Greek

Theo Dorgan was born in Cork in 1953 and is one of Ireland's best known poets. Theo Dorgan's Greek is a vivid, sensual, technically brilliant new collection which transports the reader through time and space, history and myth, love and death. The Greek Gods and Goddesses walk again, as real as we are, in the islands of 21st century Greece in a poetry which is singingly alive to the pleasures of being here now. This is the language of 'undying'' Writing from "the childhood of the world" in Greece, Dorgan finds his identity as an Islander, as a lover and as a poet made new again, with increased authority and a deep understanding of the power and alchemy of myth; sharing with us his relish of "the great slant freedom of our craft". He demonstrates also a real gift for the short lyric poem in the middle section, 'Islands', each poem here being utterly of its brief moment as "the stars come out on the life that I call mine". Carol Ann Duffy