The florists at midnight - Sarah Maguire

The Florists at Midnight brings together all of Sarah Maguire's remarkable poems about flowers and gardens from her first two highly-praised collections, Spilt Milk and The Invisible Mender, adding them to an astonishing selection of new poems. Commended by the poet John Burnside for her keen ear and for the precision and richness of her language, this is poetry of 'formidable intelligence as well as artistry of the highest order'. From the vivid evocation of stillness in the title poem to the exhilaration of a wild journey through the streets of Marrakech in 'Hibiscus', these are poems which present an entirely fresh and exciting exploration of their subject matter. Their starting point often the patient illumination of botanical details, the poems open out into densely-textured explorations of loss and desire. These are poems which remind us that gardens are, as R S Thomas wrote, 'a gesture against the wild', a contingent space, rich with human and political meanings. And that in the fragile mortality of flowers we can find new metaphors for understanding ourselves and our desires.