Nowhere’s Far: New and Selected Poems 1990-2008(Salt Modern Poets)

Nowhere’s Far as its title suggests is both close to the heart, immediately approachable and inhabitable, but also right out there in the world of the imagination where all sorts of strange things meet. Whether laugh-out-loud funny or staring straight into the abyss, Phil Bowen’s highly distinctive poems are written with great originality, rhythm and nerve. Here are poems that pass `the spelling test’ – casting a spell that in turn creates a distinct world whose landscape readers can inhabit for the poems’ duration. His voice is decidedly contemporary and commendably sparing of the first person singular and the merely observational. His poetry is both celebratory and colourful yet at times menacingly dark in its uncompromising vision. He has always had a strong sense of the absurd and the surreal, and the book is rich in macabre comedy, romantic slants and theatrical cameos – including affectionate portraits of some of his favourite practitioners ranging from Philip Larkin and Leonard Cohen to Max Wall and Ken Dodd – but as the later poems reveal he combines a heightened sense of lyric with a deft touch and use of rhyme and form, his poetry constantly underpinned by the unwavering belief that poetry is increasingly important as a pagan stronghold in which the language lives.

Table of Contents:
from The Professor’s Boots (1994) Which Poet About Larkin Popping Her Cork Take a Dream The Professor’s Boots The Lad Himself Releasing The Dots ............. from That Was Peter Glaze (1994) Timing The Poetry of Babies Girl on a Bike from Variety’s Hammer (1997) Elvis Meets Hitler The Tree in the Disco Chubby’s Turn Corrected Behind the Landsdown What’s the Darkness For?? Enough Said Torn Menace Frank’s Old Mansion What the Scarecrow Saw Building Sight When it Was Woven What a Little Scarecrow Can Do Worth a Shout Cinders and Song By a Cornish Bungalow Stopping in Time Kestrel Rock Finding the Mermaid Legoverland Gallery Sticks and Pipes What was Underground The Miss Garveys Concrete Lace Clock Life How it Went Thirteen in Sixty-Three There’s a Place Leaving Mum What it Means Coping With It Dearly Another Woman Going from Starfly (2004) Starfly The Passenger Twin A Place Named Ask Behind the Lines A Little Chat No Question Dying’s Hard The Time Being When it Was the Ace of Clubs Anyone Who’s Anyone Stardom The Old Matinees Tragedy The Blue Hand The Cameo Killer No More Mr Nice Guy Hats Day Blue Docs Can Birds Sing Over the Sky That’s Nothing The Prince’s Love Song Moonlight on the River Fresh Heartscript Love Somehow In Powys With You Don’t Touch Blood Wondering Why What It Takes The Whole of the Town The Town Without Television Survival Slang Soon The End of Ink Street New Poems Nowhere’s Far No Doubt An Awful Thought Like Poetry Out of Time A Good Road for Ships Lost and Found There Again No Wonder The Hell of It In the First Place Mister White In my Own Light This is the Door By Chance Cloud Nine A Peck of Dirt When the Field Commander Comes In the Air

About the Author :
Phil Bowen was born in Liverpool in 1949 where he taught Drama until 1979. He has worked as a full-time writer, performer and teacher since 1994. Work from his first full collection `Variety’s Hammer’ was selected for The Forward Anthology of 1998. His biography of the Mersey Poets `A Gallery to Play to’ has recently been updated and republished by Liverpool University Press and he written four plays for the stage.

Review :
Phil Bowen's Nowhere's Far, a New and Selected from the past two decades,is more solid,his poems identifiably about something,even if that something is often surreal or described in odd, unexpected ways. By turns serious and entertaining, Bowen can make a poem about anything, is an expert at the memorable one-liner -- Jane Holland Poetry Review