Product Description
James Harpur’s fifth collection journeys into realms seen and unseen, ranging from the landscapes of Ireland to the visionary realms of the mystics. Through the finely textured music of his poems, he explores emotional and spiritual intimacies while keeping a sharp observant eye on the everyday world.
In Part One, death and alienation inform poems about the war-ravaged monastery of Monte Cassino, a churchyard ghost, the sacred site of Gougane Barra and a ‘leper’s squint’. Part Two moves to a more ethereal dimension with lyrics about mystics and heightened states of being.
Angels and Harvesters displays both human tenderness and an otherworldly wonder, as Harpur continues his quest to reconcile the complexities of the human condition with a deep-seated spiritual longing.
James Harpur has had five poetry collections published by Anvil Press and is poetry editor of the Temenos Academy Review and a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of the arts. His Angels and Harvesters (2012) was a PBS Recommendation and shortlisted for the 2013 Irish Times Poetry Now Award; and The Dark Age (2007) won the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award. Other prizes and awards include the UK National Poetry Competition, the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, an Eric Gregory Award, and a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship. His other books include Fortune’s Prisoner, a translation of the poems of Boethius; and The Gospel of Joseph of Arimathea. He lives in West Cork.
