SURVIVALS
Poems by Jim Howell

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This first full collection includes poems about objects, places, birds, and people. What unites these poems is a freshness of perception and of language, insight into relationships, individuality of tone, and depth of feeling.

Jim Howell was born in Manchester. A graduate of Manchester University, he read English Language and Literature, and has been Head of the English Department at Hollin High School, Middleton, Lancashire. Several of his poems have been broadcast on the BBC Poetry Now programme and many others have appeared in various anthologies and magazines such as P.E.N. New Poems, Outposts, New Humanist, Phoenix and Workshop New Poetry. Survivals includes some poems from two earlier pamphlets: Brown Is The Leaf (Outposts) and The Singing Stone (Pennine Poets).

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Always

So it is always; the day
brings itself to a close
with a handout of stars
and moonlight. It is gentle
to be there, tasting quietness,
nursing the mind’s flashbacks,
its hope. I go there often,
chipping a glimpse of myself
from the brick’s twilight, being
a poet then, a person
of note, setting my lamps
burning, bright avenues.

Such images the morning
empties and stones down,
and I come up from the night’s
sea cured of this; there is rain
then and faces, the wind’s
fist in my face; there is work
to do, people to answer,
and it is not a poet
but myself I must become.

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SURVIVALS
Price £6.95 per copy post free (£4.65 post free to Associate Members)
Cover illustration:
Publication: 1976 (56 pages laminated paperback)