Brought to light - Jem Poster

At once thoughtful and passionate, Jem Poster's poetry explores areas of perennial human concern. Love and the limits of love, the interplay of memory and imagination, the vulnerability of the natural world - these and related matters stand at theheart of this rich and varied debut collection. Brought to Light acknowledges the trickiness of our negotiations with whatever lies beyond the immediate reach of language and logic. There are shadows here, hints of the inexpressible as well as recurrent intimations of loss and damage; but these are part of a broader pattern, an essential counterpart to the poems' vivid evocations of life and light.

Jem Poster originally worked as an archaeologist, surveying and excavating a range of sites on behalf of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, before taking up an administrative post with Cambridge University's Board of Continuing Education. Since 1993 he has been Lecturer in Literature with Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education and a Fellow of Kellogg College; since 1998 he has been director of the department's Diploma in Creative Writing. His other publications include a selection of George Crabbe's poetry, a study of the poetry of the 1930s and articles on modern poetry and ?ction. His pamphlet, By Some Other Route, was published by the Mandeville Press in 1993. Brought to Light (Bloodaxe Books, 2001) is his ?rst book-length collection.

Jem Poster works rich veins of love and loss. His poetry is lit up by sensuousness, realism, and a bold, wide-ranging intelligence. There's plenty of art, but never any pretension. These poems speak directly to the human heart, and offer a deepening pleasure with every reading
Helen Dunmore