A new review of Lifesaving Poems… from 2015

Anthony Wilson, ,
A black and white photo of a woman looking at the camera through the roof of her fingers.

A huge shout out and massive thank you to Maria Taylor and her wonderful Commonplace blog, where yesterday I discovered a brand new (to me) review of Lifesaving Poems… from 2015.

I was randomly googling my anthology on Twitter for no good reason (I’m not even on it any more), when up popped Maria’s generous and kind review.

Here is an excerpt:

I’ve never read a book quite like this… These are not poems chosen with any bold claims about being written by the ‘great and the good’ but are quite simply poems that Anthony liked. So there’s a lot of love in the pages of this anthology. The reasons for the poems being there are often very personal and it’s very brave of Anthony to discuss such things. Brave is often an overused word, but I can’t imagine many people willing to write in such a way. In those prose passages we not only find out more about the poets and their poems, but also about Anthony’s life and we’re given an insight into his illness with cancer. Not only is this an anthology of poems but also an autobiography of sorts.

You can read the full review here.

And you can buy the book from the Bloodaxe site here.

With many thanks again to Maria.

Published by Anthony Wilson

I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. My most recent books are Deck Shoes (Impress Books, 2019), a book of prose memoir and criticism, and The Afterlife (Worple Press, 2019). In 2023 I will publish The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, with Blue Diode Press. My current research project, with Sue Dymoke from Nottingham Trent University and funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.

7 Comments

  2. Sometimes life gives you roses. I’m trying to write a cobweb post about why I’m taking time out, and how I simply can’t keep up with “Poetry”, how one way or another I either got off the bus at the wrong stop, or never caught it in the first place. Maria nails exactly the quality of your book that hooked me and hauled me in, and why it still sits with Clive James’ “Poetry Notebook” as the two books that explained just why poetry was important (rather than popular and ubiquitous) Thank you xx

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hi John
      Thank you so much for your lovely and kind comment. I’m still pinching myself to be honest that the book has found its way in the world and spoken to people, like you, in the way that it has. I’m very grateful for your support and don’t take it for granted. Thank you xx

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  3. I also featured your book on a video in my Booktube/Youtube channel – for a few minutes as I talked my way through one of my book shelves. You can see it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjYiyCHypc “2022 Library Tour Shelf 3” from 4 mins 6 to 6 mins 7. I refer to the Marin Sorescu poem which takes the biscuit (!). As a newbie contributor to Booktube, I still have a small audience – but at least you now know of another person for whom your book continues to be a delight. Keep writing!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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