Books published by Shearsman Books

Horse-Man inhabits at times surreal, at times mystical territory, where the human and nonhuman merge and blend. Part keening, part celebration, Horse-Man immerses the reader in a powerful advocacy of sacred meaning and - fiercely, bravely - asks what it means to be whole, a fully embodied human being.

Thomas Kling (1957-2005) died at the age of 47, already recognised as one of the most important German-language poets of his time. He had come to wide recognition in the 1980s, gaining renown for performances of his work and was one of the main forces behind the renovation of contemporary German poetry that occurred at that time.

Throughout his career, Harry has written occasional poems, haiku, squibs and jests, and this little collection brings together a range of them that will delight his readers.

"This is large poetry, deep poetry, poetry that concerns itself with the great human themes. This is poetry that can change your life." -Brian Holton

Word and Stone is questioning poetry, which explores the ground between language that seeks meaning, and the obduracy of matter, and between life and what seems dead. Its concern is with a sense of the sacred, and the possibility of renewing words such as 'spirit' and 'soul' in a materialist culture.

Maldon is a version of the Anglo-Saxon epic fragment usually known as The Battle of Maldon, which tells the tale of a battle between the Anglo-Saxons and the invading Vikings which took place ca. 991 AD on the shores of the River Blackwater, almost certainly opposite Northey Island.

Like any self-respecting cloud, the words of this, Dent's latest volume, have occasion to slip into and out of focus as well as flit between mean-ings. To recognise such moments is to ensure we are party to an intrigue more about delight and imagination than dissecting (or, heaven help us, directing) a life.

This is a new edition of Kelvin Corcoran's second collection of poems, from 1986.

"Caleshu's new collection is magnificent." -Luke Kennard

Barry Hill's tenth book of poetry selects from most of his previous volumes, giving British and American readers a chance to catch up with work that has only previously appeared in Australia, and also includes recent poetry-lyrical, political and in memoriam.

"[...] a word-smithy that is now owned by an incorruptible woman of letters. Her words are in open view and in plain hearing for the eyes and ears of people who value every single tongue but not the forked one." -Christopher Ricks, Dead Ground 2018-1918

Death Sentences is Toby Olson's first major collection since Darklight (2007), and many of the poems are addressed to his wife, Miriam, who died in 2014. Many of the other poems stand as celebrations of what is observed, without metaphor or other literary devices intervening. The four series are highly structured experiments with the sentence.

Growing up in Jersey in the 70s, before I left to study at Essex University, wasn't easy as an anomalous poet living in a largely pedestrian, materialistic society. My escape came by finding part-time employment with John Berger, a wealthy, reclusive aesthete, and my unusual introduction to his eccentric lifestyle forms the basis of this sequence.

"The majority of these poems exist thanks to an extended convalescence that ...forced me to become quiet, solitary and silent. ... The first hermits set out alone but eventually found each other in the middle of the desert ... nomadism is not a refutation of the centre, but the recognition that life moves and we need to be quick to catch it.

Robert Sheppard has been at the forefront of innovative poetry in the UK since the 1980s. This wide-ranging volume celebrates his writings, offering extensive examinations of his work. Including contributions from major contemporaries and younger scholars, this book situates the remarkable writing life of one of Britain's most imaginative poets.

The first double-issue of Shearsman magazine for 2019 contains original poetry from the UK, the USA, Australia and India, together with a number of translations from two Russian poets of the early 20th century.

Organized around three sequences of numbered tercets, Notebook of Last Things maps a city undergoing dynamic, transformative change along with the sense of living that change-its rhythms and patterns, its peculiar commitments, its urgencies and pleasures as well as its inequalities, tensions, and fateful "unsaids."

The title poem of Islander is an essential definition: not rooted in landlocked blood and soil but connected by sea and distance, and the returning tides of Scotland, the archipelagos of New Zealand and the islands of Oceania. Here is a poet attuned to the ancient laws of movement and sensitive to the uncertainties, the vulnerable truths.

In 1928, shortly after his marriage to Ximena Amunategui, and after meeting Douglas Fairbanks, Huidobro began writing his version of the Cid legend as a novel. The result is a highly readable version of the story, that casts aside the style of romantic 19th-century historical fiction in favour of more modern approaches and cinematic influences.

Below This Level recounts the experience of prostate cancer: diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. These poems of tender affirmation and discovery also face up to the hard facts. Their expansive lyricism is dedicated to a sustained recognition of the kindness and intelligence of others.

The Franks Casket is an Anglo-Saxon treasure chest in the British Museum, decorated with runes, Latin text and images. Each rune has a pictorial value; I determined the sequence of images given by the runes and then used these images to write the poems, which aim to capture something of the layered histories of the river Teign and its surroundings.

Cagliostro is a lurid tale of magic and secret societies during the reign of Luis XVI, centred on the figure of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo, known under his alias of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro. The book owes its style of presentation to the example of German expressionist cinema, of the kind exemplified by The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

In the 1990s Khaled Hakim published sparingly and performed semi-improvisatory routines. This book gathers all the work previously published. As the first-and for some time afterwards the only-black or Asian experimental poet in the UK, the work remains freakishly singular as he forged an occasional poetry mixing narrative, theory, and stand-up.

Including Occupation Stamps as issued before the war and Liberation & Victory Commonwealth Stamps.

Imagems 2 contains six statements by a poet who continues to challenge modernism and post-modernism alike. Here, the borders between poetic theory and practice blur, for some of these texts are prose-poems in themselves. While their themes are rooted in the here-now, their structures call to mind early 20th century manifestos.

"Observant, musical, coheres to nature; it's been a pleasure to read Joseph Massey for some years now. A poetry pared down to the essential inside the world where language interacts with itself and becomes the landscape it emerges from." -Tom Pickard

After a decade concentrating on his distinctive versions of Italian classics, Peter Hughes moves on to this collection of poetry crystallising out of extended stays in Cambridge and Berlin.

"The Fool & the Bee is a fabulous book of the poetic imagination." -Peter Gizzi"A stunning, pleasurable book." - Alice Notley

"Few men know death: we do not usually undergo it deliberately, but unthinkingly and out of habit and most men die because men cannot help dying" -Francois de La Rochefoucauld"All my friends, dead for so many years - even their ghosts are dying." -Clive Faust