Peter Cowlam

Laurel Peter Cowlam

A sequence of poems whose terrain is love, loss and lovers' rivalries.

'His poems have an epic feel...painting vivid pictures with the fewest words possible. This new collection gathers together threads of irony, self-deprecating nostalgia, and linguistic playfulness in one powerful skein of sharp, imagistic one-liners.' Jane Holland, author of Disreputable

'His spare poems brilliantly unfold an inner landscape on a complex journey of the heart that feels both personal and universal.' Rachel Blum, author of The Doctor of Flowers

'I am reminded of T. E. Hulme's imagist poems I discovered as a teenager through Herbert Read's The True Voice of Feeling. Laurel is a distillation of mood, atmosphere, feeling, expressed in a direct and surprising way, with the infinite - sky, sea, moon, sun - brought close to us and homely.' Garry O'Connor, author of The Vagabond Lover

'The whole frangible cosmos is this focus of indifference here on this empty bench where sometimes we sat.'