The Empire of Forgetting

by John Burnside

Jonathan Cape The Empire of Forgetting ABISBOOK Jonathan Cape.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

About the author

John Burnside was a Scottish writer. He was the author of nine collections of poetry and five works of fiction. Burnside achieved wide critical acclaim, winning the Whitbread Poetry Award in 2000 for The Asylum Dance which was also shortlisted for the Forward and T.S. Eliot prizes. He left Scotland in 1965, returning to settle there in 1995. In the intervening period he worked as a factory hand, a labourer, a gardener and, for ten years, as a computer systems designer. Laterly, he lived in Fife with his wife and children and taught Creative Writing, Literature and Ecology courses at the University of St. Andrews.

[Author photo © Norman McBeath]

Reviews

[MEWO · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And that was all. I stood there
for a while,
not animal enough
to feel at home, but
knowing I belonged."

"A live thing, still, still
creaturely, and liable
to flourish:

ewig ... ewig ...
ewig ... ewig..."

- Variations on 'The Ruin'

[Ilse · Rating 3 out of 5]

"to be forgotten
or remembered?"

I actually liked this one. it cave me this very warm feeling.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

First light in the empire of forgetting,
the morning dusk, that blue between the houses,
owls in the beechwoods, lamplight through the trees,
a horse in its traces, a ton weight of slumber and warmth.

- ‘Listen with Mother (I)’

[Karen Mace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful and poignant collection of poetry, heavily featuring nature and mortality

[Heather K Veitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

So earthily sublime.

[Chris Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of good poems but I didn't love it.