The Knowledge

by Robert Peake

Robert Peake's incredible eye for detail illuminates a collection of stirring and delicately attuned poems that not only roam but actively seek--travelling far and wide to all manner of places but also moving through time, taking leaps of faith and journeys into memory and sensation. These poems refer to a kind of knowledge that isn't just sought or gained, but is felt and experienced, known in your heart and in your bones as much as in your mind.

From postcards to portraits, from ancient and modern wars to cosmopolitan cities, wildlife, and even a tiny ornamental skeleton, Robert Peake finds a sharp focus for the bigger picture both far and wide and closer to home. These carefully-controlled and eloquent poems know the subtle and deep consequences from each small gesture; the ripple-effect across each story, the altering of lives and history; the still, quiet centre from which it all begins.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Robert Peake is a British-American poet living near London. His new full-length collection Cyclone is available from Nine Arches Press. His previous collections are The Knowledge (Nine Arches Press, 2015), The Silence Teacher (Poetry Salzburg, 2013), and Human Shade (Lost Horse Press, 2011, part of New Poets, Short Books, Volume V).

Reviews

[World Literature Today]

"The idea of knowing one’s place, within and without, sits at the forefront of Robert Peake’s fine debut full-length collection. This British-American poet’s talent for detail and tonal coloring was already on display in his Poetry Salzburg chapbook, which came out in 2013 and was dedicated to eulogizing Peake’s infant son, but it is only now that we can enjoy the full reach of his poetic skill. Some readers may find The Knowledge slightly overwritten, but that is only because these poems are fueled by the poet’s insatiable wish to understand himself and the world around him." - Piotr Florczyk, Los Angeles, California

This book was reviewed in the November 2015 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...

[Stephen Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality well-crafted book of poetry. Highly recommended.

[Robert]

Early Praise for The Knowledge:

“The Knowledge is quirky, wide-ranging, luminous and completely enthralling. If there were an A  —  Z of all the places poetry should take us, this would be it.”
-John Glenday, Author of Grain (shortlisted, Griffin Prize)

“Robert Peake’s impressive new collection sounds a note of Biblical warning in which ‘Beneath the surface, darker matter stirs’. The language of fire and flood collides with the contemporary world to surprising, often shocking effect. What’s revealed is a society where technological sophistication is at the disposal of some age-old motives: greed, vanity, power. It’s a post-lapsarian vision, but one which refuses easy judgements and within which Peake retrieves moments of real tenderness and the slim possibility of change. The result is a collection stalked by history which speaks truth to our times.”
 — Esther Morgan, author of Grace (shortlisted, T.S. Eliot Prize)

“British readers are rewarded with a view of London that encourages reassessment … The Knowledge engages. Like all top-notch poetry, it renews its readers.”
- Matthew Stewart, Rogue Strands

“Robert Peake’s The Knowledge (Nine Arches Press) is a subtle, tender collection whose mixture of narrative and descriptive images inexorably draws the reader on to (occasionally painful) revelation.”
-Bethany W Pope, Sabotage Reviews

“The poet moves from couplet through the numbered stanzas to free verse, and back again, with confidence and grace. The pace is impressive, largely because the poems are a joy of enjambment. … The work is elegant and strong. If it is silk then it is silk over steel.”
-Rachel Stirling, stirlingwriter.com