Bale Fire

The Auchensale Trilogy

by Jim Carruth

Bale Fire is a book in three cycles. The first explores the darker side of communities in decline. The middle is a transposition of elements and characters of the Odyssey to a Scottish hill farm and its neighbours. The final part looks at the idea of harvest and loss.

Jim Carruth offers here both a celebration and an elegy. The poems in this collection address the themes of our time: war, friendship, honesty, violence, humanity and love.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 6, 2019

About the author

Jim Carruth (b.1963) is poet laureate of Glasgow. He is the founder and chair of St. Mungo's Mirrorball, the Glasgow network of poets. His collection, Black Cart, the first part of the Auchensale Trilogy, was published in 2017.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jim Carruth's poetry describes a modern, rural world that many of us drive past without noticing. 'Bale Fire' is described as the second book of a trilogy (following 'Black Cart') which shines a light on life in farming communities of today, but without any romantic floweriness. This book is divided into three sections. The first, with footers of argicultural diseases, has poems around the struggles of farming life; profits and loss, suicide and isolation. The second section is a wonderful echoing of scenes from the Odyssey in the world of the modern coutryside, which fits so well that I wonder why I haven't read it before. The third section feels warmer and lighter, the cycles of seasons and harvest. This structure allows us to have a look behind the clichés of farming life, and real people and real lives begin to emerge.

I've gone back and read several of the poems over again, and I also plan to go back to re-read his novella-poem 'Killochries' which I would heartily recommend if you haven't already read it.