Publisher's Synopsis
Roy Fisher was known internationally for his witty, anarchic poetry which plays the language, pleasures the imagination and teases the senses. But he was at heart an English Midlander. In Standard Midland, he confronts and worries at nuances of perception and the politics of understanding. Many of the poems are concerned with landscapes, experienced, imagined or painted, particularly the scarred and beautiful North Midlands landscape in which he has lived for nearly thirty years. Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award in 2010, "Standard Midland" contains work mostly written since his Bloodaxe retrospective "The Long and the Short of It: Poems 1955-2005" and his texts for the artist's book "Tabernacle", his recent collaboration with Ronald King. Publication coincided with his 80th birthday. Critic Peter Robinson published an 80th birthday festschrift with contributions by Fisher's many admirers at the same time. "Standard Midland" was the first Bloodaxe title to be issued in e-book format as well as in paperback. It was later added to Roy Fisher's expanded retrospective "The Long and the Short of It: Poems 1955-2010" (2012).
