About the Book
Marrowbones, Songs & Sonnets by Peter Branson won the first prize in the Sentinel Poetry Book Competition 2019 judged by Noel Williams.
An outstanding poetry collection, Marrowbones considers various facets of life and living, the beautiful and the ugly and interrogates the way we interact with one another and how we handle the outcomes of those interactions. Here are also astounding poems about nature.
About the Author :
Peter Branson is a poet, songwriter & singer from South East Cheshire. His poetry has been published widely, including in Acumen, Agenda, Ambit, Envoi, The London Magazine, The North, Prole, The Warwick Review, Iota, Frogmore Papers, Interpreter's House, Poetry SalzbergReview, The Butcher's Dog, SOUTH, Crannog, THE SHOp, Causeway, Ogham Stone, From the Edge, High Window, Curlew, Poets Meet Politics, London Grip, Reach, Sarasvati, Fenland Reed, Anima, Chaffin Journal, Bread and Roses, Measure, Columbia Review, Huston Poetry Review, The Raintown Review, Barnwood, Main street Rag, The Able Muse and Other Poetry. His 'Red Hill, Selected Poems' was published in 2013 by Lapwing, Belfast. His latest collection, 'Hawk Rising', also from Lapwing, was pub. in 2016. He has won prizes & been placed in a number of competitions over recent years, including a 'highly commended' in the 'Petra Kenny International', first prizes in the 'Grace Dieu' & the 'Envoi International' & a special commendation in the Wigtown. He was shortlisted for a recent Poetry Business Pamphlet and Collection competition.
Review :
Peter Branson's voice is strong, disciplined and expertly controlled. This collection addresses its subjects with some force and along the way is able to produce muscular lines of gritty strength. The poet has a masterly command of language, with some clever and very effective phrasing, and a very good sense of rhythm and structure. He is able to navigate difficult issues in a restrained, sensitive and intelligent way. I found the poems dealing with natural subjects probably the most engaging, especially those where tension exists as the virtues of particular birds are set against the threat of their decline or extinction. It also seems to me that these are the poems where the poet's imagination is given the greatest liberty, producing, for me, some of the most striking of results.
- Noel Williams
Peter Branson is above all a master craftsman whose dexterity at blank verse - often employing iambic pentameter - is remarkable. What also stands out is his compassion, sincerity, and sheer 'heart'. His striking verse deserves greater exposure.
- Alan Morrison, Poet and Editor, Caparison Press.
In these poems Peter Branson shows a deep regard for both the environment and social history. At times he wears his heart on his sleeve as he rages against injustice and at others he generously shares with us his sense of nature, his keen observation giving him as clear a voice as any birdsong. He creates for his readers a social and natural landscape that has both a terrible and a beautiful reality.
- Joy Winkler, Poet.
Peter Branson explores his themes wonderfully through a technical mastery of form and tender lyricism. "Marrowbones" is a collection that deserves to be read and cherished everywhere. His message carries relevance for us all.
"If we could charm dark energy to slide
Beyond space-time the quantum way"
- John Williams, Poet
