Mercury: (Salt Modern Poets)

Simon Smith’s Mercury comprises three sections or “books” filled with his characteristic gem-like poems. As with his earlier collection Reverdy Road, Smith’s poems demonstrate tremendous wit and profundity tempered by lightness of touch. This is a wonderfully accessible collection which casts a knowing eye on Roman classics and contemporary life. This remarkable new volume sports the brevity and cheek of Martial’s epigrams, providing the excuses and occasions – Mercury is a book of pith, turning on an urban-knowing wit, a rag-bag of flip, it embraces the complexities of ordinary language and expression. Veracity sounded through fleeting moments; these are poems that say difficult things simply. Mercury is Simon Smith’s third full-length volume of poetry. On Reverdy Road: “When asked to name my favourite Salt book for 2003 my answer was Simon Smith's Reverdy Road ... it was such a surprise ... reading so many [images] together, they exploded into clarity ...” –Tim Allen, Terrible Work “Smith is master of the deceptively casual poem.... At its best ... [his] use of the short form over so many pages achieves an effect comparable to a villanelle.” –Simon Coppock, Poetry Review “The Jack Lemmon of English poetry.” –Geraldine Monk

Table of Contents:
Mercury Buzz Lorca Second Coat Tint Mending Wall Language Timber Meanwhile Radio Orpheus Aide-memoire Twelfth Rain Cube Moves Bet Wit Tee Hee Heaps Of Slips Light Day One Puts You in the Picture Polyester Cotton Mix Who’s Whose Reality Warm Rain Over the Page Gum Spots Lone Star Puzzle Now Air-Shaped New Day Just Started Finishing Touch Cobalt Same Chair Comfy Easy Air Noir Cold Lake Coat Advantageous Thing Smell Baltic White Why Do Iced Water Paper Clips Direct Light Soup Air Thin Blue Felt Utopia Station Video Black Chinks Flip-flop Clearly Fizz On the Instant First Aid Box [Unfinished] Rain Thump Side to Side Cries Agree Image Rain Square One Fib Zap Bam Pow Air Dead Spot Pale New Management Whichever Finish Off Waste Ground In Reality Off We Go Soundtrack Note As If Boughs Warm Crossings Out Nothing But Face in Light Traadaa Oh, Yes Cloud Slip Ons Wow Spring Surrounding Areas Thick Solid State Quiet Breeze An Illustrious Record Err Um Choice Melted Paper Cow Forward Cold Another Big Day Big Day Grey, in Theory Old Ticket Happy Dish Coup Orange Sub Station Echo Round Simon Choice Thin Air White Acrobats White Is As Writing Shiny Beach Constellation To Moment Cloud Pfuff Theseus’ Dad Surveillance Camera Formal Solutions A Harsh Light Michelle Those Days Silver Coins Dear Story So Far The Good Bit Realism Made Copy Flit Hum One Remove Made Structureless Film

About the Author :
Simon Smith, born 1961 in Redruth, Cornwall, brought up on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex. Educated at the University of Kent at Canterbury, he lived in Pennsylvania from 1984–1986 where he threw in an academic career for one in librarianship. He has worked at the Poetry Library in London since 1991, and became Librarian in 2003. He edited GRIllE (1991–1993) and was poetry editor of Angel Exhaust (1998–1999). He is one of the judges for the National Poetry Competition 2004 along with Elaine Feinstein, Ciaran Carson and chair Denis MacShane, the Minister for Europe.

Review :
Smith is master of the deceptively casual poem. Simon Smith’s Mercury pushes the limits of language and line to just short of the fragmentation of words and meanings.