Description

This collection by Shetland-based poet Alex Cluness is deceptive in more ways than one. Apparently simple, the poems lure you into the minds of eighteen different men filled with the hopes and despairs of being in love. Funny and poignant, they suggest that the porn star and the minister, the zen master and the boxer, the astronaut and the alcoholic have at least this much in common: that love can be the loneliest emotion in the universe.

The Fisherman

The fisherman
Given over to love
Began a carving
When the days rolled less:

To bless this Madonna
And baby saviour
He kissed the finished piece
As the North Sea
Squeezed the concertina
Of their fragile red boat

My girl
He said to himself
Is more important to me
Than I can ever know
I must just trust to God
That she is safe

The ocean formed a landslide
And at a wild angle
The call came to haul the nets