The Blue Book

by Owen Sheers

This impressive debut includes poems on a wide range of from recollections of a return to Fiji, to sharper memories of an adolescence in a rural town in Wales; from dark ruminations on farm life to tender and unconventional love poems. Owen Sheers has a talent for visual imagery, a flair for narrative and a grasp of the personal as acute as his awareness of the wider world. His astute portraits of relatives and contemporaries entice us into other lives. The Blue Book is a startlingly good first collection by a young writer of considerable ability and promise. "This vivid and potent debut collection from Owen Sheers is populated with characters trying to come to terms with themselves and others and with the difficult journeys they find themselves taking. It is a moving experience, which he makes sense of in finely wrought verse that is tough, but also lyrical. A distinctive new voice for the year 2000."
Neil Rollinson "Owen Sheers writes controlled, suggestive poems. This is thoughtful work, attentive and responsive to the world, and with a subtle music of its own"
Susan Wicks "It is the truth in the details that suggests indisputably that Owen Sheers is the real thing, a poet of promise whom we are sure to hear much of in future. Buy, buy."
Dannie Abse "Owen Sheer's poetry is contemporary, yet imbued with a strong, surprising, sense of memory. His characters are not merely vehicles for a poet's perceptions, they live - from Fijian preacher to farm workers and edgy adolescents in rural Wales to the sleeping girl who brings love to the night bus. He has a knack for capturing the cruelty of life's lack of tidy resolution but, best of all, Sheers has the courage to be tender."
Francine Stock Owen Sheers was born in 1974, spent a portion of his childhood abroad, then returned to live on a farm in Abergavenny when he was nine. Educated at Oxford, with an MA in Creative Writing from the UEA writing programme, he has worked in television in London and Wales. He hit the limelight in 2000 when for The Times of January 1st, 2000, David Bailey photographed the foremost practitioners in the arts and sciences together with their choice of the person they expected to carry the discipline Poet Laureate Andrew Motion selected Owen Sheers as the poet to watch. His first book was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize Best First Collection and ACW Book of the Year 2001. Skirrid Hill , his second collection, won a Somerset Maugham Prize in 2006 and was longlisted for Welsh Book of the Year.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

OWEN SHEERS is a poet, author and playwright. His first novel, Resistance, was translated into ten languages and adapted into a film. The Dust Diaries, his Zimbabwean nonfiction narrative, won the Wales Book of the Year Award. His awards for poetry and drama include the Somerset Maugham Award for Skirrid Hill, the Hay Festival Medal for Poetry and Wales Book of the Year Award for Pink Mist, and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for his play The Two Worlds of Charlie F. His most recent novel is I Saw a Man, which was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger. He lives in Wales with his wife and daughter. He has been a New York Public Library Cullman Fellow and is currently Professor in Creativity at Swansea University.

Reviews

[Ryan]

I liked Skirrid Hill better, but there's a rich harvest of poems here too. (I should point out I'd say this even if I didn't know the turf.) Favourite poem was ‘Lambing.’

[Miriam Hrádeľová]

Donekonečna by som si užívala krásu tej jednoduchosti ktorou pán Sheers opisal moje pocity. Poézia je najlepšia keď vás núti žiť ju.

[Carla]

In my reading update i said "I get why it has blue in the title, this is sad as fuck". But then it got less sad? Ish. Its still pretty grim overall, but then it gets unexpectedly tender! Super glad i bought this one on pure impulse. There's a poem called Harvest that I think may become one of my new all time favorites. Here it is:

"Sitting beneath the horse chestnut tree
we were surprised by a fall of conkers.
Miniature mines, through fathoms of leaves,
pelting our backs and our shoulders.
You began to gather them in,
squeezing out their secrets,
and those you picked you kept,
holding them tight to your stomach,
as if you had been stabbed, and were
bleeding conkers from the wound.
When they became too many,
you trusted me with some, which i held,
a bunch of knuckles in my first.
But my sweat dulled their sheen,
turned them, dark liver brown to faded bay,
and when i gave them back to you,
you said it would always be this way;
because i am a man, and i have acid hands."

I am fully obsessed. It's giving a little Mary Oliver in the best of ways.

[Klára]

Nádherná zbierka poézie, pri ktorej musíte predýchať každý verš. The name is accurate, this is melancholic as hell.

[Snoakes]

I feel somewhat ill-equipped to adequately review poetry - it's not something I read a lot of or know anything about. That's part of the appeal of Owen Sheers though. His poems are beautiful and clever, but also accessible - this isn't the kind of poetry that you need a literature degree to understand. I thoroughly enjoyed every one in this short volume - they tend to have a bit of a dark edge which appeals to me. My favourite (for what it's worth) was A True Story.

The reason I've given this collection four rather than five stars is that the poems seem fleeting and ephemeral - they don't stick with me. I have a similar attitude to short stories though, so I suspect this is me - it's certainly not the writing. However, if like me you prefer something longer with a bit more to get your teeth into, I honestly can't recommend Pink Mist enough.

[Paul Wilson]

Trying to read all of Shears work. His poems are brilliant.

‘The crows had kissed him blind,
Decorating his shroud of shifting snow
With two dark poppies, congealed on his cheek.’

‘Lie on these rocks,
Soak your shadow into their dry skin’

[Vernon Goddard]

The poetry is correctly entitled. Blue is there amongst much of what is written: blue for sad, or melancholic or serious. He’s a very good writer, carries the narrative to its conclusion….a twist in the tale, a sudden change of course or emphasis, often something shocking or at least surprising. There are characters spoken about, events recorded, things captured. He is so obviously a great Observor and turns these into understandable poetry we can be comfortable with.

There was a single reservation I had and I’m not even sure it’s valid or a proper consideration. Whilst all the events, the characters, the tender moments were real, I never linked them to the poet himself. It was as though he could capture everything but not feel it totally. He seemed detached, apart from. Now that might have been intentional in which case I withdraw the seeming criticism. Overall I enjoyed the book, liked the intelligent involvement, admired much in the work…..

[Sandra]

Read leisurely to savour the voice, these poems are sharp beneath their skin, often with a sudden ambush of blood. Or tenderness. Telling of a life lived with senses open. 'Lambing' an especially impactful demonstration of the visual put into words.

[Karen]

Wonderfully lyrical, Owen Sheers' first collection of poems are a delight to read.

[Dyfan Dyfans Dyfanson]

Has one of my favourite poems in ‘Feeling the Catch’ but fizzles out in the second half.

[Angharad Wynne]

I picked up this book at a lovely converted smithy I was staying at with friends in Llanthony - Sheers country. It was signed to the owner of the property. There was something quite magical about reading Owen Sheer's first collection of poetry in the landscape that inspired so many of the verses. Really recommend it to all poetry buffs.

[Lin Howells]

The poetry I wish I had written.

[Julie]

Beautiful poems seen by my mind's eye.

[Charlotte]

Some excellent poetry that appeals to all. Several very impressive ones.

[Shelly Dennison]

Really enjoyed these poems - especially the ones concerned with Wales and family. Very clear and focused but with plenty of depth.