This Selected Poems will place him among the poets who matter' - Derek Mahon 5.95 paper. Here he returns to his Ayrshire roots, and to the Upper Clyde, encompassing history, social change and shifts of identity, as well as exploring other locations and preoccupations in the blood, but never losing touch with Scotland or his own Scottishness. The sense of menacing subterranean forces, in nature or in the mind, is persuas-ively conveyed. This is an honest, probing, sensitive and often moving collection' - Edwin Morgan. The Luncheon of the Boating Party 'It centres on Renoir's painting which also provides the title.
Visions become verbal.
Figures emerge from the canvas to inhabit the poems. They put on linguistic make-up and engage the reader in vigorous debate. To say they are marvellous would be trite. Magic would be an understatement. Dawe, Foley, Heaney, Longley, McGuckian, Montague, Muldoon, N Chuillean in, Ormsby.