Bücher von Peter Clive

"Moonsong expands the definition of philosophy. It seeks to understand the nature of existence, knowledge, thought, religion, and the meaning of life. Whether looking at space exploration, the creation of the universe, or cave paintings in the Pyrenees, Clive's poems advise 'there is no darkness, only light, everywhere and always'. Where the hiss of atoms jostling in the air' can be experienced on a 'mundane Monday morning' train journey to work, or a night spent drinking with God might result in a 'discount Judgement Day where all that is saved is the receipt,' the poet also celebrates the simple pleasure of whisky and a radio in a shed at 3 a.m." (Morag Anderson, 2023 Aryamati Pamphlet Winner)"'No-one can see you on the dark side of the Moon, / but on the dark side of the Moon, you can see further / than anyone in the Earthshine ever has.' This section from Bondarenko Crater, about a cosmonaut who died in a tragic accident, sets the tone for this wonderful collection. Dark and light, shadows and brightness, all gathered together in one glorious place." (Fin Hall, poet, producer, filmmaker, performer)"Real things and things of the mind: all dealt with via a trenchant, tender voice that ought to strike a chord with anyone accustomed to the joys of poetry." (Professor Gerard Carruthers FRSE, Francis Hutcheson Chair of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow)

"Whether dealing with Greek gods, kings, politicians, terrorists, or capitalists, 19 Women explores the ability and power to take by force that which is desired. Man 'treats the world like firewood' and insists 'I will have what I came for'. Violence and greed are softened by moments of jewelled beauty where 'all your lovers' hearts are garnets, strewn' and 'emeralds are embedded in walls, like [...] eyes'. Peter Clive's collection asks the reader to look unflinchingly at patriarchy."(Morag Anderson, 2023 Aryamati Pamphlet Winner)"A book like nothing I have read before. A book about women, but not in the way one might imagine. It features goddesses and real people, ekphrastic poetry and poetry prompted by newspaper headlines. A true celebration of women." (Fin Hall, poet, producer, filmmaker, performer)"Real things and things of the mind: all dealt with via a trenchant, tender voice that ought to strike a chord with anyone accustomed to the joys of poetry."(Professor Gerard Carruthers FRSE, Francis Hutcheson Chair of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow)

These poems are concerned in one way or another by encounters the Outer Hebrides and its landscapes, inspired by summers spent there since childhood, and chart an inner journey of growing awareness of the world as much as the physical journey to reach that destination.The poems range from triple haiku in Gaelic, to reflections on the natural world, fauna, landscape, and the constant presence of the past in form of standing stones, to longer allegorical poems such as the title piece charting an individual's progress towards reconciliation with themselves. A theme that loosely unites the collection is journeys: not just homecomings, both fulfilled and cruelly thwarted, to destinations rooted in memory, but also those undertaken by refugees fleeing their homes today.They describe a journey across the water which is also a journey back to childhood, a journey into memory, into nature and history and prehistory, myth and legend, and a journey to a place where our unreliable recollection of the past and imperfect prescience of an unknowable future meet, a lost world and an imaginary world where all paths tangle in a knot of nostalgia and anxiety, a place of loss where something still endures to console us.

"God announces himself with fire /only because we have invented darkness, /and when we try to emulate him, /our own announcements - beacons /lit across the forty thousand generations of the age of fire /- take the form of tower blocks burning in the night, /nuclear detonations turning the desert to glass, /concentration camp chimneys, /the ramparts of glaciers collapsing into the sea".As the imperatives imposed on us by climate change grow ever more urgent, and world leaders gather in Glasgow at COP26 for what may be our last chance to correct the course we are on, this collection of poetry from Glaswegian poet Peter Clive reflects on how we arrived in this situation, and adds its author's voice to our collective plea for a sustainable future in balance with our environment.