Voluntary

by Adam Thorpe

From an abandoned rowing boat in Estonia full of wild flowers to a swimming pool in the Congo full of drowned insects, Adam Thorpe's new collection takes us on a wide-ranging journey through states of gain and loss, alienation and belonging. In the title poem, the poet disturbs a flock of geese by his mere presence, and one goose takes the wrong direction, away from the flock, as a 'voluntary exile'. A bid for freedom, or a mistake? These poems explore our chances, record our traces - in the marks on skin, home movies, stone walls, the pressure of our blood, or the clearing of a dying father's 'foraging backwards' until something is revealed, however tentative. As always in Thorpe's work, history's violence lurks in the in the silent oppression of Roman roads, a polluting pipeline in Africa or the bombing of the Alcala train, he takes the gauge of our wider compulsions, of all that decides things for us. Against this he sets what, through the other meaning of 'voluntary', suggests chance's extempore the gleeful play of a sea-otter, the extraordinary gift of a passing gull to his small daughter, or poetry itself. Adam Thorpe is now celebrated as a novelist, but he began as a poet. Voluntary, his sixth collection, is a timely reminder of the elegance, skill and remarkable range of this most gifted British poet.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Adam Thorpe is a British poet, novelist, and playwright whose works also include short stories and radio dramas.

Adam Thorpe was born in Paris and grew up in India, Cameroon, and England. Graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1979, he founded a touring theatre company, then settled in London to teach drama and English literature.

His first collection of poetry, Mornings in the Baltic (1988), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. His first novel, Ulverton (1992), an episodic work covering 350 years of English rural history, won great critical acclaim worldwide, including that of novelist John Fowles, who reviewed it in The Guardian, calling it "(...) the most interesting first novel I have read these last years". The novel was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for 1992.

Adam Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the three poetry collections I’ve read by this author, this one is definitely my favourite. I still don’t know how to review poetry, but this really was beautifully written.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
For me, 3.5 stars for a poetry collection is pretty good going, given that the majority of poetry I read I don't really get all that much from, especially so with poetry collections.
Thorpe's overall writing style reminds me of Larkin in the way he arranges his sentence and his tone of voice. Several poems in particular I liked (Impression, Fuel, Interior with a Young Man Reading, Half Century, In Bed, Roads Themselves Are Silent) as he seemed to be mulling over something interesting or thought provoking and/or used turns of phrase I wish I'd written myself.
I'd recommend if you like quiet, speculative poetry.

[ink · Rating 2 out of 5]

“And everyone is still alive;
it’s all a lie, death is. The shock of the young,
although we did not feel young then.”

-

“the flowers grew heavier and heavier, until

‘I felt I was carrying her, instead.”

[✰matthew✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

poems about both mundane and hard hitting topics, all executed beautifully. will try to read more by this writer soon!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just OK