Ransom

by Michael Symmons Roberts

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE 2021***A FINANCIAL TIMES 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK*Ransom , the new collection from Michael Symmons Roberts, is an intense and vivid exploration of liberty and limit, of what it means to be alive, and searches for the possibility of hope in a fallen, wounded world. The poems in Ransom display all the lyrical beauty and metaphysical ambition for which his work is acclaimed, but with a new urgency, a ragged edge to what the Independent described as his 'dazzling elegance'. At the heart of this new book are three powerful sequences - one set in occupied Paris, one an elegy for his father, and one a meditation on gratitude - that work at the edges of belief and doubt, both mystical and philosophical. The idea of 'ransom' is turned and turned again, poem by poem, seen through the lenses of personal grief and loss, cinematic scenes of kidnap and release, narratives of incarnation and atonement. This is a profound and timely book from one of our finest poets.

Genres: Poetry

Kindle Edition

Published March 18, 2021

About the author

Michael was born in 1963 and spent his childhood in Lancashire, England before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early ‘70’s. He went to comprehensive school in Newbury, then to Oxford University to read Philosophy & Theology.

After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.

His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin International Prize. His 6th collection - Drysalter - was the winner of the 2013 Forward Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

He has previously received the Society of Authors’ Gregory Award for British poets under 30, the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award.

His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission - The Sacrifice - won the RPS Award for Opera in 2008, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - Clemency - was nominated for an Olivier Award.

His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel – Patrick’s Alphabet – was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second – Breath – in 2008. He is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts.

He is married with three sons, and lives near Manchester. (source: http://www.symmonsroberts.com/about_l...)

Reviews

[Marshall A. Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Micheal Symmons Roberts has written some of my favourite poetry because of his particular blend of religious imagery and themes, potent explorations of metaphors, and tactile sensory description. Because of this, and the title, I figured the Easter weekend would be a great time to sit down and read through this collection. While I was slightly underwhelmed by his last book, I was still keen for new work from him, and once again I was delighted to find carryover of those aforementioned qualities in a decent number of the poems from this collection. Quite a few of the poems had quite powerful endings, even if I didn’t connect with the earlier parts, which makes me wonder if he often comes up with a powerful idea or image and then builds the poem back from his original conception. I found myself getting emotional with a couple of the poems, which is something fairly unique to Micheal Symmons Roberts for me.

My favourite poems from this collection were:

Paean for a barfly
Rehearsals for the day of joy
Side of the angels
First communion of the Madonna
Gaze of time
The face is the soul of the body
Custody of the eyes
On the comfort of setting your own shadow…
Takk 3.
Takk 12.

[Siu Hong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "Custody of the Eyes" in London Review of Books and was stunned by how the poet could capture the sense of immensity in the simple act of seeing, and how fleeting this transcendental state of mind is. The rest of collection may not always carry the same strange profundity but the poems are always interesting. The other high point is the elegiac "Episodics". It's hard to describe what it is.

[Em Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting how one's reading of one book seeps through into the reading of the next. And soaks back of course.

The word I'm straining for is immanent, I think. And then also imminent.

Any book that has a Wittgenstein quote as an epigraph and also one for one of the poems has to get an extra star.

Bit listy possibly at times but then for "the world an old cloth map of itself", I'm happy to read any number of slanting supermarket sprawls.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most tender set of poems. Some harsh, but with an almost gentle theological attention to issues of loss, capture, kidnap, ransom and recovery.

[Jayant Kashyap · Rating 3 out of 5]

“where absolutely full looks like absolutely empty” – ‘Ransom’ is about acceptance and about perspectives towards things.