fourteenth since his first full length collection appeared in 1984 is writing that reflects on the strangeness of continuing to make poems 'Like a ball / thrown from an empty hand.' There is the recurring sense of 'an absence / embellished in the text' carrying on 'until It was / the page that silenced him'. Along with this there is the expression of an intermittent feeling of ambivalence regarding the 'business' of being a poet the 'life of it'. Other work in the collection is declarative and of a more direct address.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><em>Previous comments on John Welch's work:</em></p><p><br></p><p>John Welch has been a significant figure since the early seventies and deserves acclaim. His own aptly named Many Press has published numerous well-designed pamphlets... For my money<em> Out Walking</em> is the finest volume Anvil have produced. -James Keery.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>No Flash effects no random scramblings no posturing nothing sly or trivial. Writing as if your life depended on it. -Peter Hughes </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>His poems resist easy closure... Readers of contemporary poetry who value the art as an expression of the processes of thought perception and feeling will find much that is compelling. -James Sutherland-Smith</p><p class=ql-align-center><br></p><p class=ql-align-center><br></p>