Enchantment

by David Morley

Exploring questions such as How does a blacksmith make fresh life from fire? Why does a creature that is half-man and half-hedgehog decide to take on the human race? and How do you ride a horse through time? this ambitious and prize-winning anthology reclaims the magical short story on behalf of the medium of poetry. Revealing a myriad of tales and charms, these poems take their imaginative energies from Romany life and lore, delving into lives lived intensely on the margins of reality and creating a language for poetry that is as entirely fresh as it is natural. Opening with a celebration of the friendship between the author and one of his late friends, this compilation enters and evokes strange new worlds, resurrecting the oral tradition of poetry as a form of magic, marvel, and making.

Genres: Poetry

85 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 25, 2010

About the author

David is Head of the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick University (Coventry, UK), and adjunct Professor at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia).

Reviews

[Jude Brigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fine collection.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchantment spins tales similar to Aesops Fables or the camp fire shadows of myths and legends. Beginning slowly, the collection focuses the readers attention on the finer details of the natural landscape; from Fresh Water in Oxford, Dragonflies 'Here be Darters, Skimmers, drawn flame. Here, are Dragonflies' a deconstruction of their wider context, the ancestry that is attached to the imagery.

Review up on my blog: http://natashaborton.blogspot.com/201...

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romany folklore and the minutiae of the natural world weave about each other in this astounding collection. Fifteen poems unspool across 80 pages, Morley as comfortable with the longer form as a dramatist or a balladeer. The cumulative effect is one I would urge anybody with a serious interest in contemporary poetry to experience.